Page 22 of Jack's Devotion

I make a beeline for the door, but I'm too little, too late.

I end up backed into a corner. The only place to go is over the bed to the other side.

Why does that sound like a bad idea to me?

I try it anyway…

And I end up on my back with his ridiculously hard body pressed to mine.

"Jack," I groan.

"Yeah, keep fighting me like that," he growls, burying his face in my throat as I wiggle and squirm beneath him…not entirely sure if I'm trying to buck him off or get more of him all over me. The latter, I think. He feels so damn good on top of me. "You feel like heaven squirming all over my cock, Madison."

I sob his name, scratching down his back.

"Ah, fuck." He bites my throat, thrusting his thigh between my legs to spread them open.

I sob again when I feel his erection against my sex.

"You're sleeping in this bed," he growls against my skin, bucking against me like he's fucking me. At this point, he might as well be. His erection keeps hitting the exact right spot, and with every pass, I want him more and more.

"You don't know me!"

"So tell me what I don't know."

"I…I…" He makes it sound so easy. But my life hasn't been all rainbows and kittens since I left. It's been the exact opposite of that. And maybe he wants me in his bed right now. But he still thinks I'm the pretty little angel he met seven years ago. I haven't been her in seven years, though. I couldn't be her and survive out there.

"Tell me, baby. Who are you? What are you so afraid I won't like?"

"I lived in my car in Los Angeles," I whisper.

He stills on top of me.

"F-for a while."

"How long?"

"Almost a year before I was able to move into a shelter."

"Jesus," he mutters, his lips still against my skin. "How did you survive, baby?"

I squeeze my eyes closed. "I had a fake ID so I w-worked in a bar." Humiliation climbs up my throat. "But I stole things, too. I l-lied to everyone."

Eventually, I managed to get a little apartment with another girl from the shelter. It wasn't much. Actually, it was awful. Nothing worked right. Everything was old and rusted. But it was shelter. I found a better job. I found a better place. They paid for me to take classes.

It was a long, slow climb out of a dark, dank hole.

He growls softly, pulling back slightly. I feel his eyes on me, his gaze heavy. "And you think that makes you less worthy?"

"I don't know," I whisper, refusing to open my eyes to look at him. "You offered to marry me. But you're a billionaire with all your companies. Maybe you shouldn't be tied to someone who committed a bunch of crimes."

"Look at me, Madison." His hand curves around my jaw, forcing my head up. "Look at me."

I reluctantly open my eyes to see him staring at me with this look that's… God, it's everything. It's so damn fierce and possessive, so raw andproud.

"Yousurvived," he says, his voice a dark rasp as he dips his head. He wrecks me with his lips and words, dragging them down the side of my throat as he whispers his perspective to me. "When you had nowhere to go and no one to turn to, you survived. You took care of yourself. You kept yourself safe. You fed yourself. You protected yourself. And you did it in a world that isn't kind, especially to women out there on their own."

"Jack."

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