Page 126 of On a Fault Line

My eyes pop open. “You meanhorny.”

“Yeah, that.” He shakes his head at me while I giggle. “Then you’ll be more prone to making bad decisions.”

“Bad decisions can be fun.” Okay, now I can’t stop giggling.

“Only if you make them with me.”

Faking seriousness, I straighten my posture. “Mr. Rule Follower can make a bad decision? Nah. I don’t buy it.”

“Many would say I’m making one with you.” He watches me while I finish up and stand in front of him—fully exposed and vulnerable.

Silence hovers between us, like a ghostly third wheel, making me question if he is actually having regret.

I wouldn’t blame him. I don’t find pleasure in his constant state of turmoil over betraying my brothers, but he’s not alone in his emotions.

I know I’ve betrayed them too.

My brothers saved my life by getting me the counseling and therapy I needed to try to move past the trauma I endured from Mark Tanner.

And this is how I repay them? By sneaking behind their backs…

With their most trusted employee.

But Collins makes me feel alive.

He sees me when I am at my most vulnerable and doesn’t want to run away.

Like the opposing poles of a magnet, we are drawn together like a force that is far bigger than either of us. And no matter how hard we resist, we can’t help but find ourselves pressed up against one another when the opportunity presents itself—like now.

Collins’s lips find my neck, and his fingers trail paths along the sides of my torso, coming to rest at my hips. Every self-conscious thought on whether I look good enough for him washes away, because I feel his attraction—every inch of it.

“Collins,” my lips whisper. My head falls back, as he helps me stay upright. “I want…”

“Tell me, Princess.”

My body melts a bit more. I love when he calls me that. I swallow the saliva pooling in my mouth as his fingers caress and squeeze the flesh of my ass.

It’s a simple touch and yet it’s all I crave. The closeness…

“I want you to”—I moan as he slides his hands down the backs of my upper thighs—“make me come.”

“Oh, I plan to, but I’m not sure you’ve been a very good girl today.”

Like a balloon deflating, my spirit sags. He won’t deny me again, will he? “Please, Collins.”

When I flop forward, he catches me, placing a gentle kiss on my nose.

Hoisting me up, he places my bare ass onto the cold surface of the vanity. His mouth finds the hollow of my neck and then trails kisses all the way down my breasts to my navel.

“I shouldn’t want you, Penny.”

His lips hover over my core, as if he’s at the precipice of a big decision. And just when I think he’s about to deny me what I so desperately need, he spreads my legs and kisses my clit.

“But I want you so fucking bad that I’m willing to travel the rings of hell if it means that I can have you at the center of it.”

And then he licks me and nips, as I thrash on the countertop.

“Collins!”

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