Page 156 of Gunner

None of those options felt right.

They all left a hollow feeling inside of me.

“Give me your eyes, Haizley.”

When she looked up at me, her eyes were glassy, and I considered how maybe she was remembering the same thing I was.

“I love you.”

A tear slipped from the corner and slid down her cheek at my words.

“I need to know you want this. Want me. The last time we were in this room was after I claimed you in front of my club. I told them all you were my old lady. And you walked away.”

“I’m sorry,” she cried quietly.

“I won’t survive you walking away again. Tonight, you claimed me in front of the entire bar. All I wanted to do was bring you here and stay buried in your pussy all night. Then we walked in, and I remembered how you walked away from me. I considered punishing you. I considered walking out on you the way you walked out on me. I don’t want that kind of love with you. I don’t want the kind of love where we keep score of how we hurt each other. Hurt is inevitable. I will fuck up. So will you. But I want us to work through it and leave it behind us. But to do that I need to know why you walked away.”

“I was scared. I know that sounds trite and cliché, but it’s true. You were saying all the right words. All the things I wanted to hear, and I believed if I let you love me, I wouldn’t be able to love you enough to keep you.”

“That doesn’t make any fucking sense.” I crossed my arms and leaned against the wall. I stood there while Haizley told me a story about her father and a carousel and a brass ring. About her parents’ accident and the fight they had before it. About her feelings and how she believed she didn’t love them enough, so they were taken away from her.

“It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at allis a bullshit platitude to help people grieve. Losing love fucking hurts, Gunner. It’s a hurt that never heals. It scabs over and then one day, you’re going about your life and something rips the scab off, and you bleed all over again.”

“Come here, baby.”

She walked into my arms, and I held her tight. Her tears ran down my chest as she cried.

“I didn’t want to hurt anymore. I’ve kept everyone at arm’s length. Corbin, my best friend at college, you. I didn’t want to love you because I didn’t want to lose you.”

“You’re not gonna lose me, baby. I told you; I’m never letting you go. You walked away, and I fucking stalked you. You’re fucking stuck with me. The question is, do I have you?”

“You have me.”

I slammed my lips on hers and lifted her up. Turning, I pinned her against the wall with my pelvis while I pulled her shirt over her head. Pulling the cups of her bra down, I latched on to her nipple and sucked hard before biting and then soothing it with my tongue.

I was ravenous for her. The combination of the way she claimed me at the bar, straddling my lap in front of Penny and every damn person there without thought, and the way sheclocked Penny, had me so fucking hard in an instant. I thought my dick would push through my jeans just to get to her pussy.

That was how I felt now. I wanted her now. I wanted to slam into her and stay there all goddamn night.

But first, she needed to be rewarded.

“You were such a good fucking girl at the bar, little lamb. Staking your claim over me. Fuck, baby, I almost came right then and there.”

I moved to the other tit, pulling the nipple between my teeth and hearing her cry out tore a groan from me. I loved hearing her cries and whimpers as I pushed her toward oblivion. I unlatched the bra in the back so her tits were free, then started on the button of her jeans.

Once I had them open, I dipped my fingers in, sliding them between her lips.

“Fucking soaked,” I hissed.

“Only for you,” she whispered.

“Fuck, baby. You have no idea how fucking hot that is.”

My mouth found her neck, and I sucked on the base of her throat as I shoved two fingers into her tight cunt. Her legs tightened around my waist, pulling me closer as she rode my hand.

“Come for me, Haizley. Soak my hand.”

Her breath hitched.

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