Page 31 of Make Me, Break Me

"Dex—" she whimpered, her sugar-glossed lips parting.

To protest or beg—I didn't care much either way. I took her invitation to let me in the moment her mouth opened, bruising her lips while I explored her with a dormant hunger I rarely acted on but that always lay beneath our playfulness.

My cock thickened as I unleashed the need I quelled for so long, unwilling to keep up the happy-go-lucky Dex façade to play along with her rules and her games.

Fuck the peace.This girl is mine.

My tongue sliced across hers, my brutal kiss driven by pure obsession, my heart drunk on the taste of her. Fuck, we hadn’t started yet and already I was intoxicated, addicted to her with a single kiss and craving more. I dropped one hand to cup her ass and pin her against my body until we were both panting and moaning into each other’s mouths.

Not a single word of protest left her lips when I drew back for breath, nor did her hands already tangled in my tee push me away.

My heart pounded its victory lap, but my eyes were only for her.

"I want you. Here, in my bed. Fuck, anywhere. Everywhere." My voice deepened into the sort of growl I knew did it for her on demand.

Goosebumps erupted along every inch of her exposed flesh, and there was plenty of that in sight thanks to that flimsy asfuck little top she wore. She gripped me tight, her nails digging half-moon ruts into my skin as she trembled from her lips to her thighs. Her pants came fast, almost panicked.

“I don’t care if you hurt me,” I murmured. Another addiction we could talk about on a different night. “The sort of pain you give me is what I need to fuck you harder.” When my usual dirty talk didn’t work to soothe her anxiety, I stared into her eyes, seeking answers.

She gave me plenty. All that I needed and more. But reading her stunning eyes wasn’t enough. I needed her words. Offering her a sliver of mercy, I eased back an extra breath, recalling her plea that I suffocated her, and waited.

"I'm scared." She shook in my hold but didn’t pull away like the last time I reached for her.

I watched her carefully. “Of me?"

"No, never you." Black silken locks dashed across her face, tangling around her pale throat like a collar. I looped my finger through a strand and tugged gently. “I’m not scared of you, Dex.”

I raised an eyebrow as I spoke against her kiss-swollen lips. "You were here tonight. You saw what I'm capable of, the worst of me.”I wasn’t going to stop until Jericho hauled me off.

The unspoken message flicked between us, and she nodded, sending one of her own.

You see everything I want you to see.

But Zin wasn't the only one scared of rejection.

“Yes." Her pupils blown wide, she held my gaze and sucked in her bottom lip. I followed the motion, if with my eyes alone for the moment. I’d follow up with my tongue the moment we were done talking. "I'm scared to go there with you, to find out who we could be together. You're right—I’ve seen friends destroyed by relationships and heartbreak like that is more than I can bear. I’ve been hurt before, so bad.” Her voice shattered a little at the end, taking a sliver of my heart with her because Iknewwhatshe’d suffered, even now when she still hid behind the stories of others. “I see the pain in– in– those around us when they fall apart. I'm scared to risk that again on my own," she whispered that last admission on a single breath, as though just discovering it herself.

I leaned closer on my fists, my knuckles pressed to the wall, pinning her there like a black butterfly dazed under the spotlight. "You’ll never be alone. Anything you risk, we do it together. And I’ll be the first to break if we stop now, Zin. What we have—it’s been more than good sex for years. I fucking love you, and I won’t stop. You’re so much more than just a fuck buddy to me. I don’t want to let you go." I didn't give her a chance to answer before I slammed my mouth over hers in a dominating kiss she returned breathlessly.

“Don’t go. Please. I don’t want to be without you.”

It was all I needed to hear. She hadn’t said she didn’t want to be alone—she said she didn’t want to bewithout me.

My heart thundered inside my chest, the too-close cavity crushing the swelling organ so tight I could barely breathe. “You’re beautiful,” I rasped.

“So are you,” she whispered back, light fingertips trailing through the grit and blood that coated me.

I claimed her mouth again, and neither of us spoke. Desperate sounds tore from her throat and I swallowed them all. Sliding both hands down to her ass, I flicked up her flimsy little skirt to cup her perfect globes. A single thin, silky strand slid between them.My girl came prepared.I traced my finger over her heat and back to her ass, pressing in enough to earn a feral moan from her.

"Fuck me. You come here of all places and dress like this? You look like motherfucking bait."

"Only you. I dress like this only for you," she whispered, latching her hands around my shoulders beneath my soakingshirt to claw at my salty skin with her nails. When she raised her gaze to mine, diamond drops framed her thick lashes.

She fucking loves me.

I ground my groin into her soft body, hooking her knees over my hips and pushed her thong aside. She dripped on my fingers as I freed my cock into my fist and slammed raw and deep on the first thrust. Her welcoming pussy strangled my cock, tight and slick and hot as I plunged into her.

Zin screamed into my mouth, lost in the moment, desperate and writhing in my arms.

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