Page 55 of Master of Lies

She just glares at me, her color high. Whoa, genius me. I’ve made it worse, getting her back up. I’ve made her cry, made her furious, made her vomit, but here she still is, dishing it right back to me. All up in my face. So fucking pretty. We’d both be a whole lot safer if she hated my guts completely.

And to that end…it was time to let my inner asshole come out to play.

“The way I see it, the only worthwhile thing you could possibly do right now would be the pull those pants down, turn around, and bend over,” I said. “Go ahead, Freya. If you’re so set on making yourself useful.”

Freya straightened and slid off the table, eyes blazing. She licked her lips. Her breath quickened as the air in the room caught fire. So did mine.

Now we were both turned on. Both actively thinking about it. There was too much heat between us to control. It vibrated, hummed. Made the air syrupy and heavy.

If she called my bluff now, I was toast.

CHAPTER21

Freya

Oh, that arrogant, filthy son-of-a-bitch. It infuriated me, that he could just flip my switch like that, with nothing but a smoldering glance and a few coarse words.

But my anger didn’t quench the fire one bit. It made it burn hotter. Which was embarrassing and dumb and dangerous. And I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.

I wanted to smack him into next week. I also wanted to knock him down onto his back, rip off his pants, and free up that gorgeous, stiff cock. Then I wanted to mount up and ride him in a long, hard gallop, straight into wild, screaming, throbbing completion.

My hands were clenching, my thighs squeezing, toes curling.

His face was a rigid mask, with streaks of color on his cheekbones, a muscle pulsing rapidly in his jaw. I’m glad he couldn’t hide his arousal. If I reached down between his legs, I was very sure he would not bat my hand away.

It came to me in a flash of sudden, visceral certainty, how he was trying to keep me out. Acting like a crude, entitled asshole to scare me away. Make me back down.

But I was past fear. I wanted inside his mind. I wanted to be sure of him, after all the data I had collected, which flatly contradicted his behavior the past couple of days. Risking his mission and himself to protect me, over and over and over, because he just couldn’t help himself, no matter what it cost him…that was the knee-jerk behavior of a heroic, righteous dude, the one I’d always believed him to be.

The one I desperately wanted him to be.

I needed to know. To get closer. To make him gasp and yell and beg for mercy.

Sex was the only way through his defenses. I’d felt the real Jed last night. I’d felt him this morning, too, when he’d kissed me after depositing me into the cliff cave. I had to find that man again. Running into this cold wall over and over…it was unbearable.

I pulled off my sweatshirt, brushing wild, electrified hair out of my eyes.

“Freya,” His voice was a menacing rasp. “I’m not in the mood for mind games.”

“It’s not your mind I want to play with.” I tossed the sweater away and then undid the clasp of my bra before sending that right after it.

“Don’t push me,” he warned. “I won’t be gentle.”

“Well, thank God for that. Neither will I. Finally, something we agree on.”

I unfastened my belt, let the oversized pants drop to the ground. Stepped out of them, jaybird naked, except for wool socks. The lumberjack nympho concubine vibe.

I straddled him and sat on his lap, my breasts right below his chin. Savoring the hot, angry color on his cheeks, the flash in his startled eyes.

And of course, that magnificent, hot, hard erection against my inner thigh. Excitement made my thighs clench around his. It was cold in the room, but I felt sweaty, feverish.

“Goddammit, Freya,” he muttered. “You just keep pushing and pushing.”

“So stop fighting, you rude, ungrateful brute.” I seized his hand and put it down between my legs, letting him feel hot, slick warmth between my pussy lips. “This is the part where you make up for your bad behavior by making me come.”

My words pushed him past some limit, and he made a rough sound and buried his face between my breasts. He sucked in my nipple, caressing it in his mouth with exquisite tenderness. The deep, delicate pull of his lips drew pleasure and wild magic out of me. I was full of it, an endless fountain of it.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, gasping for air. Desperate, shuddering breaths. I didn’t know what was so wonderfully different from other times I’d tried this. Jed did it perfectly right, as if my body were tuned to him, as if his lips had some enchantment that made shivers race wildly over my entire body. Every kiss and swirling stroke of his tongue lifted me, filled me with light. Sweet yearning, mixed with grace.

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