Page 73 of Cruel Games

That only left one option.

I squared my shoulders, took a deep breath, and stared Jackal in the eyes, hands on my hips as I stood with purpose.

“I want to go on the next contract with you.”

TWENTY-EIGHT

COYOTE

Slam!

The sound of the door banging shut behind me felt final, like I’d had an opportunity to walk through it and failed so spectacularly that life shut it and locked the deadbolt on me. I’d had her in my damn arms, her lips parted, her body pliant and willing atop mine. Images of how she’d looked atop Jackal in that warehouse came to mind, making my pants suddenly very uncomfortable.

Fuck it all, and now I wanted to fuck something.

I understood the urges, and hell, for years now, I’d given myself pleasure with my hand, as most men did. But I still yearned for something I’d never felt before. Something my friends had that I hadn’t.

I wanted to bring the sort of pleasure to her face that they had with their tongues and their cocks. I wanted her to fall apart for me like she did for them. I wanted her to use me like she did the other two. Hell, I just wanted to know what the inside of her tasted and felt like.

But I’d never so much as undressed a woman, let alone pleasured one. And Ivy Cullough wasn’t the kind of girl you were vulnerable with.

I couldn’t let her know I’d never had sex. Couldn’t let her know I was less of a man than she suspected me of being. I didn’t want to put myself out there just to be ridiculed and laughed at when she found me lacking.

Still, I’d been so close to tasting her again, until thatasshole?—

I slammed the fridge closed in the common area of our suite, stomping around the kitchen, slamming cabinets and banging pots and pans around until Dingo finally emerged from his room wearing nothing but a scowl and a pair of sweatpants.

“Oi, asshole, could you maybe tone it down a bit? You could wake the dead storming around like that, and I didn’tsleep much last night.” His hand buried itself in his hair as he glared at me, jaw ticking in annoyance.

“Not my problem,” I snarled aggressively, hating that even walking was uncomfortable now. My cock pressed insistently against the inside of my zipper, and with every step, my mind was plagued with thoughts of how it might feel if she had her bare hand on me instead, covering my hard flesh, maybe even wrapping her soft lips around it?—

Fuck.

I coughed to cover up a groan as I came in my fucking pants, hips angled to hide the jerking of my cock behind the counter as Dingo settled in on the couch and laid back down, flipping the tv on in the background.

I hadn’t lost such control over my body since—well, in years.

To find myself spilling my seed in my fucking pants because I was imagining the woman dead-set on killing us eventually with her lips wrapped around my length like some cheap porno flick?—

And now I was hard again. Fucking hell, did it ever end?

“You got up early again,” Dingo shot over the back of the couch, waving a hand in my direction. “Insomnia again?”

I shook my head before I remembered he couldn’t see it, then sighed. “No.”

He clicked his tongue, tossing a leg over the back of the couch as more channels flipped past in a blur on the TV. “Are you worried about something?”

“ . . . No,” I growled, with only a second of hesitation. I was proud I managed to get it out as quickly as I had. If I’d waited another second, he might’ve suspected something.

“Just horny, then, huh?”

My feet felt fused to the floor, my shame evident in the bright blush that worked its way up my chest and over my jaw. I didn’t dare speak for fear that it would all sound like a lie. It was just that, a bald lie, but if I didn’t speak it, he’d never know.

“You know, normal dudes just take a cold shower and rub one out,” he said flippantly, sitting up with a grin. “Maybe you should try it sometime.”

I didn’t dignify his suggestion with an answer. But Ididtake it to heart, marching my ass right into my bathroom as I stepped out of my pants and into an empty glass box, hands reaching for the knob with a groan as my cock bobbed in the cool air.

The spray of piercing, frigid drops were like knives on my skin, sharpening their blades on my body, leaving me shivering and wet, but no less aroused. My cock, if anything, was harder now, and I groaned as I took it in my hand and tugged, the sensation nothing like what I wanted right now.

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