Page 89 of Love Lies Bleeding

I nod, taking his word being my first act of trusting him. “So what now?”

“I need to handle Nick Kendrick. I won’t give him the chance to hurt us again. Hank has handled most of it, but I need to make sure the message is crystal clear.”

“Kendrick,” I say as the name once again tickles something at the back of my mind. “Why do I know that name?”

“He’s the CEO of KLM. At least for now.”

Recognition clouds my brain for a second before clearing. “Is that why he’s coming after the land?”

“Actually, he shouldn’t be an issue now.”

“Why won’t he be an issue?”

Jake smirks. “Well, it turns out Hank has some friends in very high, or maybe that’s low places.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, he’s friends with the Mancini family and has called in a favor as Kendrick is linked back to them.”

Something in his voice makes me take a second look at his face, and I realize right now how open he’s being with me. His expression hides nothing.

“Ask me, Blossom.”

His smirk makes me poke out my tongue. “Don’t act like you can read my mind.”

His hand skims up my calf and over the delicate flesh at the back of my knee, making me shiver.

“Oh, I can read that beautiful mind of yours better than you think.”

The air thickens with the heat of our arousal as my body leans closer, erasing the space between us as I straddle him. Jake’s hands go to my hips as the skirt of my dress pools around my thighs. Part of me wants to know how the Mancini family, a well-known mafia family, will deal with Kendrick, but right now I don’t care enough to pursue it. Not when Jake is here and we have a whole lot of time to make up for.

“Oh, yeah, and what’s on my mind right now?”

Jake’s deep chuckle sends a spark of heat straight to my clit.

“You need to make this harder, Blossom.”

I wriggled in his lap, my pussy grazing over his thick, hard cock. “It feels plenty hard enough to me.”

“Umm, she wants to play.” Jake grips my hips in his firm hold and directs my movements over his cock, my bare pussy soaking the fabric over his cock with my desire.

“Maybe.”

Palming the back of my head he brings my lips closer until we’re sharing the same breath. My heart races beneath his touch, excitement and the anticipation of being with him again, skin to skin, heightening every feeling.

“I know you want me. I know you’re terrified this will end badly, and I know that right now you don’t care because this is us. You and me, Blossom, the girl with the pink hair who pretends to give zero fucks, when all she does is care too much, and the boy who loves every single version of her.”

Then he slams his lips against mine and kisses me as if I’m the only oxygen he’ll ever need to breathe again. My skin prickles from the fire in his kiss, every sweep of his tongue like a brand. His fingers fist in my hair, the pinch of pain making me moan into his mouth as he tilts my head exactly how he wants it.

I’d forgotten what it’s like to kiss Jake. It was never an act just to get to the main event for him. He applied himself with as much passion to kissing me senseless as he did to fucking me until I screamed.

“Fuck, I missed this mouth.”

His words are a deep rasp against my skin, and I claw at his jacket, needing to feel his skin under my fingertips.

“Rip it, Blossom.”

His lips ghost down my neck as I tear at his shirt until the buttons pop and I finally get to feel all that warm, golden muscle under my fingertips.

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