Page 97 of On a Fault Line

Protecting Penny means snuffing out Mark Tanner.

Because there can’t be light in her world with the pollution of his darkness.

19

PENNY

“Don’t you dare!” I say, smacking Collins’s hand away from sneaking another blueberry from the pile. “You keep eating the cake decor, and we’ll be down to only forty stars.”

He chuckles, holding his hands up in defense. “Okay, okay.”

“And we can’t celebrate Labor Day without a flag cake. It would be un-American.”

“If you say so…”

“I say so. It’s tradition.”

“What about actual Flag Day? Do you make a cake for that holiday? And what about Fourth of July?”

“Oh, no.” I turn to glare at him. “This is not the time to interrogate me.”

Collins lets out a laugh. “If you call logical questions an interrogation, then I guess that’s what I’m doing.”

I go back to my work while he starts nibbling at my neck. Then he places his hands around me onto the counter, essentially caging me in while I dice up strawberries. Resting his chin on my shoulder, he opens his mouth to be fed.

“Now you’re after my stripes?”

I pop a piece onto his tongue and one onto mine.

When I am finished decorating the cake, Collins spins me around, takes the knife out of my hand, and places it onto the island. Gripping my ass cheeks, he lifts me up and plops me down onto a bare section of the counter. My legs spread to accommodate him.

And unexpectedly, we make out.

Like one would expect teenagers to do…

But not someone who is sixteen years older than I am.

This is not something men like Collins would want to do, right?

But he does it. And he is damn fucking good at it.

Suddenly I am airborne and being transported to the couch, missionary style.

I try to wiggle out of my shorts, but my effort is futile. They are just too tight. I really should invest in easier-access clothes so my needs can be met without so much work.

Then Collins’s thigh is against my core. And he?—

“Oh, fuck!”

“I’m obsessed with your filthy mouth,” he growls into my ear, while continuing to grind his leg against my fully clothed pussy.

“Why does this feel so naughty?”

We’ve done this several times, and each time gets me hotter and hotter. How can not having actual sex be hotter than actual sex?

“Because you are a bad girl who is sneaking behind everyone’s backs to be with the hired bodyguard. And innocent girls like you shouldn’t like grinding against men like me. But you do. Don’t you, Penny? It turns you on to rub that sweet pussy against my leg like a depraved little girl that you are. You love getting that pussy nice and hot so that it leaks out all over the sofa and my thigh.” Collins bites at my neck. “Maybe this time I’ll make you lick it all off to clean it up.”

“Yes,” I breathe.

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