Page 44 of Hush Money

That’s all I can take. My heart is bursting, and that soaring hope makes it tough to keep even my tiptoes on the floor. I close the distance between us with a cry. He’s already reaching for me. So I hop up, wrap my legs around his taut waist and kiss him with everything inside me. Which is a lot. I can’t get enough of his lush lips and the voluptuous sweep of his tongue. I tip my head, going deeper and harder because I need more. I put my hands on either side of his head, fisting the rough silk of his hair. He does the same with me, grabbing handfuls of my hair and using them to bring me closer until, with a groan, he uses them to pull me away and break the kiss.

“Careful.” His eyes are glittering. His breath sounds ragged. “You’re dangerously close to breaking your vow to not let me touch you until I’m officially divorced.”

I laugh because there’s only one response to such nonsense. “Fuck that vow.”

“Good,” he says, flashing that pirate’s grin at me. “Because I’m dangerously close to not taking no for an answer.”

I laugh with triumph until he swings me around and heads for the hallway. I don’t have much of my rational mind left. Not with his hot hands on me and pleasure spiraling lower and concentrating in my pussy, which is currently rubbing against a couple of the lower rungs of his six-pack abs. But I don’t like what he’s doing, and I don’t want a change of venue. Anything other than right here, right now, is a solid no from me.

“Where are you going?” I demand.

The question seems to startle him. “Another bedroom.” He gestures toward the unmade bed, the scene of Ravenna’s manipulation. “I don’t want her between us.”

“I see,” I say, infusing my voice with a liberal amount of sultriness. Then I angle my mouth over his and flick his lips with my tongue, eliciting a rumble of approval from him. “Didn’t you just lecture me about not letting her win?”

I punctuate the end of my sentence by licking my way deep into his mouth again. He groans, digging his fingers into my ass as he grinds against me.

“You did,” he says, gasping when I let him up for air.

His eyes are glazed now. I’ve got him exactly where I want him. “That’s what I thought. And that’s our bed, isn’t it?”

He dimples up at me. “It is.”

“Good.” I scrape my short nails over his scalp as I run my hands through his hair. “I’d really like you to fuck me in our bed. If that wouldn’t be too much trouble.”

A bark of laughter as he throws me onto the bed. “No trouble at all.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

TAMSYN

I settle on my back, lever up on my elbows and watch with avid interest as he quickly strips off his T-shirt and shorts. I know it’s only been a few days since we last had sex, but I’m as hungry for the sight of him as I am for the feel of him. He’s got that perfect inverted triangle going, with those broad shoulders tapering to lean abs and notched hips without a trace of fat anywhere on him. Rippling arms. Toned thighs and calves. A dusting of hair across his pecs that trails off to nearly nothing before flaring to a thick patch around that stellar dick. It’s long and hard. Thick. Jutting and more than ready to go. Just the way I need him.

“Watch how you look at me,” he says, his expression dark and strained as he joins me on the bed and looms over me. “You’ve already got me on a hair-trigger here.”

I don’t care. I can’t help but lick my lips because I don’t know which part of him I want to devour first. Those full lips? What about if I bit his tight ass right this very second? How would he react? “Am I not supposed to notice how hard you are for me? It’s kind of hard to miss, wouldn’t you say?”

He smirks. “You do have that effect on me.”

“Good.”

“And I seem to recall some talk about you—what was it?—living for this moment.”

I frown thoughtfully. “Oh, was that me?”

“That was you.”

“You did promise to fuck me until I sobbed. Or did you forget?”

“I did not forget.” He yanks my shorts and panties down my legs and off, then tosses them aside. “You’ll see.”

The illicit promise in that velvety tone nearly makes me swoon, as does my new proximity to his familiar scent. But I make a swift executive decision when he starts to straddle me, rolling him onto his back and straddling him instead. I want to be in charge tonight. And I know we just got through saying we don’t want Ravenna here in the bed with us, but this is for her in absentia as much as it is for him. I have something to prove tonight, and I suppose I’m proving it to all three of us. But she does not get to come back from whatever hole she crawled out of and touch Lucien. She does not get to leave her mark on his body. I won’t stand for it. He’s mine. He just told me so. So it’s time I started acting like it. I’m tired of lacking confidence about it. I’m tired of being afraid of Ravenna in both ghostly and human form. I’m tired of wondering when she might turn up or what she might do when she does.

Fuck her. Fuck her.

“No, you’ll see.”

He stares up at me, eyes heavy lidded and gleaming. I have his rapt attention. I plan to keep it. “Is that right?”

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