Page 146 of Making Choices

“Yes.”

She cups my face.

“No.”

“You were with him on the balcony. I can smell him on you,” I murmur. “He touched you, then he left you again. He took your love, and it still wasn’t enough for him to stay. He left you there, flushed from comin’ hard as fuck, knowin’ that I’d find you. That I’d look after you tonight.”

“He—he…” Cherub can’t find the words to defend Venom because she’s as aware as I am that they don’t exist. “I love him.”

“So do I.”

The honesty that I lob at her startles me. As much as I’d like to pretend otherwise, the fact is that I still love my best friend. Likely always will. Right now, though, I don’t respect him, and I certainly don’t agree with how he’s treated the woman beneath me.

So, even knowing that it’ll hurt her, I explain the reality of the man she loves.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t see that Venom is selfish. Prideful. He is incapable of humblin’ himself for you. For anyone. I’d walk through fire for you, and you know that. You love me for it.”

“I love him more.”

Her capitulation is more than I expected, yet it’s still not enough.

Pulling her fingers from my face, I push her arms above her head. I know that being trapped triggers her PTSD from Alex, so I keep my grip loose. Cherub stays beneath me, eyes wide, completely unperturbed by the position I have her in because she trusts me more than she trusts anyone else.

If only she’d admit that to herself.

“I know that.” My agreement drains the colour from my duchess’ face. “Doesn’t mean it’ll always be that way. The universe has a way of rightin’ things if we give it time.”

“You can’t say things like that to me.”

I smile down at her, happy that she isn’t trying to deny what I’m saying. “I’m gonna keep sayin’ ’em until you see sense.”

“Love doesn’t make sense.”

“It does when you’re with the right person.”

Once again, my honesty shocks her.

Seeing her astonishment consolidates that I stand a chance with her.

She really is clueless to the true depth of her feelings for me.

After nodding to myself, I pull her arms around my neck and invert our position. Resting on my back with my duchess sitting astride me, I tug her hands back to my heart when she tries to deny me her touch. There’s challenge in my voice and, in all honesty, a little bit of rage as well when I goad her, “Go on. Tell me this doesn’t feel right to you.”

Cherub’s mouth drops open as I grip her hips and move her over my hard cock.

The desire that floods her face also soaks her panties.

Her thighs tighten around my hips.

I drag her over my length, slowly, deliberately, making sure that she feels the hard ridge of every one of my Jacob’s ladder piercings nudging her clit. My duchess shudders each time. Her skin breaks out in goosebumps. Scared that I’ll ruin the moment, I bite back a groan as her back bows and her hips undulate while she chases the bite of pain of her own volition.

“Touch me. Taste me. Take your fill, my gorgeous, regal, fuckin’ duchess.” My entreaties are offered like a benediction to the Gods. “Let me show you that I’m right. We make sense.”

“This isn’t right.”

Her defiance makes me grin. “Don’t tell me my badarse little Cherub is scared?”

As ever, Lilianna Mayberry cannot back away from a challenge.

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