Page 62 of Scarred Souls

I clicked my tongue. “That doesn’t sound like gratitude to me.”

“Gratitude?” Hope’s eyes narrowed. “You’re only guarding me because I’m valuable to your cause. You were going to leave town the night we met, remember? It wasn’t until you found out I could help that you stuck around.”

“It wasn’t my choice to stay. I wanted to throw you on my plane and take you to Montana. Trust me, I’m not happy about being here, either.”

Then I made the mistake of letting my gaze travel down her neck and over delicate collarbones until I reached her cleavage. When my eyes rose to meet Hope’s, my cock twitched because the blush blooming on her cheeks told me I wasn’t the only one intrigued by the position we found ourselves in.

“Are you sure about that?” Hope asked, quirking a brow. No doubt she’d felt the swelling in my jeans, too.

I was only human, and she looked sexy as hell with her hands secured above her head and one of my legs wedged between her thighs. That tight little cami clung to her breasts, and I fought the urge to lean down and close my mouth around a nipple. Would she moan and arch her spine, urging me to take more? Or would she continue this game where she pretended she didn’t want my tongue exploring every inch of her?

Goddamn. I really wanted to find out.

I wondered if this was how Hope looked after getting thoroughly fucked. All puffy lipped and breathless. Maybe with a few red handprints across her perfectly round ass. The image transformed my semi into a rock-hard boner straining at the zipper.

I grinned mischievously. “Well, maybe one part of me is happy to be here.”

Hope sneered. “Get off me.”

“What’s the hurry?”

She shot me a sharp look. “There’s something wrong with you.”

“There must be something wrong with you, too, because you’re not trying to get away.” It wasn’t a lie. Her body was soft and pliant beneath me. “Tell me you don’t like this, being completely at my mercy.” I breathed in the rich scent of her hair.

“I don’t like it.” She turned her head to the side, but it only exposed her slender neck to me. I narrowly resisted sinking my teeth into it.

“Liar. And I know you liked what happened in the bathroom this morning.”

“And you said that would never happen again.”

“Do you want it to happen again?”

Her eyes cut to mine. “No.”

“More lies.” I chuckled. “It’s cute how your mouth keeps saying things and your body tells a different story.” I ran my nose along the soft skin beneath her ear, and she shivered. “Fuck, you smell good.”

“I thought”—the column of her throat shifted as she swallowed—“I thought you said I couldn’t touch you?”

“You can’t. It doesn’t mean I can’t touch you, especially when I have these hands locked down exactly where I need them.”

She made a small, needy sound when I pressed my pelvis into hers.

“Still want me to get off you?” I licked the sensitive spot just behind her lobe. “Or would you prefer for me to get you off?”

Hope whimpered, and I took that as permission to stay and do whatever I wanted. It went without saying that fucking her was a really bad idea. But since when did I ever make sensible decisions? Hope was an adult. If she wanted me to stop, all she had to do was say so. But if she was a good girl and did exactly as I told her, why shouldn’t we do this?

“You know what I think?” I asked. “I say we stop pretending we don’t want to fuck each other senseless, and get it out of our system. Just once. And then you can go back to hating me if you really want.”

Again, Hope offered no denial. All she did was moisten her lips, making me want to run my tongue where hers had just been and claim that smart mouth. I reminded myself that kissing had no place during a quick fuck, which was all I could offer. This wouldn’t be slow and sweet. It would be fast and rough. I wasn’t sure if Hope was into that, but there was only one way to find out.

I shifted position, about to flip her onto her stomach, and my forearm met something firm beneath the pillow. A hidden pistol?

“What’s this?”

Hope’s expression turned alarmed. “No. Vaughn, don’t!”

I dipped my hand under the pillow and pulled out a?—

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