Page 139 of A Love Like Venom

His eyes flash again except this time with an intensity that I can’t decipher. He then moves us so that his back is resting against the headboard and I’m straddled over his lap. “It’s entirely fucked on my part but I always imagined you when I was fucking other women. I’ve always wanted you. I was just too fucking scared to do anything about it.”

“You’re serious.” I ask in shock.

“How could I not? No one compares to you, angel. No one.”

My eyes shy away from his as I swallow back the doubt wanting to creep in. But I can’t help but feel it. The doubt. The shame for what’s happened to me. It all comes back to the surface.

Gripping my chin he forces my eyes to meet his. Then he demands, “Tell me what you’re thinking. What is it?”

I open my mouth but the words don’t come out. How can I tell him? How can I tell him that he’s messing with damaged goods. I know that he knows but how can I admit to him how I feel without feeling shame?

“Don’t do that.”

My brows furrow. “Do what?”

“I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. You’re so fucking wrong, Alice.”

“It’s just I didn’t think anyone would want me after that. I’m damaged goods, Reed. Used and soiled by the hands of someone I didn’t want. I’m not even a virgin because of him.” I feel the tears pressing at the back of my eyes but I refuse to shed another tear over that monster.

“You are not damaged goods, you hear me? What he did was wrong. It was inexcusable. It was not your fault. What he did doesn’t make you any less beautiful to me. You are beautiful, Alice Hall. You’re not damaged. You are a survivor. You’re strong. You are perfect to me,” he vehemently tells me, his conviction strong.

“I wanted it to be with you. I wanted my first time to be with you.”

“And it will be.”

“Did you hear what I just said?”

“I did and I heard every word. Your first time wasn’t with him, Alice. It will be with me. With your consent. With you freely giving yourself to me. I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, you are a virgin to me.”

Tears form in my eyes but for an entirely different reason. My hand reaches up to caress his face. He leans into my touch before kissing my palm.

I don’t know how it’s possible but I fall even more in love with him.

“And what if I want that?”

He swallows, staring deeply in my eyes. “I will ask you if you are one hundred percent sure.”

Moving myself closer to him my breasts now press against his chest. “If I am?”

His hands move from my face and make a slow work down my body. Shivers of the best kind run down my spine. They land on the small of my back and press me closer to him.

Our foreheads touch. I feel his breath upon my face. The mixture of mint, alcohol and cigarettes have never been so enticing. With eyes burning like flames he says in a throaty voice, “Then I’ll bury myself so deep inside of you that you will feel me for days.”

I lick my lips. His eyes follow the motion of my tongue with fiery passion. “Do you promise?”

“You’re playing with fire, angel.”

Bringing my lips to his they brush against his as I reply, “And I told you I wouldn’t mind getting burned.”

He groans from the back of his throat and before I know it my shirt is being pulled off me. I raise my arms to help and he throws it on the floor.

I’m in one of my simple black bras that really doesn’t do much for my breasts. It’s regular cotton with underwires for support. The way he’s staring makes me feel like I have the most glorious breasts in the world. Which I know can’t be true because they are smaller than average.

His fingers lightly trace the outline of my upper breast before dipping his finger inside the cup. My nipples are already straining against the barrier so when he rolls his finger and thumb around one of them I can’t help but voice my desire.

My hips want to move, create friction but he grips my waist with one hand and gives me a warning look.

Quirking a brow at him he answers, “Don’t move.”

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