Page 123 of If Our Hearts Collide

“And what is happening, Penny? Enlighten me.”

“You are impeding on my fun just like everyone else in my life has done for the past year. I’m tired of being told when to sleep and when to eat and when to talk. I just want to live. Can you blame me? And if the answer even resembles something close tono, then please back down for just one time. Let me make some stupid mistakes. Let me get hurt.”

“You did get hurt, Penelope,” I snarl. “That bastard back there should be thankful he has full function of both of his hands.”

“Maybe I want to experience pain if just to feel alive.”

“Did getting manhandled in the streets of Portland by some asshole fulfill your needs?”

“No. But that’s because I wantyouto do the manhandling. I want the same experience but with the right person. That’s what went wrong tonight, Collins. He was notyou. I wantyou.”

“Penny…you’ve been drinking.”

“No. I mean, yeah, I have been, but that isn’t warping my true feelings on this shitty subject. So hear me out,” she says, moving to poking her finger into my chest. “I’m tired of everyone around me putting me up on a shelf for safekeeping. I am not some expensive doll that never gets a chance to play. I want to play, Collins.”

“You don’t know what you are saying.”

She takes a step backward, moving her hands down her body and then cupping her boobs.

Fuck.

What is she doing?

“I’m not a child, Collins. I’m a grown woman if you haven’t noticed.”

I choke on the spit pooling in my mouth, and then awkwardly swallow it down. “I noticed.”

“Have you?” she questions. “Because to me, I’m constantly stuck wondering what is going on in your head—and every other guy’s for that matter. And quite frankly, I’m not sure my ego can handle another man saying no to me tonight. I’m tired of not being good enou?—”

In one fluid motion, I take Penny into my arms and push her back so her shoulders rest against the cold stone wall of the building. My hands rest on her curvy hips, playing with the belt loops of her painted-on jeans.

My touch is gentle, reverent—and every part of me holds back the beast inside that wants to show this girl exactly what I’m made of…

“What are you doing?”

“I’m about to enjoy the best taste I can imagine of forbidden fruit.”

24

COLLINS

“Yes,” Penny hisses, spurring on every bad decision I’m about to make.

“But I know I shouldn’t. Because I’m afraid one taste won’t be enough.”

“We don’t go through life holding an umbrella just in case it decides to rain. You must take risks.”

My eyes focus on her lips. The way they press together… The slight glossy shine they have in the lights filtering in from the main street. “If this doesn’t put me on the fast track to hell then there may be redemption for me after all.”

A whimper escapes her lips, as my vision blurs.

My thumbs reach up and trace a soft path along the outline of her lips, wiping away the touch from the past. And then I feel it—Penny’s tongue—licking the pads of my fingers and then sucking them inside her warm mouth.

Closing my eyes, I roll my head back slightly as the blood rushes to my cock, providing it life.

Dammit, that feels good.

All the bad decisions I’ve delayed making are on the edge of the cliff I’ve been too afraid to leap off—until now.

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