Page 101 of Shark Bait

Shark spins me around and throws me onto the bed. He unzips his pants and lowers them a little, then puts one knee on the bed and goes to remove his ski mask.

“Leave it,” I say. Oh my God, who is this freak?It’s you, Troy, my brain supplies.

Shark pauses and tilts his head. “You’re into…masks?”

“No. Maybe?”

He prowls over my body and shoves his gloved fingers into my mouth. “Bite down.” I do, and he slides the gloves off his fingers, then moves them over my breasts. His hands are warm and his lips are soft as he kisses my cheeks. “I can’t get you out of my mind before the mission. It’s dangerous. You’re dangerous, occupying my thoughts, living in my head all the time. It’s a miracle I’m not dead yet since you left me months ago and took my baby with you.”

“I didn’t?—”

“Quiet,” he hisses and shoves two fingers into me. He pulls them out and licks them, moaning when he tastes me, then puts them back in and starts pumping me with them. Hard. So hard, my hips lift, seeking more.

Why is this turning me on so much? He’s still in full gear, for fuck’s sake. Is it the gear? The violence? Flirting with a dangerous man who only has eyes for me and our baby? That’s it, and it’s sexy as all get-out.

“You’re the sexiest man alive, Shark.”

He shoves himself inside me, pauses, closes his eyes. There’s an almost painful exhale from both of us as time itself stills, marking the moment we connect again. I don’t dare breathe as I reach and roll up the bottom of the ski mask so I can kiss his freshly shaven jaw. “You were saying?” I bite.

He growls and starts to move inside me. “I was saying how I couldn’t get you out of my mind before the mission. If I didn’t have you tonight, I couldn’t leave, so here I am. Sorry about the intrusion.” He bends his head and bites my earlobe. “I’m not really sorry, my girl. I think I’ll intrude upon you regularly now. It might even become one of my routines.” He moves inside me,slowly at first, but then faster. He hooks a hand under my knee and lifts it, pushes it up to give himself better access.

I start moaning loudly, and he closes my mouth with a hand while he fucks me into the mattress so hard, I’m glad my bed doesn’t screech when I move.

Shark’s body stills and mine responds. As he shoots his load inside me, I come too, my channel undulating and milking him for every last drop, knowing this is my man, my very good man who would do anything for me.

Shark props his elbows on the mattress, his forehead resting on mine. “Much better.”

I chuckle. “Happy to help.”

Warm brown eyes regard me before he kisses me on the lips. “I have a trust fund for Mira. Val has all the details.”

I blink. “Why are you telling me this?”

“Just in case.”

I grab his face and channel my best impression of Alessio. “You’ve got this, Shark. A walk in the park for you.”

Shark smiles. “I know. I’m the best. That’s why you should marry me.”

Silence. He lifts his mask, searches my face, tilts his head as if unsure what I’ll say. “Troy?”

“Are you kidding me?” I hiss. “You’re wondering if I’ll say yes after you risked your life coming here for me and the baby?”

“One never knows.”

“You know, Miro. You know.”

She’s right. I do know. Those of us who’ve been mistreated and denied love as kids can recognize when people love us in adulthood. It’s in the way they make us feel, primarily not like shit. It’s not the most romantic of references at this moment, while I’m still balls-deep inside my lady, but she’s the one with the talent for writing words people sing, not me.

I’m just a guy.

A guy who happens to think he scored a lottery when he met this woman. Troy makes me feel like all my scars are the most attractive parts of me. She makes me think that if I weren’t damaged, we would have never connected or even met.

I no longer hate my past. I don’t wish that I grew up in a safe home with parents and a friendly dog named Lucky. I’m grateful I’m fucked up, and I don’t wish to be anyone else, for she would love nobody else besides exactly the person that I am today.

She gifted me with acceptance, a sense of belonging with a woman that I didn’t think I deserved. “Vasectomies are reversible,” I say.

Troy frowns. “Hm?”

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