Page 62 of Ruck Me

“Maybe that’s the problem," he said, avoiding looking my way. "Neither of us knows what the fuck we’re doing so we keep making mistakes.”

I curled my hands in my lap so if he ever did turn back around, he wouldn't see them shaking. “What sort of mistakes?”

After I’d held my breath nearly long enough to swoon, Eoin turned to me, a t-shirt clenched in his hands. “Like sneaking around, keeping secrets.”

“I’ve never kept a secret fromyou.”

“No,” he agreed, his shoulders sagging. “But you’ve kept me a secret.”

“But I told him!” I cried. “You know I waited because he was going through some personal shit, and stopping my brother from drinking himself to an early grave seemed more important than who my boyfriendwas.”

“What a lovely thing to say to your boyfriend,” he answered snidely.

“You know what I mean!” I hollered, surging to myfeet.

Eoin's shoulders slumped and a look of defeat crossed his face. “Yeah, I know what youmean.”

“I’m sorry,” I said, reaching toward him but dropping my hand when he curled his shoulderaway.

“Don’t touchme.”

I recoiled from his rebuke, and this time I couldn’t stop the tears from falling. “I fucked up, but I’ll be better. I promise. Please, just give me another chance. I can’t loseyou.”

“You’re not losing me,” he answered, tugging me to his side. With my face pressed against his chest, he added, “No matter what happens, you’ll never loseme.”

I couldn’t help but read into those words. Eoin hadn’t said, “We’re not breaking up.” But I wasn’t ready to give up on us without a fight. I wasn’t ready to be someone Eoin used to date. I needed him to look at me and see the person who mattered most in his life. I wanted him to feel about me the same way I felt abouthim.

I wrapped my arms around his waist and squeezed. Drawing in a deep breath for courage, I raised up on my tiptoes and kissed his chest. Eoin stiffened, but he didn’t push me away. Taking that as a positive sign, I kept going. Fitting my body between him and the dresser, I ghosted my hands over his front and his face dropped forward.

Our eyes met. “What are you doing Aoife?”

“I’m showing you how much you mean tome.”

He captured my roaming hands and held them tight. “You don’t need to do that,” he said, his voice strained.

“I know. I don’t have to do anything, Eoin, but I want this. I wantyou.”

He blinked, long and slow, and then swallowed, the movement tortured. When his eyes came back into focus, I saw fire and heat and desire so strong it nearly bowled me over staring back at me. “I don’t know if I have the strength to keep telling youno.”

“Then don’t,” I whispered, pushing up to trace his lips with my tongue until he opened to me. “Make love to me, please. Make me yours.”

Eoin growled and, squeezing my ass, hefted me into his arms. With my legs wrapped around his waist, he walked us to his bed and laid us down, our mouths melded, our tongues mating.

“I fucking want you so bad, Aoife,” he said, kissing a trail down my neck as his hands roamed my body. “I need you,” he continued, rolling his hips into the vee of my thighs.

Grasping the hem of his shirt in my hands, I tugged it off, revealing perfectly sculpted muscles that I longed to run my tongue over, to mark with my teeth. When I gave in to my desire and bit into his flesh, he shivered.“Do that again.”

I circled his nipple with my lips and took the tiny bud between my teeth, biting down and then licking my way across his chest to do the same to the otherone.

Eoin speared his hands into my hair and pulled me up for a rough, hot kiss—every ounce of his desire transferring from his mouth to my mine. Pulling my shirt over my head, the fabric ripping in his haste,

Eoin made love to my breasts with his lips and tongue, hungry for a taste of my skin before he undressed me completely.

With shaking hands, I plucked the button of his jeans and dragged the zipper down. Shoving my palm into his boxer briefs, I found him hard and hot and ready. “I want this in me,” I whispered, wrapping my tiny hand around his ample girth. When I squeezed him and stroked downward, Eoin growled out a few unintelligible words and then captured my lips in another searingkiss.

Unable to take another second without him inside me, I pushed his underwear down and palmed his thick, hard cock. “Now, Eoin. I want younow.”

“We need to go slow, so I don’t hurtyou.”

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