Page 50 of Sugar Coated

The stranger rolled off Laina, and as he approached me, ready to throw me out of his room, she was able to see me at last, and when she did, those pink eyes of hers widened and she sucked in hard.

I let my gaze flick between Laina and the stranger as my chest rose and fell with rough breaths. If this asshole wanted to throw hands, I’d gladly oblige. After everything I’d done, there was no way in hell I’d ever let someone like him have her.

Finally, she found her voice, “Jeb. Don’t.”

The stranger glanced at her. “You know this asshole?”

Laina got to her feet, sliding off the bed. “Yes. He’s—” There was a pause, as if she didn’t know how to describe me. No, Isupposed she wouldn’t know. “He’s my ex. Can you give us a minute?”

“Your ex? What the actual fuck is going on? I need a drink. This is giving me whiplash.” The guy stepped around me to leave the room, though his glare never left me as he went.

I watched him go, and once he was gone, I turned my masked face to look at her. I slowly cocked my head and glared. Without hesitating, I kicked the door closed behind me to give us a bit of privacy, and then I took a step toward her. Every move I made was deliberate and measured.

She eyed me warily. “How do I know it’s really you?” Hope laced with her question. And doubt.

There was so much I could’ve said, so much I wanted to say, but in the end all I did was lift a gloved hand to the mouth of my mask, my hand still in the shape of a fist. I lifted one finger from the first, the same gesture I always gave her when she tried to ask me too many questions.

Shh.

It was all I needed to do to show her I was the same man who’d kept her these last two years, the same man who’d taken care of her when the world would’ve had her killed.

I saved her life, and she didn’t even know it.

“Where have you been?” she asked, her voice firm but so very out of breath. She took a tiny step toward me, her pink gaze accusatory. “I needed you.”

That statement made me lift my eyebrows in response, not that she could see them. I turned my head and glanced at the door, to remind her she’d been so very close to giving her body to someone else. I frowned at her beneath the mask when I returned my stare to her.

I couldn’t believe it, but she actually showed me some attitude: “You don’t get to police what I do or who I do it with when you won’t even talk to me. I haven’t even heard your voice.I don’t know what you look like under there. You could be sixty years old for all I know—”

Laina was close enough now that I could reach for her, so I did.

One of my hands lifted in a flash, and I grabbed her by the jaw to stop her from saying anything more. My gloved fingers curled up around my jaw, digging into her cheeks in the process. I was careful not to be too rough, but I’d be a liar if I said I was gentle.

This mask… it brought out another side of me, a side I normally kept hidden away from the world.

I closed the distance between us by stepping toward her as I angled her head back. No doubt she could feel how pissed I was, how full of rage seeing her with that random guy made me. She egged on the devil, so she’d get his horns.

And then I crossed a line I’d never crossed before, not while I wore this mask. I spoke the words I knew to be true in my heart, something that had been true for years now, and she was only now beginning to realize it, “You’re mine.” The words reverberated in the air, muffled by the mask, but it was a cold, hard fact.

Laina shivered, but she said nothing. How could she argue with me when every single cell in that body of hers belonged to me?

I was enraged. I was so full of anger I could hardly think straight. Combine that with the power of the mask and the lie it held, and tonight would be the night when I finally took what was mine.

She thought she could give herself to someone else? A goddamned stranger? No. Oh, no. I’d show her that was not something she could so freely give.

The mere thought of finally having her, of, after all this time, taking what belonged to me, was more than enough to get mehard in a matter of seconds. My cock and I were on the same wavelength when it came to this girl, more than eager to be of service.

Yes, tonight was the night.

Still gripping her jaw, I walked her backward, toward the bed, and I only let go of her jaw so I could spin her around and force her top half down over the edge of the bed. She was bent over in front of me, the curve of her ass a beckoning sight, and the sigh that left me right then was full of hunger and pent-up desire.

I ran my hand down her spine, sluggish in curling it around her hip and giving her a hard squeeze.

She wore leggings, and if I had to guess, nothing under them. No panties, so it’d be easy to get a quick fuck in. She came to this party to get fucked by a stranger, and the mere thought was enough to send me over the edge.

Her body was not hers to give. It was mine, and fuck it, I wasn’t going to hold back any longer.

Laina gasped when my other hand went to yank down her leggings, exposing her ass to me in the process. Both gloved hands of mine went straight to that ass, getting a good feel of its supple curves. What I wouldn’t give to feel her ass without gloves between us, but I wasn’t ready for that. Right now, I wasn’t Kieran, the slightly weird but still, in my humble opinion, loveable goofball.

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