Page 79 of Volatile Vice

I know what he’s doing.

It’s an escape mechanism. He was faced with his mother’s mortality, and now he wants to feel his own life. His own heart beating.

After a moment, he pulls back, looking into my eyes, his own dark orbs overflowing with a million unspoken words. He cups my face, the rough pads of his thumbs catching on my cheeks. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Raven. I can’t bear the thought.”

“But Vinnie,” I plead. “We need each other. More than ever.”

He lets out a long sigh and then his face softens. He pulls me against him, wrapping his arms tightly around me.

“I know,” he says quietly after a few moments. “But I have to protect you…even from myself.”

“We’ll figure this out.” I nestle closer to his chest, inhaling the familiar scent of him—a mixture of fresh air and spice.

Jared is likely listening right outside the door, but I don’t care.

Honestly, it wouldn’t kill us to have someone keeping a lookout for janitors or other hospital staff that might come into this closet.

Vinnie slides his fingers over my fuzzy head. “It can’t be figured out. Don’t you get it? I’ve done things. Terrible things. Things I can’t ever take back. Hell, I don’t even want to take them back. My life is going to get volatile. It’s already volatile. I have a duty to Savannah, to my mother, to the memory of my brother. I have to?—”

I place my fingers over his lips. “Right now, Vinnie, all you have to do is fuck me. Use me. Right here in this closet. Take me like we’re animals. Do it. I need it as much as you do.”

Vinnie’s eyes darken. Without a word, he yanks me toward him, pressing his body against mine, and he kisses me. I return the kiss and tangle my fingers in his gorgeous hair.

He breaks the kiss and pulls away. I whimper at the loss.

“Raven… Are you sure?”

Instead of answering, I reach up to pull him back down to me. Our lips connect in another hard kiss and I feel his hesitation melt away. A low growl escapes him as he tightens his grip around my waist.

The world outside blurs away as we lose ourselves in each other. The cold linoleum floor beneath us, the smell of bleach and soap—none of it matters. All that matters is him and me. This moment. Here, the chaos from the outside world can’t touch us, can’t interfere with what we have.

Vinnie runs his hands up my back, his touch electrifying as he grinds against me, his need evident even through the layers of clothing between us. He pulls at my shirt, breaking away from our kiss just long enough to slide it over my head.

I let out a loud moan and arch into him, clutching at his hair. His hands are everywhere, making me feel alive. Tangled with each other amidst brooms and buckets seems symbolic of our lives—chaotic and messy.

Yet it feels so right.

“Raven,” he whispers again, his voice low and husky.

The sound of my name on his lips strikes me somewhere deep within.

Without further words, he helps me out of my sweats and then he unbuckles his belt and unzips his fly. He lifts me onto a metal shelf, and I wrap my legs around him.

In a moment, we’re lost in each other. He’s inside me, thrusting, thrusting, thrusting…

Completing me in the way only he can.

Finding solace and escape in the midst of the storm brewing outside.

With each movement of him inside me, I come close to the peak, and when he releases inside me, I join him in climax. When the pulsing subsides, our bodies are intertwined, my head resting on his chest as I listen to the steady rhythm of his heart.

He trails his fingers lightly over my scalp, sending shivers down my spine.

“I wish things were different,” he murmurs, his voice barely above a whisper as he traces my cheekbone.

“I know,” I reply softly.

A sigh ripples through him, and he pulls me tighter. He doesn’t speak again for a while, the silence broken only by the steady thrumming of his heartbeat and the distant hum of hospital life outside the door.

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