Page 11 of I Hate Myself for Loving You
“You know that’s not what you want. You want me, Avery, as much as I want you.”
He stated as much with his hands as with his words, roving over her ribs, running small circles against her thin shirt, skimming the underside of her breasts.
Her throat was closing and words were forming with sludge-like motion, but she was fighting it with everything she had. “Sex won’t solve anything, Lassiter,” she offered as a meek refusal.
“I disagree.”
Yeah, so what else was new? They disagreed. Novel.
“I think we can solve a lot of things if we just let happen what should happen on a frequent basis with you and I.”
A delicious tendril of a flame spiked her continual craving for him when he gathered her hair in his hand and tugged her head back.
“There’s no solving this. You’re not the man I once knew, Lassiter.” Her protest grew less vehement when he nibbled at the side of her neck.
“No, Avery, I’m not the boy you once knew.”
Chapter Five
That was the truest statement he’d made thus far. He wasn’t at all the boy she’d once known. She stiffened but Lassiter held her even tighter, running his tongue along her neck, against the lobe of her ear. Her head began to swim, her heart crashed against her ribs, the space between her thighs throbbed with need.
“Why does it have to be this way, Lassiter?” she whispered to him, yearning for something long since over.
Caressing the swell of her hip, he said hoarsely, “Let it go, A. Let’s just let it go for now. Let me touch you, lick you.”
Her knees shook, her pulse quickened enough that she could hear it in her ears.
The word ‘no’ was on the tip of her tongue, but the tip of his tongue held a different answer as it skimmed her ear, tracing small circles along the outer rim.
Spanning her waist, Lassiter pressed her to him, against the hardness of his chest and onto the bulge in his jeans.
With a will of their own, her hands wrapped around his neck and she arched into his hold, biting her lip as the heat of their bodies sizzled, searing an imprint on her spine. Skimming her sides, Lassiter dragged his hands over the swell of her hips, rounded the curve of her inner thigh, roaming in and out of her legs with a precise pattern.
The groan she omitted was low, feral. It caught in her throat and she swallowed the urge to claw at him with hands that rushed the process. Instead, she opted to let her head fall back and revel in the myriad of emotions he stirred in her, forgetting the anger between them.
The pop of the button on her jeans, the slide of the zipper went almost unnoticed to Avery. Lassiter swung her around, gripping her shoulders and dragging her against him. His lips took hers possessively, plunging his tongue between them with rough insistence, gathering her closer until she almost couldn’t breathe.
Splaying his hand over her ass, he ground his hips into her. Avery stood on tiptoe, trying to drive back at him, but Lassiter was stronger, scooping her up and laying her down on the ground.
Through her fuzzy haze of lust, she realized that they were out in the middle of the woods. It was cold and the ground, colder still. However, that didn’t stop her from wanting him. It didn’t stop her from needing to complete this act of sheer madness. It didn’t allow her the time to think about it, or even want to reason with it.
Pushing her jacket off with hard hands, Lassiter groaned when his hand cupped her breast through her shirt. He pulled her to him, lodging her thigh between his own and thumbing her nipple. His callused skin caught on the material of her shirt, rasping over it, sending rippling waves of electric currents between her legs.
Avery pressed her palms to his chest, straddling his thigh and squeezing it to keep the wet heat between her legs from overwhelming her, her hands tearing at his waist and pulling his shirt upward.
Her urgency led to impatience as she fumbled with his belt buckle and the zipper on his jeans. Her heart crashed with her impulsive need, her lungs begged for air, her breath coming in choppy breaths.
Avery needed Lassiter inside her now, but Lassiter had other ideas. Ideas that had nothing to do with rushing their mating.
Yanking her arms over her head, he collared them in his hand and used his other hand to tug her shirt upward. Rolling Avery to her back, he swiped her flesh with his tongue, circling her nipple, dancing around it, eliciting shivers of anticipation from her.
Thrusting against him, she bowed her back, arching to invite him to lick her, but he followed a lazy path along her ribs instead. Nibbling at them. Caressing her skin, so hot now it literally burned. Placing delicate stabs of his tongue into her navel.
She throbbed, ached, swelled with the taunt of silk against her flesh. His muffled chuckle mocked her ears, but seared her senses.
Just when she thought she could no longer withstand the torture, Lassiter took her nipple in his mouth, rolling it between his lips, lapping at it with a snake like tongue. He unzipped her pants, settling a hand to rest in the curls at the top of her thighs.
Avery’s hips bucked against the warm invasion. Lassiter’s hand was so big it spanned nearly the width of her slender hips, possessive in its progress toward the place between her legs. The sound of her own breathing, labored and raspy, slithered to her ears as she squirmed against Lassiter’s hand, awaiting his next move.
