Page 43 of Master Debater

“Okay, I changed my mind,” Rylee said. “Not only do I know your name, Willa, I’m going to immortalize it somehow. Like, carve it into a wall. You’re a total badass.”

“I can’t stand when people do awful things and use lame excuses for why, or put it back on you, as though you gave them no other choice but to screw you over. They say it’s not personal while making it super fucking personal. If you’re going to hurt the people around you, at least have the balls to own it instead of playing the blame game.”

While Willa was undoubtedly protective of me, and by extension, Rylee, I had a feeling some of that had to do with her asshole ex. Still, no one had ever stood up for me like that. Usually, they left me to handle it. I was the fixer. The person who shut people up with a harsh argument. While I could’ve done so that time too, I could fully admit that she’d decimated them with her words far better than I could’ve done.

“Thank you, by the way,” Willa said, hugging my sister tighter to her side. “I’ve never been called a badass before. I like it.”

“Well, you earned it.”

“Oh shit,” I said, and both women looked to me, their foreheads crinkling. “Clearly, I didn’t think this through when I introduced the two of you. If you go getting friendly, I’m going to end up outnumbered and ganged up on from here on out.”

“It’s too late for that.” Rylee turned, wrapping herself around Willa’s arm like a koala bear. “We’re besties now.”

“That’s right,” Willa said with a nod. Then she flashed me a Cheshire-Cat grin. “What was your name again?”

The two of them giggled, and I found myself laughing along. Since we were approaching Mom, I was glad to see Rylee had sobered up enough to pull off walking and talking—at once, at that.

“Rylee. There you are.” Mom threw her arms around her.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said. “Now, which piece was the one you couldn’t wait to show me.”

The wattage of Mom’s smile veered into blinding territory, and for all my sister’s impulsivity and occasionally selfish tendencies, deep down, she had a heart of gold. It’d just beat so strongly for Dad for so long that after his passing, she’d struggled to sort through the wreckage of grief. I suspected she also turned to destructive ways to numb the pain, something that’d need to be addressed sooner rather than later.

While I understood that sharp pang that accompanied missing him, part of the deal I was going to personally work out with her for the case would involve counseling. Since Willa had gotten through to Rylee faster than I ever had, perhaps that was what I’d been missing before, someone like her.

No, not someone like her. Just her.

My pulse went to pounding away with the idea my brain had been flirting with all night. I knew a good thing when it fell in my lap, and that was somewhere I wanted to keep Willa for a long time to come.

But commitment was new territory for me, and the idea of ruining what we had already compounded my anxieties over getting in any deeper. For all my talk about always winning, while I was fairly certain she’d be open to it, I also knew she’d been hurt before. That’d open us both up to the possibility of future pain, not to mention mean I’d no longer be the one with full control.

Which added a whole new layer to my dilemma, as the only thing that scared me more than that was the idea of letting Willa go.

Chapter 24

Nate

My place looked like it’d been struck by a natural disaster, clothes strewn about the room like a tornado with a penchant for nudity had hit.

Before we’d reached the bedroom, Willa had requested I play her a song on the piano, as she was toying with a new tune she wanted my help with. I’d complied, but only after pulling her onto my lap to straddle me, facing my way. As my fingers traveled over the ivory keys, my mouth had done the same over her neck and the swells of her breasts. She’d undone my tie and flung it aside and, as we tweaked the melody of the piece she was composing, started on the buttons on my shirt.

I ended up buried in her cleavage, first because I’d bent enough to remove the shoes from her feet, and then because I needed to mark them as mine. By the time I was done, I’d left strawberry marks in the shape of my mouth across her skin.

We’d continued stripping and making out on our way to my bedroom, and considering I was the one responsible for Willa’s bra hanging from the fan over my bed, I might be the driving force behind the tornado.

Once she’d been stripped bare before me, I admired my handiwork, pleased no one would see her cleavage without knowing I’d been there first. That idea only fueled me to crank up the pleasure and fuck her harder.

No one would ever compare to me again. I pushed myself to the limit, drawing out the sex until she begged me to let her come. “What if I’m not done with you?” I asked, slowly withdrawing until the head of my cock was dangerously close to slipping free.

“Nate, I’m about to pass out. This is more cardio than my bike rides to work, and I…” Willa arched her hips, sheathing me to the hilt, so snugly my vision swam.

I planted my hand on her hip, driving her back to the mattress and basking in the needy whimper. “Earlier you told me you wanted both sides of me—that you were greedy and wanted it all.”

Her breath caught and her swallow echoed through the quiet. “I did.”

“Do you remember when I told you that every single side of you belongs to me?” I placed my hand over one of hers, guided it down her lower abdomen, and increased the middle two fingers I had over hers, until all four tips crowded in along with my dick, stretching her to the limit. Her legs quaked, and if she thought I was going to let her come now, she was severely mistaken.

“There will be no coming until I say. Got it?”

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