Page 78 of Fire for Effect

“I need to feel you, Firefly.” I licked the wound my teeth left behind. I liked the tang of her blood and felt the heat of desire down my body. “Tell me you’re mine, baby. Tell me.”

I placed my head at the nape of her neck, as I pulled her underwear away from her skin, feeling the snap as it tore apart.

She gasped again. “Asshole!”

Even her insult filled me with the warmth of knowing that the world was right. She was in my arms, and everything would be okay.

When I unsheathed my cock, he bounced right towards the warmth of her sweet pussy. My buddy needed her the way the rest of me needed air. Hell, in the fight between which was needed to live - Taz, or oxygen - Taz would win every time.

How had I lived so long without the scent of her skin on my hands? How had I stood beside her, day after day, working in the team room, and in missions, and kept my hands to myself? How had we laughed, and fought together without me taking her mouth in mine? How much time had I wasted, bitter, and hurt that I was with someone else? How long had I allowed us to be apart? Dating other people? How fucking ludicrous! What a crime it was that we hadn’t been attached at the hip from the first day she showed up in Afghanistan as a replacement for the guy who busted his metacarpal when a rock fell when we rappelled down a cliff?

I had to tell her.

As my tip grazed the warmth of her folds, I had to tell her. I had to be that fucking asshole that confessed too much, too soon, too fast in the middle of sex.

“I love you.”

She stiffened in my arms. The first bit of real resistance. A resistance that wasn’t play-acting.

But I couldn’t stop.

“I love you, Taz.”

I was a starving man, and she was my only sustenance.

I pushed my cock in, the tip going through her tight entrance, pushing into sweet, warm, wet heat.

“Mine,” I said, because I felt it in every cell of my body. “You’re mine.”

She went completely still. Frozen. And I stilled as well.

My senses cleared, like I was breaking through the water after drowning in her. But still, I didn't want to pull out. I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want her to leave my arms. She turned her head to the side, and I could see her in profile.

“Tell me where you went,” I said, placing my forehead on the back of her neck, letting the scent of her long hair invade my lungs. “Tell me what’s in your head.”

I watched, as a tear slid down her cheek, then dripped down, darkening the earth beneath her.

“What did I do, Firefly? Tell me.”

And that was the first moment I noticed the indent on her ring finger. A small line that was similar to my own. A line that told of a wedding band. A dent I had never noticed. I had certainly never seen a ring there either.

I slowly… fucking slowly because it was god damn torture… pulled out of her heat, pulling her jeans up to cover her again.

I was a bastard - but not that kind of bastard.

I loved her pleasure tears. I loved to taste them on my tongue and remind her that she was mine. But this was not the moment. These were the wrong kind of tears.

“Tell me what I don’t know.” Placing my hand over hers, my index and thumb resting on that tell-tale finger, making sure she knew exactly what I was asking, even as dread seeped into my bones.

Whatever she’d say would break me in new, and interesting ways.

Chapter 20

You Never Told Me

Taz

He covered me with his body, blocking the wind that came down from the darkening sky. He was trying to be gentle. It was almost off-putting, and so unlike him. Still, he made it clear that he wasn’t going to give me space.

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