Page 117 of Penalty to the Heart

“What is it?” I ask, sounding still drunk off the orgasm he just gave me.

He lets out a pained groan, forcing himself to stop kissing me long enough to say whatever he needs to say.

“I’m clean,” he finally utters.

“What?”

His eyes smolder at my confusion, running the back of his hand up and down my cheek.

“You really have been out of the game, huh?”

“Is that what this is? A game?” I ask, feeling suddenly very exposed.

“No, love. This isn’t a game to me. Having you lying naked under me is not a game,” he replies with an unfamiliar, serious tone that I’ve never heard him use before. “It’s a fucking gift. One that I refuse to squander.”

He then presses a kiss to my temple, jumps out of the bed, and leaves.

To say I’m shell-shocked is an understatement.

He just said that he wasn’t playing a game with me, and yet he’s left me naked and wanting.

I don’t have time to feel hurt or confused for long because just as quickly as he left, he returns, this time with a pack of condoms in his hand.

“I would really love to fuck you without one of these, but something tells me you’re not on the pill.”

“I’m not,” I admit, wide-eyed at the amount of condoms he’s carrying.

“I figured, love.” He smiles lovingly at me, not one bit bothered by it.

He slides back into bed, forgoing putting a condom on, and wraps his arms around me.

“Now, where were we?” he says before pulling me into another passionate kiss—one that reignites the embers inside me, fanning the flames of my desire until I’m burning from within.

“You taste so fucking sweet, Roxie. So fucking sweet,” he praises, becoming lost in our kiss too.

I pant as my fingers find their way into his lush hair, pulling at the strands so his mouth never leaves mine.

I missed this.

Kissing someone.

Having that same person kiss me back with such abandonment.

But as my mind tries to remember the last time someone kissed me like this—with such passion that it felt like the whole world was about to combust around me—I come up empty-handed.

This… this is new.

This feeling…

This desperation…

I have never experienced this type of maddening desire for more in my thirty-three years.

A craving that is bone deep.

I’m still so enthralled in his kiss that when I feel his hand slide in between my thighs, all I can do is rub myself against it, needing him to ease the merciless ache any way I can.

“You’re so fucking wet. Kind of makes me insane that you got this wet for me.”

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