Page 127 of Down & Dirty

I felt trapped. Where being with Cory had only ever made me feel free, I suddenly felt like the love I had for him was holding me in place. It overwhelmed me, making it impossible to imagine letting him go.

So I wouldn’t.

“I need to believe you,” I said, the words scraping over a raw throat. “You promised me before and you were lying.”

He shook his head and in the window light I saw tears rimming his eyes.

“I’ll never lie to you again. I was scared of you finding out. Billy is the only other person who knows. Not even Mack or Jake. I’ve blocked everyone out because I never had anyone else I trusted before. But I should have trusted you.”

My pride wouldn’t let me take him back if he lied to me again. I’d been with Tommy far longer than I should have, knowing he wasn’t being honest with me. Lying and cheating and making a fool out of me. And I wouldn’t let myself make that same mistake. “There is no third chance, here Cory.”

“I won’t need it,” he said, pushing up on his arms, and caging me beneath him. His lips hovered above mine, sweeping gently, as he held my gaze. “You’re all that matters to me, Sky. You’re fucking everything. I will never break your trust again.”

Tears streaked down my temples into my hair as I nodded, my throat clogging with emotion.

“Fuck. I hate seeing you cry,” Cory exhaled, kissing away the tears and then moving his lips to my neck. He sucked a gentle line to my collar bone, his hips settling between mine. “I hate that I did this.”

His whispered words pushed against the wall I was struggling to keep up. He was just as wrecked as I was, the distance between us ripping us up.

“Touch me, baby,” he whispered, his face buried in my neck. “Please.”

My hands had curled into fists at my side, as if I’d been pinning myself in place to keep from falling apart. But at the sound of his words I tumbled into the wave of longing that had been looming all day.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” I admitted, my voice shaking with fear. I couldn’t see him in any more pain.

A tremor worked through his body as he held himself above me. “Please, Sky. I need you.”

I carefully skimmed my hands up his sides, until he pulled back to look me in the eye, pleading with me, “You won’t hurt me, not as much as missing you does.”

He leaned to kiss me, pausing just out of reach, needing me to close the last bit of distance. I did, melting against him as his lips caressed mine, soft and gentle, before his tongue slipped into my mouth, a slow, tentative stroke as a moan rattled from his chest.

“I can’t breathe without you.”

I combed my fingers through his hair, tugging him down, deepening the kiss. I needed him too, and when my hips tilted up to feel his hard length press into my belly, my head fell back with a cry.

“I love you, Cory.”

He stilled, his head jerking back so he could look at me. “I love you too, baby. I love you so much it scares me.”

With his forehead pressed to mine, I nodded. “Me too.”

It was terrifying to be this in love, to feel like his heart beat in my chest, and I gave him mine every time he looked at me. We weren’t ourselves without each other anymore, and the vulnerability in that felt like drowning and being saved at the same time.

“Let me love you, like this,” he said, grinding his hips into me, his length running over my clit with enough pressure to make me tremble. “Let me make you mine again.”

I nodded, and he reached to tug my underwear down. Pinned beneath him, he yanked his cock from his boxers, not even bothering to take them off, as if he needed to be inside me so badly he couldn’t wait.

“You are so fucking gorgeous,” he groaned, rubbing the tip through my folds, flicking it over my clit again and again.

I was so keyed up, the emotions of the last twenty-four hours pooling between my legs and making every touch rock through me.

“Does that feel good?” he asked, his face turning red.

“Yes,” I panted, my hips tilting on their own, seeking, desperate for all of him.

“You want more?”

I nodded, biting my lip as he slipped the first inch inside and then pulled it back out.

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