Page 39 of They Break Beauty

“Don’t push this.”

It was both a plea and a warning.

I leaned in closer, breathing at her ear, “I can’t let it go. I never have. What you did… what you did for me… it’s stayed with me. I’ve given both of us time to get our shit together, to rebuild after what happened, so the time is ours now.”

She trembled as I drew my lips over her throat, breathing her in, tasting her just a little.

Just enough to tide me over and tamper down the rage and pain threatening to clash in a majorly destructive way with her infuriating reactions and denying the very thing that had made me who I was today, denying that fucked-up experience that had changed me forever.

“I remember,” she murmured.

I stilled and eased back just enough to look into her eyes.

There was a chilling, haunting look there.

And agony. So much fucking agony.

“You… what?”

“I remember everything.”

“You remember me?”

“Yes.” She sank against the wall, the tension and resistance leaving her as she admitted with a heavy sigh, “I thought denying it would stop you in your tracks. But you’re like a dog with a bone. So now I’m telling you the truth, okay? And hopefully that will make you see that we can never have this conversation again. We can never talk about anything at all related to that depraved experience we both lived through.” She shoved me back, catching me off guard as her words cut into me. “You need to back off and stay the hell away from me.”

“What?”

“That was the worst time of my life. I don’t want to think about it. I don’t want to relive it. Not with myself and certainly not with you. It’s dead to me.” She gestured between us. “So, you see? There’s nothing here. No connection. I don’t feel a thing toward you, so this pursuit of yours, this obsession because of what happened back then, is futile. There’s nothing available on my end. It’s dead to me.” She glared fiercely at me. “And so are you.” She brushed past me, “Tell Colt the duet’s off. Both of you stay the hell away from me.”

“That’s not fucking happening.”

She spun back. “Living in the past means you’ll never be able to build your future. Don’t make that mistake. Leave this be.”

As she went to throw open the door I was there, slamming it closed and pushing my bare chest into her back, effectively pinning her there.

I grabbed a fistful of her hair and wrenched her head back, making her gasp, as I breathed at her ear, “I’ve been patient. In fact, I’ve been really fucking nice, a lot nicer than I usually am. I don’t do nice and gentle, Wildflower. But I made an exception for you. If you choose to go this route, though, if you choose to fight me on this, you’ll leave me no choice but to resort to much more unpleasant methods.”

“I just told you—”

I slapped my hand over her mouth.

“Shh, baby.” I breathed in her sweet coconut scent. That combined with her squirming as I held her still was a hell of an aphrodisiac and it had me grinding my painfully hard cock into her ass through her sexy skirt. She whimpered into my hand, and I saw her eyes flutter closed for a moment. Mmm. She was definitely affected.

She slapped her free hand that wasn’t holding the water bottle to my thigh, digging her nails into my pants.

And then I felt her push back against me.

Christ.

I ground harder and she moved with me.

I slid my free hand up and under her top, feeling the lace of her bra.

When I snuck two fingers beneath the cup, she jolted against the wall.

Instead of making a move to stop me, she dug her nails harder into my thigh, like she was holding on for dear life and begging for more at the same time.

I slid my fingers over the soft flesh of her breast then rolled her nipple between my fingers and she bucked against me, grinding roughly against my cock.

---