Page 85 of Perfect Praise

“No,” I insist. “I like the way you look at me, like you want me all for yourself. I want all-consuming.”

“Youare all-consuming. You consume my thoughts, and I would watch my life go up in flames just to have the smallest piece of you.” He nips at my ear before he pulls my head back, forcing me to look up at the ceiling and straight into a can light. Locke sucks my throat so hard he’s going to leave a hickey. “You think I want to get jealous when another man talks to you? You think I want to worry about you getting scared of the dark? I didn’t set out to get to know you. I wanted to escape from my life for a little while. I wanted peace and quiet. But now, I want you above everything else.”

“Locke, I didn’t think you cared,” I breathe into the air. My eyesight has been glazed by the bright light, and all I see now is a halo of white. “I’ve been trying not to care. But it’s not as easy for me.”

His mouth drops to my boobs, and he sinks his teeth into one before he continues to suck my skin so hard there will be dark hickeys across my chest, marking me as his. I try to grind my pussy against him, but he holds my hips firm before he drops his face and bites one.

“You’ve altered my brain chemistry.” Goosebumps prickle everywhere when he inspects his teeth marks, looking satisfied at the deep grooves he’s made. “I care,” he says hoarsely, his face now between my legs. “I carebecause I like you.”

Another hickey blooms on my inner thigh from the suction he applies. I’ll be black and blue when he’s done with me, but I’m actually smiling at the thought. The whole world will know who I belong to.

“God, Locke,” I moan. “I like you. Us. This.”

I’m not sure I’ve ever liked anything more.

“I take care of what’s mine,” he says gruffly before he switches thighs. This time sucking even harder.

He backs up, leaving me cold without his touch, and runs his eyes along the dresses on the right wall before he finds the only formal floor-length dress I own: a sexy navy strapless number that’s tight around the bust and waist before flowing perfectly down to my feet.

Locke slips it off the hanger and unzips it. I step into it when he holds it out for me.

I stand in front of the mirror and twirl to give him access to the zipper again, but he brushes my hair to the side. At the nape of my neck, he raises the darkest purple from under my skin.

“Don’t cover that one up,” he whispers, eyes black and locked to mine in the mirror as he zips my dress. “I want to be able to see it whenever I want.”

I’m an asshole fordotting Maren’s skin with hickeys. But at least I never claimed tonotbe one.

She didn’t have to spend time covering the ones on her inner thighs, so we’re not that late.

And besides, I love that I can see the one on the back of her neck when she turns her head a little too quickly to survey the room.

I cradle my hand around her throat, letting my thumb rest on top of it, as she swivels her head to take in the room.

This building was converted into a hotel last year after it sat abandoned for decades, and the restoration makes it look like it straddles the elegant 1920s and modern twenty-first century with its exposed brick walls, floor-to-ceiling arched windows, and huge shimmering chandeliers.

The band on stage in the center is singing a low-key song without words as everyone finds their seats.

“What would you like to drink?” I ask, leading her to our round table near the front marked with a RESERVED sign.

Maren sits down in a gold chair and crosses her legs. “Champagne, please.”

I press my lips to hers and kiss her across the top of her shoulder, breathing in the strawberry scent of her skin. When I straighten,Russell, from four tables behind us, stares at me over the whiskey glass he’s sipping from.

Enjoy fucking her while you have her. We both know she’s nothing special, but I’ll take her from you when you eventually ruin it, just because I can.

I’d love nothing more than to shove my golf club that’s been up his ex-girlfriend’s cunt down his throat. Let him get a taste of how special she is, because that would be the closest he’d ever get to her again.

Instead (obviously), I flick my eyes back to Maren. I can just make out the hickey buried in her cleavage. Then again, she’s mine, and no one else will ever know how fucking good she is for me or get a chance to experience her like I do.

“Of course, beautiful,” I whisper in her ear. “Now, sit here like a good, perfect girl and show off what I get to fuck tonight.”

Her chest jumps as she inhales a sharp breath. It’s not about Russell; it’s abouteveryone.Anyone who thinks they can do it better than me. They can’t. Anyone who thinks she’s weak. She isn’t.

I brush my smile along her jaw. “You’re going to be wet for me all night, Maren. Get used to it becausethisis the game I want to play, and you win every time.”

“You’re such a tease,” she sighs happily to my back when I start to walk away.

The blonde bartender watches me approach from ten yards away. Her hint of a smile tells me she’d go home with me if I made any sort of move on her. And a few months ago, I’d have zero problem indulging her with some fantasy she has about me until I got bored.

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