Page 57 of When Hearts Awaken

I swallow her whimpers and give in to my urges. My hips thrust up into her pussy, moving against her automatically, my tongue simulating the fucking I want to give her, and the kiss quickly spins out of control.

She moans some more and I growl, deepening our connection. Molten lava floods my veins and I could barely hear anything other than the hammering pulse in my ears. My heart thrashes, as if wide awake after a long slumber, and my cock is so hard it almost hurts.

More. Fucking more.

My mind is swallowed by a storm of lust and heat as our bodies gyrate against each other…harder, quicker, the pleasure climbing. I angle her head to the side, taking the kiss deeper, swallowing every sound from her as madness churns inside me.

But out of nowhere, she yanks her hand free and slaps me across the face.

Stars appear in my vision as shock rears through me. I quickly let go of her and she clambers off my lap, her lithe frame trembling—no, shaking.

I watch in horror as I see the moisture pooling in her eyes, her lips bee-stung. She clutches her hand over her chest and backs away.

Terrified.

As if I took her unwillingly.

“Have you been paying attention, Charles?”Liam’s words barrel into my mind.

I’m oblivious. Swept up in the tide of emotions and ignore what’s in front of me.

Again.

Horror slams through me as a thought registers in my mind, and I hate myself for not figuring this out sooner. The answers were in front of me all along. Her hatred of men. Her baggy clothes and how she hides herself from the rest of the world.

The terror in her eyes right now.

She was abused by a man. Perhaps sexually.

And I just ground myself against her without a care.

I’m a fucking bastard.

My throat closes like invisible hands are choking me alive. I can’t breathe, my mind a riot of panic and gut-wrenching terror, quickly chasing away the heady arousal dominating my body moments ago.

One minute he was kissing me and I was one second away from ripping off his clothes, the intense pleasure catching me off guard. We were two twisted souls feeding off the darkness no one else could see.

I told myself this was just physical, that he wasn’t getting into my heart. I wanted to experience the sexual attraction I’d never felt before. It felt normal, what a woman my age should feel toward a handsome man.

For a blessed moment there, my mind shut off completely, the sensations in my body quickly taking over. I felt the dominating scrape of his hands on my arms, the possessive grip on my nape. The way his mouth moved expertly over mine—my first kiss since I was sixteen, delivered by a real man who knew what he was doing, not a boy. The way he effortlessly lifted me off the floor and deposited me onto his lap.

Instead of revulsion, it felt like a drug—a heady, sweltering sensation I quickly lost myself into.

It felt freeing, exhilarating. I couldn’t stop touching him, wanting, no,needingthe physical sensations I’d been deprived of for a long time.

But then he ground my hips on top of his. For the first few seconds, it didn’t register, the pulsing in my clit delivering the highest of highs. I wanted to chase it, to take control of the pleasure this time because I didn’t know when I’d feel this way again.

Then, I registered the bar of steel—far bigger than anything I’d ever felt before—hitting me at precisely the right angle, the throbbing in my pussy intensifying, hurling me toward the edge of a cliff.

Much like that night.

And the ugliness crept in.

“Fly, Harriet.”

“Look at her…she’s enjoying this.”

“She’s going to come, isn’t she?”

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