Page 55 of Study Games

I waited a fraction too long, until his facade cracked and his fear showed, just like mine had that day in the library. Then I raised my hand carefully, until the light manacles his hands made of my arms dropped away, and scraped my nails along his chest, leaving my own marks over his bruises and stitches.

He let out a groan he tried to bite back and failed, but it wasn’t the only reaction his body gave away, betraying him. Some part of me had always known what kind of a creature Jax Palmer was, but I hid that pretty lie from myself, pretending to be normal, and keeping unseemly things hidden in the shadows.

Jax brought the shadows with him, and this time I stepped into them willingly.

“On your knees.” I smiled at him, leaning into his space as he zoned back into my eyes. I dropped one hand between us, grazing my nails over hard flesh encased behind tight denim. Too tight. “I know what you like, Jax,” I murmured. Pain. I’d seen it in his face when XXX“But…you’re not going to get it. Not from me.”

He swallowed hard. Just as I thought he might laugh at me, take a giant step back and walk out as per his usual trait, breaking the moment, his knees buckled and he slid along my body until he hit the floor with a not so muted thud.

“Tell me what you need,” he whispered.

But that wasn’t it.

Because he wasn’t begging yet.

I leaned my weight on the kitchen bench and nodded to my jeans. “Take them off.”

He blinked his surprise, but his hands rose to do my bidding before he agreed to my proposition. I held back a smirk, the same sort he used to give me, because this wasn’t bullying or fun, or even teasing any more, but something much, much darker.

“Yes, Waverly,” he murmured, submissive and all the things I needed.

Jax peeled my jeans off my bare feet, leaving me in the pale pink high cut bikinis beneath. Once I might have been shy beneath his gaze, wished I wore something else, but tonight was different between us.

He caught my ankle, cradling my foot in a worshiping grip, and dipped his head to kiss the top without breaking my gaze. When I didn't protest, he worked his way across the side of the arch, my toes and then lower, rolling his entire body a little to look up at me.

I nodded, catching my lip between my teeth. My breath grew heavy as the air around us charged, and I was suddenly glad Celia had the foresight to leave the apartment.

Keeping his fathomless eyes locked on mine, Jax's lips parted as he licked the entire sole of my foot from heel to pad, drawing a long moan from me. He didn’t stop there, sucking and licking until my legs shook. I gripped the bench top with aching hands, willing myself upright as he continued to torture us both.

My gaze broke from his to draw to the front of his jeans that nearly split from the bulge developing there. When one hand strayed to his zip I kicked his touch away, earning myself a heavy groan from his lips where they worked their way, wet and hot, along my ankle.

“You need to earn it,” I reminded him, husky and breathless.

He raised tortured eyes to mine as he rose onto his knees, parting my legs with his shoulders. His mouth worked a hot, slicked trail on my inner thighs, gently, but leaving tiny marks in his wake.

Nothing would be the same after tonight. My body screamed its need but I seemed hellbent on torturing us both. Finally his chin rested on the swell of my upper thighs, at least a day’s worth of stubble scratching my flesh sweetly as his breath caressed my heat through my panties.

“Tell me what you need,” he rasped, wrapping a hand around each of my calves. Devotion glittered in his eyes, each shuddering breath a testament to the penance he paid on my behalf.

I eased a hand through his hair, petting him as I drew him closer. His dark eyes hooded as another groan left his lips. Leaning closer,he inhaled my scent, and I couldn't disguise the tremble in my legs any longer.

“If I told you to get up and leave now, would you?” I pushed him, unsure if I was trying to find his limits, or draw this out as long as I could.

Either, maybe. Both.

Jax’s fingers flexed around my calves but he didn’t hurt me, despite having the strength to rip me apart, if that’s what he wanted. A sense of power and possession seared through me as I tangled my fingers into his hair and drew his head back.

A tiny wet spot formed on the front of my panties as I panted over him, high on power and lust and need.

“I’d go,” he gasped. “If that’s what you want. If it’s what you need, Queen,” he pushed.

Enough that I pulled him closer and hooked his fingers through the sides of my soaking panties. “Lick me,” I murmured. “I want to be ready for you.”

“Thank fuck,” he muttered reverently, bowing his head for a moment and kissing my hip bone.

Jax stayed on his knees, never breaking his pose as he drew my panties carefully down my thighs. When the soggy material reached my knees he looked up at me once more, then dipped his head and leaned in, licking at the crotch and lapping at the moisture collected there.

I tugged at his hair as my heart pounded, needing the tease to be over. It had gone on too long, and my body overheated as he shouldered his way deeper between my thighs, rough in his need, and suctioned his mouth over my pussy.

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