How is it possible to get greedier for her, more ravenous? It’s an ache in my gut, and only she can satisfy it. I capture her mouth, fucking it, and slide my hands free of her. She’s all over me, and I lift my head, slipping my fingers between my lips and licking her off my skin. Her taste hits me like a runaway train, and I close my eyes, savoring her musky, delicious flavor. And as seems to be my theme with her, it’s not enough.
 
 I grope at the front of my jeans, jerking the button open and the zipper down.
 
 “Shit,” I mutter, pressing my forehead to her shoulder. “Wait here. Don’t move.”
 
 I shift away from her. My condoms are up in my bedroom since I didn’t expect company tonight. I’m going to break the sound barrier running up those stairs and to my room—
 
 “Hold on.” Her smaller hand clasps mine, stopping me. She stares at me, her lashes momentarily lowering before lifting and her eyes meet mine again. “I’ve never been with anyone without a condom. Never. I’ve never trusted anyone that much. I want to have this first with you.”
 
 I go still. But the lust inside me rages like a rabid beast, hammering and beating against its cage, which happens to be my bones and skin. She wantsmeinside her.Bare. Nothing between us.
 
 Oh fuck.
 
 “Yes,” I ground out, andyes, it emerges as if my voice had been chewed up in a woodchipper and spit out, but I don’t care. “I’m clean, baby girl. And the thought of sinking in you, feeling nothing but you…” I loose a groan, and cross the very short distance back to her, covering her mouth with mine. In seconds, I have my fist wrapped around my cock, just shoving my jeans down and out of my way. “Take me in, India,” I say.
 
 Plead.
 
 She reaches back and between us and guides me to her… into her.
 
 I hiss as I sink inside her pussy. It was just last night since we were together, and I’ve missed this. Missed that initial resistance then surrender. The wet heat. The vise-like grip. The firm suction. It’s the closest I’ve come to heaven. And if it’s hell, I don’t want my soul to be redeemed.
 
 Curving a hand around the nape of her neck, I press her forward and stroke my palm down her spine, cradling her hip. Staring down at the place where I’m lost, where I’m home, I draw back, watching how my cock glistens with her wet, feeling and hearing how her pussy reluctantly frees me. With a moan, I plunge forward, branding on my brain the sight of her taking me, swallowing me whole, just in case something happens and I can’t have this anymore.
 
 Over and over, I pull back only to drive forward, riding her, attempting to brand myself on her sex, her body, and her heart. With every thrust, every one of her muted cries, the lust whipping and tearing at me screams louder, threatening to rip me apart. I need to come, to let go. But not without her.
 
 Slipping a hand over her hip and between her hips and the arm of the couch, I rub a fingertip over her clit. She writhes against me, and I don’t let up, following her, circling, caressing… pinching.
 
 She goes off, exploding, her pussy clamping down on my cock, milking me, dragging my release from me. For several more strokes, I hold on, ensuring she receives all that she needs. Deserves. Then, on that last piston into her tight-as-fuck sex, I free fall after her.
 
 Knowing at the bottom, we’ll catch each other.
 
 10
 
 India
 
 “Iwish you could stay.” Asa’s low, rough murmur brushes my ear. “I want you to stay.”
 
 I glance over my shoulder, and though I left his bed not ten minutes ago, just meeting those dove grey eyes sets off sparks on kindling that’s always ready to be set aflame when I’m in this man’s presence.
 
 I want you to stay.
 
 For someone who’s been abandoned, denied, and betrayed, those words are pure temptation. My heart yearns to reach out for it, to trust it. But my head… my head that remembers every single time I’ve been left behind, that I’ve been devastated, warns me to be cautious.
 
 The simple truth is I’m afraid to trust Asa.
 
 With my body, my pleasure? To not physically hurt me or violate the boundaries I set? Yes. All day I trust him with those. But with my heart? The hope that keeps trying to climb in my chest and take root? No? For him, there isn’t a world where he can have both me and his friendship with Jessie. I don’t know if it’s possible either, but there’s a part of me that’s willing to find out. But Asa? Regardless of what he said last night—regardless of how he broke my chest open with hope—I still have zero doubts who will always be his first priority.
 
 Jessie. Not me.
 
 And I promised myself that I would never settle again. Never reduce myself so someone else could feel comfortable, important, or worthy, rendering me none of them.
 
 Yet…
 
 Yet, I want to stay.
 
 I want to believe.
 
 I want to be his.