Page 100 of Shattered Hearts

It’s not fair.

“Then you have no idea what you and Zane ripped away from me. I need her.”

“But when I talked to you yesterday, you said we would find someone together.”

“What did you want me to say? I was in shock. Zane knew I wouldn’t be happy, and he got off the phone as quickly as he could. He knew I’d be hurt he did that without asking me, and he let you deal with it instead, like the coward he can be.” Gage’s eyes widen. “Oh, I love my brother, but I know the kind of person he is. He’d rather hide than face up to anything, just like he’d rather you be subjected to the brunt of my anger, and now you are. I’m taking a shower, then I’m going to see her.”

“Zarah—”

“No. You want me to make my own choices, you want me to think for myself, yet when I do, I’m childish for not falling in line. After my breakdown, she came to see me. Where were you?”

I throw that at him and leave him there with nothing he can say. It was two weeks before he drove out to the house, two weeks, when Jerricka made herself available to me day or night. I know that’s not fair. He was giving me space and staying away from me was just as hard on him as it was on me, but it’s the stab I wanted to leave the bedroom with, my parting shot.

Except, I should have known Gage wouldn’t give up so easily. He follows me into the bathroom, and I bait him, yanking off his t-shirt and stripping my panties, dropping them into a pile on the floor. I turn on the faucet, showing him a glorious view of my backside, and when the water is steaming hot, I step inside.

He follows me into the shower, his face red, and not from the heat. I step backward and press my back against the cool, slick wall of the shower stall.

His cock is hard, grazing his abs, pre-cum glistening at the tip. A frown darkens his features, and his tattooed muscles bulge. I’d never want to meet him in a dark alley.

Lifting me up, his hands like a vise around my ribcage, we’re eye to eye, and I tremble. He’s so strong, he holds me like I don’t weigh anything. His arms don’t even shake with the effort of keeping me a foot off the bottom of the shower. How easily he could hurt me, worse than any of Ash’s jobs. They were weak, in all ways, even physically. Sitting behind a desk, playing golf. Their slaps, the way they would manhandle me, is nothing compared to what Gage could do.

“Just because I’m mad doesn’t mean I’ll hurt you.”

Water runs into his eyes. He blinks it away, and it trickles down his cheeks. Mist collects in his beard turning into big drops that drip down his neck.

I nod. Out of anything I know in this life, I know that.

“If you go see her, can you tell her you need a break? A short break, a couple of weeks, that’s all. Give me some time to figure this stuff out. Can you do that? We went about it the wrong way, and I’m sorry.”

I press my face against his shoulder and wrap my legs around his waist.

“Zarah, I don’t have a condom.”

I shake my head. It will be irresponsible, maybe my birth control isn’t working yet, but I don’t care. “I need this.”

“If you’re sure.”

“Yes.”

He braces my back against the wall, and slowly, he lowers me onto his cock. Though we’ve already had sex this morning, my body’s tight, and I need a moment. Gage gives me time to adjust, his hands under my butt as he holds me, and lets me sink onto him at my own pace.

The way he fills me is delicious, this friction without anything between us. It’s everything I knew it would be.

Jutting his hips upward, he claims the last inch, and I gasp, sinking my teeth into his shoulder. He growls, and suddenly he’s pumping his cock into me, his thrusts sharp and deep.

Too busy holding me up, he can’t help get me off, and I find my clit between our drenched bodies, the water sluicing over us. My clit is huge and engorged, my sex swollen as Gage rams into me. Leaning my head against the wall, I squeeze my eyes shut.

“Look at me,” Gage orders and my eyes pop open. “Look at me when I come inside you. This is love and there might be consequences. I hope you’re ready to face up to those.”

His hazel eyes spark fire, and he holds us very still, waiting for me, waiting for an affirmative response. If I say no, he’ll pull out and leave me hollow. He’ll never take more than I’m willing to give.

I nod my head viciously, my teeth clanking together. If he doesn’t finish us right now, I’ll die.

He needs only two more pumps and he’s bursting thick, hot streams of cum inside me. He groans, moving one hand from my butt and anchoring us to the wall. His legs tremble with every surge of his cock inside me.

“Hold on,” he says, his voice raw, and I cling to his body as he helps me come, his fingers slicking between us, pushing me toward the brink. I don’t need much to fall over, and the pleasure that courses through me is almost too much to bear. I sob his name, hanging onto his shoulders, my ankles locked under his butt.

I finish quaking and he sets me to my feet, a hand steadying me until I find my balance. I look at him through the steam and his eyes are hard. “Don’t youeverimply that I don’t love you. I’d die for you.”

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