Page 102 of Tempt Me (Dark Odyssey 4)

“I never thought of you as a whore. That day I got mad, I got worked up like that because I don’t want anybody to see that side of me,” I tell her.

She stares at me for a long time, and I wonder what she’s thinking.

“What happened to her, Vincent?”

I glance down at the table and pull in a deep breath. “She… was killed. The same man who killed my eldest brother killed her too.”

Her full lips part as sorrow washes over her face. “Oh, Vincent…” she breathes. “I’m so sorry.”

“She was killed, and I wasn’t there to save her. I’ve felt guilt over that, but maybe saving her would have been me leaving her alone in the first place. She was the good girl and shouldn’t have been with a criminal like me. Getting married to the mob signed her death certificate. I did.” It’s coming out now, all that I feel and have felt.

She stands up and comes over to me.

Her beautiful eyes holds mine, and she lowers to sit in my lap, touching my jaw.

“No, you didn’t. It’s not your fault.”

Her telling me that, just like her words that day about the ballerinas, reaches somewhere inside me that wants to believe that. It wants to believe that it wasn’t my fault so I can move on.

Selfishness works its way through me, making me want to cling to her words and believe them.

I look at her now and think of the question I teased her with at The Dark Odyssey.

Why does she like me? She does, and I do like her too.

The initial reason was, there was something about her that reminded me of Sorcha, then that something became more and I wanted more.

As she lowers her mouth to my lips, it feels like we’re those people we talked about in the fantasy again, like I really could be that guy. The guy I pretended to be the other day when I went to the coffeehouse.

I slip my hand behind her head, angling her face so I can deepen the kiss and taste her desire for me.

I’m glad the door is closed because I’m taking her right here.

I get up with her and bunch her top so tightly her breasts squeeze together.

“I want you now. Take your clothes off.” I can’t hold back the need coursing through me.

She takes her clothes off layer by layer until she’s naked before me, naked and perfect.

“Is this what you want?”

“You know I do.” I’ve never spoken with such desire for her, never allowed her to see me and see how much I want her.

I indulge myself by reaching to cup her pussy. She’s wet and ready to be fucked. I like sliding my fingers into her. I like pulling down that wall she placed up so she wouldn’t feel for me.

“You’re wet,” I say, pulling out of her to lick of her juices coating my fingers.

“Yes.” That’s the first time she’s admitted that.

I turn her around and bend her over the table. While I watch her submit to me and obey me, I think of how I feel. Her body isn’t enough anymore.

I look at her and want everything.

But… she leaves in two weeks, and I know when she walks through that door, that will be it.

That will be all.

I don’t know what scares the shit out of me more: the fact that she found a way into my cold dead heart, or the fact that I’ve gone past wanting her.

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