Page 95 of Reading Between the Lines
It was Tallus and me and endless possibilities.
I roamed a hand over his body, memorizing every inch of his flawless skin, silky and smooth under my rough palm. I devoured his mouth, sucked his tongue, and barely let him come up for air. I was a man drained of nourishment, deprived for too long, hungry for replenishment.
I couldn’t get enough. I wanted all of him. I wanted to be inside of him. I wanted to protect him and ensure no harm ever came his way.
With a generous helping of lube coating my fingers, I prepped him, knowing I needed to slow down and take my time, but Tallus’s moans fanned the flames, and I couldn’t.
He helped me with the condom, and before I could order my thoughts, I pushed inside his willing body, growling at the surrounding heat and squeeze of him around me. It was heaven, and my good arm trembled. It wouldn’t hold me up much longer.
I moved to an elbow, bringing my face against Tallus’s neck and inhaling as I slowly moved inside him. We’d never been this close. Sex had never been this intimate. I was lost in an ocean with no land in sight and didn’t know how to swim.
But I didn’t fucking care anymore. I was happy to drown in everything Tallus.
If there was pain in my shoulder, I didn’t feel it. I sucked his neck like I’d always dreamed, marking him, claiming him,owninghim.
“Mine,” I growled.
I bit his ear until he hissed, then soothed the skin with tender kisses. I thrust relentlessly into his body as he moaned and begged for “more, deeper, harder.”
He wound his lithe limbs around me, and we moved together. It was an out-of-body experience, like it was happening to someone who wasn’t me. But it was me. And it was Tallus. And this was us and ours to share.
Pleasure was a slow-building flame in my lower abdomen. Every thrust brought me closer. Every whimper and gasp of pleasure that crossed his lips was gasoline. It didn’t matter that I’d lain him out and taken control. Tallus was not submissive. He raked nails over my scalp. He angled his body how he needed it. He planted his heels in my lower back and matched my pace, tugging me deeper and setting a brutal pace.
When he clenched around me, I came unexpectedly, roaring and gritting my teeth as I buried myself deep inside him, riding the waves as I trembled, spilling into the condom.
In a distant part of my brain, I wondered how much more amazing it would be to unload without a barrier. To fill him with my release. To claim him in a different way.
I pushed the thought away when it stirred my anxiety. I didn’t want to be anxious. I wanted to drift on the euphoria of the moment.
Tallus took my face in his hands, and we kissed again, wet, desperate kisses that went on for a long time. Tongues. Teeth. Sweat rode the bridge of my nose. I moved inside him, slowly at first as my world righted, then faster, letting him find his pleasure as well. When he came and cried my name, it was a heady rush.
All the feelings and emotions I’d been carefully keeping at bay hit me square in the chest. I hardly knew what to do with them.
We slowed, still moving together but less frantic, bodies slick with sweat. Breathless and boneless, I eventually pulled out and collapsed at Tallus’s side so I could remove the condom. Still half-draped over his body, connected in every other way imaginable, I studied my boyfriend, processing all we’d shared.
The lust-drunk look in his eyes made me smile. He touched my mouth, tracing the curve of my lips. “That… was fucking incredible.”
I couldn’t find words, so I continued to stare at him in wonder. Wound together, neither of us seemed to be in a hurry to get up. As the adrenaline faded, the pain returned tenfold, so I closed my eyes to ride it out.
Tallus massaged his fingers over my scalp, and it soothed me to sleep.
23
Tallus
Diem snoozed with me encased in his arms. I hardly knew how to process the events of that morning. The shared shower. The sex. Something had changed in Diem. His walls had come down, and his uncertainty had abated.
When he woke, I helped him dress and encouraged him to take more pills. He didn’t ask for whiskey, and I didn’t offer. By eleven, we were out the door, cabbing it to the rental car location where Delaney had set us up with new wheels that turned out to be a newer model four-door Jeep that seemed to tickle Diem’s fancy.
Of course, he insisted on driving despite the stiffness in his shoulder and neck, making it difficult to turn his head. I didn’t argue. We had mutually agreed that visiting Nicholas was top of our agenda since the teens would be in school until later in the afternoon.
As Diem took us toward the kennel, I considered what we knew about the case and every angle of our suspicions.Something niggled at me, but I couldn’t put a finger on it, and no matter how slowly or meticulously I revisited the information we’d discovered, I couldn’t figure out what caused the disquiet.
Driving up the gravel drive, we were met by an eruption of barking from the outdoor pen. The dogs in the yard all gathered by the fence again, curious to see who had come to visit.
The weather was clear that morning. Bright skies and a beaming sun hung above us. If not for the cold, it might have been a beautiful day. The temperature, however, hovered near freezing, and the north wind persisted.
Nicholas emerged from the barn like before, dressed in a heavy canvas coat, tattered jeans, muddy boots, and a black tuque pulled down far enough to cover his ears. He scrutinized the vehicle until Diem got out. Recognition crossed Nicholas’s face.
