Page 10 of Cruel Pawn
And right there, my irritation turned to rage. Because I wanted him to saymyname, and I knew I was in deep, deep trouble.
6
Arden
“Wow,” I said, stepping into Carmen’s flat in Lambeth. It was in a gold brick and glass structure near the river, and no doubt had a price tag high enough that she didn’t need my money. She wouldn’t have been the first woman to single me out for my wealth. Not that Carmen had any idea who I was when we first met. A real-life meet cute, complete with spilled coffee and wide-eyed apologies. I’d almost swooned.
“There are photoseverywhere,”I said, gazing around at her home.
“Yes,” Carmen said under her breath as she stared at her flat, “there are.”
I knew that look, knew the empty feeling. She was so used to having Mango here, probably nagging her the second she entered the house since he was such a chatterbox. It must feel empty and deadly silent without him.
I brushed her arm as I walked deeper into her apartment. It was as clean and stylish as any apartment in a magazine, with black sofas, glass surfaces, white furniture, and big windows that let the lights of London shine into her open-plan living room. It would be cold, a little too perfect, if not for the photos of a fat, glaring orange cat everywhere. They dangled from pegs on twine strung across the walls, were pinned to the fridge with alphabet magnets, and a stack was even scattered across the coffee table.
I picked up one from the table, a smile pulling at my mouth at the mid-action shot of Mango lifting his leg to clean himself. There were dozens of photos of him sleeping, which made me laugh. “I have so many pictures of Aegi sleeping,” I told her as she came closer, peering at what had caught my attention. “I see her little face, or her toe beans, and I just have to take a photo even if I have a million others like it.”
She laughed softly. “No one can resist toe beans.”
“Truer words were never spoken,” I agreed, replacing the photos on the coffee table and reaching for Carmen, my hands falling on her waist. The heat of her was divine, bleeding into my skin, encouraging me to pull her closer. I resisted, for now.
“Tell me I’m being too forward,” I murmured, my voice betraying all my feelings. She was the most beautiful woman, the perfect match for me, and absolutely flawless in every way. And maybe I was being a dick by taking advantage of her when she was stressed and upset but this just feltright.
“You’re not,” she replied, a shade quieter than a moment ago, her eyes dark as she peered up at me. “Not at all.”
This time I did pull her closer. I bit back a groan at how she felt against me. She fit exactly as I remembered, like every dream I’d ever had shaped into a woman just for me. I kissed her before I could caution myself to take it slow, and my heart kicked into overdrive when she kissed me back.
Her arms came up, fingers knotting at the nape of my neck, and goosebumps shuddered down my arms as her lips danced across mine. The moment her breath kissed my lips, I tangled my fingers in her thick hair and claimed her mouth harder, deeper. And god, the taste of her, like peppermint candy, so sweet and addictive… I groaned and dragged her closer, until she was pressed flush to me, not a single glimmer of space between us as I kissed her. And kissed her. And kissed her.
I drowned my senses in the sweetness of her taste, the tingles wherever her hands brushed my skin, the soft groan she tried to hide when I wrapped my lips around her tongue and dragged it into my mouth so she could take control, take everything. She already owned my heart. I fell hard and fast and didn’t care that it was dangerous.
IneededCarmen. Needed the way her tongue dragged over mine, needed the moan that finally tore free of her as I submitted to anything she wished to do. I needed the hands that broke from their tangled grip on my neck and travelled lower, exploring my chest. I would die without the frenzy that overtook our kisses, and the softfuckthat whispered from her mouth to mine as I aligned our hips, rolling my aching cock against her and fully ready for her to push back, put some space between us.
Instead, my girl writhed into me, eagerly meeting my tentative thrust with a confident one of her own. She knew exactly what she wanted, and that confidence shot lust directly into my bloodstream. I clutched at her, at every part of her I could touch, finally indulging the burning, searing need to wrap my hand around her upper thigh where her dress bared her for me. She was softer than silk, hotter than fire.
My lips tingled when I broke away just long enough to grip the backs of her thighs, grateful for every hour spent in the gym as I lifted her. The easy way she wrapped her legs around my waist sent a vicious throb through my cock. Her groan in thesplit second before she kissed me told me she felt it. I hoped I throbbed right against her clit, hoped she was soaked and needy for me.
“So, you didn’t just invite me home to show me cat photos,” I said between frenzied kisses, a smile curving my lips against hers.
A wicked thought chased through her eyes—I saw it, gleaming and sharp, brightening her desire-dark eyes. But she just kissed me again.
Oh, no. I wasn’t having that. I kissed the edge of her mouth, then her cheek, her jaw, dragging my lips to her ear. “Say what you were about to say, Carmen. I want to know what wicked, lovely thoughts go on inside your mind.”
She groaned, her hips rolling, stroking her core over my hard length. Her dress had ridden up so there was only my trousers and the—Jesus fucking Christ—crimson lace of her underwear separating us. Red lace. For me? I scraped my teeth over her pulse, following the scratch with my tongue and obsessed with the sweet, salty taste of her skin.
“I didn’t just ask you back to look at cat photos,” she agreed, a little breathless. “But if you want to see my pussy, keep kissing my neck just like that, future husband.”
My groan was loud enough to fill the whole room. “I wondered when you were going to acknowledge that promise.”
“Promise?”
I sucked her pulse into my mouth, swirling my tongue around the frantic beat. “That I’ll be your husband someday. That I’ll watch you walk down the aisle and make you my wife. That I’ll lay you out on a bed of roses afterward and fuck you so hard that no one else will ever compare to your husband’s cock.”
“Oh, shit,” she gasped, pawing at my shirt so she could reach the hot skin beneath. I nearly sank my teeth into her at the feel of her hands sweeping over my stomach, my chest. She touchedme like she owned me, like she’d invaded my body and planned to conquer every last inch.
“Tell me where your bedroom is, my opera. I don’t want our first time to be quick and dirty on this sofa. I want to take my time with you, to learn everything that makes your breath catch and your eyes roll, until you’re so wrung out with bliss you can’t remember your own name.”
I felt her answering shudder through my whole body, felt it like electricity in my cock. “Yes,” she breathed. “Oh fuck, yes please.”
