Page 7 of Recklessly in Love

And that’s it. That’s my limit. Before I can stop myself, I close the distance and grab Joanie gently yet firmly by the elbow. But my glare is all for Ned.

“Get lost, Edweird,” I grind out, using the nickname he earned when we were kids.

Thankfully, he’s smart enough to look terrified and scamper away without a word, forgetting to take the food he paid for. I think I see a glint of amusement in Joanie’s eyes as she watches him go, but her face is all indignation when she whirls on me.

“Excuse me, but we were talking,” she says haughtily.

I snort and lead her by the elbow out of the booth toward the community center.

“I’m not stupid, Joanie.”

My long strides have her scrambling to keep up as I pull her by the arm. I push open the heavy door and haul her inside. I’m all reaction now. Logic is out the window. I need to make a few things clear to her.

Darkness envelops us as the door closes behind us. With a flick of my wrist, I turn her and push her up against the back of the door, my arms caging her in.

“I never said you were,” she finally replies. Even in the near darkness, I can see her outline, the stubborn set of her jaw, the tension in her body. My head dips down as my eyes take her in. “But I’m also not your property, and I don’t appreciate being dragged in here like I am.”

“If you think I was going to let my piece of shit cousin lay one disgusting finger on you —”

“That guy is your cousin?” she barks out with a laugh.

“Yes,” I reply. “And whatever angle you’re working, don’t work it with him.”

As my eyes adjust to the dimness, our gazes lock. I see fire in her eyes.

“Let me go,” she demands, pushing against my chest.

“Not until you admit you were flirting with him to get on my nerves. Just like you pretended to forget my name.”

She rolls her eyes. “Someone has a big ego. Maybe I did just forget.”

I lean in, my lips parting. “Doubtful. I bet if I fucked you hard against this door, you’d remember whose name to scream when you came all over my dick.” The words shock even me. Not because they’re not true; they most definitely are. But because I’ve never spoken to a woman like that. And because they came from such a primal place of need, I can feel them in every inch of my skin. Just as much as I want to own every inch of hers.

Joanie’s eyes flash. “Maybe you should —”

But I don’t get to hear what she thinks I should do. My mouth claims hers without any forethought. It’s pure need on a level so deeply physical I have no control over it. My tongue invades her mouth. My body crushes hers against the doors. My hips press against her, making the erection I didn’t even realize I had plain to us both.

And she kisses me back with an intensity that matches mine. Our breaths mingle as we gasp for air between each crush of our mouths, as the palpable heat and need build with every stroke of our tongues. She grinds against my cock, but the lust ruling my body isn’t enough to stop me from making her work for it just a little more.

I pull my mouth from hers, keeping her pinned with my hips, my forehead pressed against hers.

“Say my name, Joanie,” I demand.

She bites into her lip to suppress a grin. “Gar —”

I growl and twist my hips in an attempt to crush her defiance with my need for her. Her teeth sink deeper into her bottom lip, but her gaze is insolent.

“Say it, city girl,” I prompt huskily, more softly this time.

“Make me scream it,” she counters. “Like you promised, mountain man.”

My balls tighten in answer, and I open my mouth to spew all the filthy things I want to do to her that will make us both scream, but I’m stopped by an attempted shove at the other side of the door that rattles us both, physically and otherwise.

“What the hell?” Nate’s voice comes through the door, muffled.

I pull Joanie into the room, dropping my arms to my sides as the door opens and Nate and Mia appear, framed in light from the nearly full moon and the faint lights around the square behind them.

An awkward silence descends for a few very long moments.

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