Page 24 of Unconditional

“Is this what you needed, Blondie?”I might’ve been embarrassed by the squelching sound my body made as he pressed those fingers inside of me, but all I could focus on was the blissful sensation that came with his touch.“Needed to be chased down and filled up?Don’t worry, princess.If that’s what you want, that’s what I’ll give you.”

Vaguely, I heard the sound of his belt and zipper over the sound of my erratically beating heart, and in one smooth movement, he was thrust inside me to the hilt.I screamed at the rapid intrusion and his palm came down sharply across my right ass cheek, but the sting only made me tremble harder.Talon began to move at an agonizingly slow pace, stretching me to capacity, working me until sparks lit me up and my body adjusted to him.It felt as if I were on fire from the inside out, my mind blank as I took him over and over.

When he pulled completely out and shoved into me again, hard, I cried out again.Talon growled deep in his chest, leaning over me at an angle that made him grind inside of me.I whimpered as his hips punched forward, his teeth grabbing onto my ear lobe.“For once in your life.”Another rough thrust, “Shut the fuck up.Unless you want everyone at the hotel to hear you being fucked on the ground in the woods.”

Something was wrong with me.There had to have been because I felt myself tighten around him, a desperation for him to move again.One of his hands gripped my hip and the other the back of my neck, pressing me down into the icy floor hard enough that the sharp particles burned against my cheek.But I could not bring myself to care, my thoughts only,yes, yes, yes, yes,pleasenever stop.Every sensation was heightened, smell, sound, touch; if he never stopped, I would never stop him.

When I came, it was to that realization, a gargled sound escaping me that I attempted poorly to mask in the snow rapidly melting beneath my face.Talon groaned, deft fingers finding my clit to work me back up over that edge, his movements never slowing.And just as I was hurled through a second orgasm, he followed me over, his come sliding down the inside of my thighs, hot against my skin.Stars invaded my vision, my lungs burning from exertion.

Talon did not speak until after he’d tucked himself back into his jeans and stood.I prepared myself for the awkward conversation that always followed sex, turning until my bare ass was beneath me, chill from the snow burning my skin.But Talon offered no platitudes, didn’t so much as offer to help me up, instead sliding my phone that had fallen to the ground into his pocket and sneering.“You have five minutes to get back to our room, Blondie.Don’t make me come back out here to drag your ass back.”

As his figure receded back through the trees, I remained rooted in place, with my leggings still wrapped around my ankles waiting to feel it; the boredom.The discontent or the underwhelm.Moreover, the shame and humiliation and guilt that never came.

sixteen

Talon

Fuck.Fuck.FUCK!What had I done?

I’d crossed the line.Fuck.

Fuck.

I glanced back to where she still lay, a frosty twig dangling from her disheveled hair, bare knees tucked up to her chest.The cheek that still bore a receding bruise from my strike was bright pink from where it had been pressed into the ground.

Her expression baffled me.I’d expected to see pure mortification but instead there was only bewilderment.I replayed the moment back in my head from start to finish.She’d kissed me first.Shehad made that first move and she had not been hesitant about it.I couldn’t be held solely responsible for my actions after the fact.She hadn’t said no, hadn’t even implied that she didn’t want it.I’d asked, hadn’t I?Yes, I had, I’d asked and she sat there with those giant gray eyes and waited.

Had I left enough of an opening for her to deny me if she wanted to?I thought I had, but looking back I wasn’t so sure.She’d been sofucking wet, and tight and perfect.She’d wanted me and she’d initiated.

And yet I fought the temptation to step out into oncoming traffic.I was holding her against her will.Blackmailing her with threats of harm to her family.It wasn’t right of me to touch her, to want her so badly again already.Or maybe this had been her intention—to get inside my head, to distract me from the sole purpose of all of this.Fuck, fuck, fuck!

I charged through the back door of The Lodge and did not look back towards Misely again.There was no way I’d be able to stomach the disgust that would inevitably catch up with her after what we’d done.I ignored Susie as she tried to stop me to see if everything was all right, seemingly noticing something in my expression.Wait until you see Misely.

Barely restraining myself from slamming the door shut as I barged into our room, and immediately began pacing, my fingers pulling roughly at the roots of my hair.I could hear my own breathing coming sharp and rapid, and the sounds of my feet leaving a wet snowy mess on the carpet as I paced.I clung to those noises, desperately trying to slow the frantic hammering of my heart.

She’d seemed so distressed when I’d caught up to her, her eyes brimming with a sadness I hadn’t been prepared for.Gone was the burning hatred that she seemed to have on reserve just for me.Gone was the playful flirtation she gave to everybody else.The sass, the snark…it wasn’t there.Just an aching well of sorrow that must’ve been hidden just beneath the surface.

And then I’d put my hands on her like I had some right to.

I began to count my steps in sets of four;one, two, three, four, one two, three, four, one, two—The device in my pocket began to vibrate, pulling me from my next set.If it was Kyle I was going to—it wasn’t my phone, but Misely’s.There was a picture of some douchebag looking dude with gelled back dark hair, the name reading ‘Brantley Corrigan,’ and I stiffened.

The same motherfucker who’d been texting her the night I’d taken her from Chicago.Their text chain had been dull to say the least, but still she’d been hesitant to tell me who he was.My lip curled and despite my better judgment, I answered.

“Yeah?”

There was a long, awkward pause before the man on the other end asked cautiously, “Uh, yeah, hi.Is Misely available?”

My skin prickled; I knew it was irrational.Of course he was asking for her, he’d called her phone.He'd asked her to dinner just the other night.

“Who’s askin’?”

Brantley gave me another extended pause before clearing his throat.“My name is Brantley Corrigan.Misely and I are friends.”

My god, he couldn’t be more obvious if he tried.I wasn’t a moron.I knew what ‘friends’meant.They were, at the very least, routinely fucking.

“Look, could you tell her I called?I heard she went out of town last minute and I just wanted to make sure she was okay.”

The blood in my veins began to boil and I hated myself for it.It wasn’t like I had any right to be jealous—where she was concerned, I didn’t have a right to anything—but at that moment I was feeling particularly overwhelmed.It would be so easy to lie and say sure, no problem, and hang up.So easy.And yet—

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