Page 45 of Come Inside

Darkest Desiresformed in my head as I lived in embarrassment of losing my virginity. Why should anyone live in shame for their wants and needs? Trapped in the nuances of polite society. Maybe if I had known that having fivesomes while wrapped in rope and covered in honey was perfectly okay, I would have realized I could have just left Daniel after the first encounter. That there was nothing wrong with what I did. I didn’t need to stay with him just for the sake of the opinion of others.

I turned the water off, wiggling out of Kazi’s arms. I cast a glance over to Mateo. “Rain check on my ass? I think I need a nap.”

He didn’t respond for a moment, and I turned around to see that he was now furiously typing on a phone. I had zero idea where he pulled that from, considering he was still naked.

Kazi gently guided me out of the shower, wrapping me in a towel.

Mateo finally looked up, his face cast in sinister shadows, except it didn’t give me the heebie-jeebies. In fact, I found it oddlysexy.

Yeah, time to get on that medication as the therapist suggested.

“Sure thing, little bee, but I will be the first cock in that ass.”

“So, you did hear me?” I laughed, knocking into him with my shoulder.

He caught me by the wrist, tugging me to him, and wrapping me in his large arms. “You know that I will kill anyone that deigns to hurt you? That I am the villain in this story?”

“There you go saying cheesy one-liners again.” I crooked my neck to look him in the eyes. “I get the feeling you didn’t talk a lot before we met.”

Pain flickered through his eyes, his lips curling in a soft smile. “You’d be right. I hadn’t found anyone worth the words. I guess I’ll have to learn some new ones to impress you.”

My heart swelled, and my eyes heated in emotion. “Let’s all cuddle?” I asked the question, hesitantly, in a soft whisper.

Mateo smiled down, pressing a surprisingly soft kiss to my forehead. “Whatever you wish, little bee, but you’re going to be squeezed into the middle.”

Maybe even with the darkness that surrounded Mateo, the mystery that encapsulated Kazi, I would be okay.

Maybe they would be exactly what I needed.

Except James was still knocking at the back of my brain.

I would need to confront what had happened at some point, of our unreal connection.

But not yet.

Chapter 30

J.W.

James tapped his chair, looking down at his phone.

Why is she ignoring me? It seemed to go perfectly well?

He wracked his brain, trying to find the moment that everything went awry with Yara.

But he couldn’t. Their chemistry had been unreal, but maybe that was the point.

She sold him a fantasy and he had fallen for it hook, line, and sinker.

Well, if she didn’t want him, he would accept that. But he needed to have a conversation with her first. He needed closure. He rubbed a fist across his chest as anxiety and grief burrowed into his heart.

He couldn’t have another woman he cared about disappear from his life without a trace.

He hadn’t hurt like this since his daughter was taken from him in the dead of night. James did everything he could to find her, but it became clear that hermotherhad covered their tracks. He had sunk so much money into his search that his company had fallen to near bankruptcy. He would have lost it, too, if it weren’t for–

“Knock, knock.”

James looked up from his phone. Speaking of…

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