Page 61 of Deadly Sacrifice

She doesn’t finish that sentence. I blink at the door for a moment too long, trying to make sure I really heard her. Then I’m on my feet and rushing across my room. Swinging open the door, I find Prudence turning like she’s about to walk away. When she looks at me, her eyes are red and tears are running down her pale, freckled cheeks.

I know I’ve hurt her. I know I’ve pushed her further than any decent guy would. I know that I have no right to feel angry on her behalf, to want to go down there and fight whoever the fuck did this to her. But that’s exactly how I feel as she bites her trembling lip and tries to wipe her eyes dry.

“What happened?” I ask, my voice low and lethal.

Prudence shrugs one shoulder, blowing out a shaky breath. “Griffin, um… He, uh, he made me—“

I step forward, cupping her cheeks and cutting her off so she doesn’t have to keep stumbling over her words. I get the picture. Enough of it, anyway. He’s been in a shitty mood all week, and I could tell something was getting ready to implode. I search her eyes, asking softly, “Why come to me?”

She breathes out this sad, lifeless laugh, shaking her head like she thinks she’s finally lost her mind. Join the club, baby. “Maybe you’re not the bad guy. Not in my story,” she whispers as more silent tears track down her face.

I offer her a crooked grin, smoothing my thumbs over her wet cheeks. “What can I do to make it better?” I ask, repeating the words I said when I found her crying on campus weeks ago.

Prudence sucks in a slow breath, holding my gaze as she lifts her hands and holds onto my wrists like a lifeline. “I want… I want you to take it away. Use me. Hurt me. I don’t care. If… If it’s all I’m good for, I just want to get rid of it already.”

I frown, searching for the meaning behind her words, but the only thing that makes sense right now is the way she’s leaning into me and asking me to help her. It’s all that matters. “Are you sure?” I rasp, using my thumb to tilt her chin up so that our mouths are only inches apart.

She nods, looking from my eyes to my lips. “Please,” she whispers, stretching up to her tiptoes and pressing her lips to mine in a cautious kiss.

But that just won’t do.

If she came to me to drown out everything else, then we’re not doing this gently. She knows who I am. That’s why she’s here.

I’m nearly feral as I lift her into my arms and slam her back against the wall beside my open door. When our tongues tangle, I let loose a deep, rumbling groan. It’s like I’ve finally found nirvana after years of searching. Not to sound like some broken, sad child, but fuck, she chose me. Someone in this word finally fucking chose me. Even if she came here for the pain I deliver, she came of her own free will.

I’m lost in the sharp flavor of vodka and cherries on her tongue. Refusing to pull away for even a second, I blindly fumble around to close the door behind us. I bite her lip until I taste blood and she whimpers into my mouth, burying her fingers in my hair and pulling. I finally break away from her lips with a hiss of delicious fucking pain, walking her across my room and dropping her back onto my bed.

I’m not wasting time here. I’ve been hard for this girl since the first day of class, and the comment she made when we met — ten minutes of lack luster sex — is just begging to be proved wrong. My hungry eyes sweep down the length of her body and then back up to her beautifully parted lips and sunburst eyes. I reach for the hem of her shirt, intending to pull it off, but her hands snap out and stop me.

Prudence furrows her brows. “Can you turn the lights off?” she asks meekly as a crimson blush rises up her chest and neck.

“You’re just full of bad ideas tonight, aren’t you?” I tease, going for her shirt again, but she stops me once more. Arching my brow, I say, “No, baby, I’m not turning the lights off. I want to see you.”

“But I don’t—“ she starts, stopping with a gasp when I roll my eyes and tear her shirt open. She slaps her arms over her abdomen, trying like hell to cover her body.

I tut in disapproval, smiling as I climb onto the bed with my knees bracketing her thighs. I lean over her and murmur, “What are you trying to hide, Ember?” Wrapping my hands around her wrists, I pry her arms out of the way and look down her body. And then I freeze.

Prudence is breathing heavily, her eyes slammed shut. “You don’t have to keep going, I know—“

I lean down and steal the words from her mouth, dipping my tongue in to tease hers while I smooth my palm down the side of her ribs until my thumb brushes the old scar there. It’s long and jagged, but faded enough to tell me it happened years ago. It starts next to her belly button and trails across her stomach to her hip, disappearing below her jeans.

“You’re fucking beautiful,” I murmur against her lips.

Another tear slips from her eye, dripping down her temple and getting lost in her fiery hair. She gives a small shake of her head. “I’m not. I’m scarred; that isn’t the only one. I’m not beautiful or sexy or alluring. I’m damaged,” she chokes out.

I frown, sitting up to make sure she hears me right. “You’re real. You’re a survivor. And that’s the most gorgeous thing anyone can be in this world.“ She still doesn’t look convinced, so I slide off the bed and kneel at the edge of it, pulling her closer to me until her feet dangle a foot from the floor. I hold her gaze as I undo the button and zipper of her jeans and then slowly pull them down her perfectly thick thighs.

“Wait, um. Creed, I’m a...” she mutters as I toss her jeans in a pile behind me.

I hook my finger into her black panties and drag those down next while I ask, “You’re what, baby?” Leaning in, I lick a teasing path up her inner thigh, stopping before I reach her bare pussy to bite the soft, marked skin of her hip.

“I’m, uh…” she pants, swallowing roughly and lifting her other leg, resting it over my shoulder while I love on her scar a bit more. “I’m ready. I need this,” she breathes out, fisting her hand in my hair and guiding my head away from her hip and down between her spread thighs. “Fuck me,” she demands, and goddamn if my dick doesn’t nearly burst through my jeans at those words.

Groaning, I bury my face in her pussy, sucking on her clit before dropping down and licking up her arousal. She whines and pulls me back up to focus on her clit, rolling her hips to chase the exact friction she needs. Fuck. I’ve decided; this is the woman I want to marry. She knows what she wants and she’s not afraid to shove me around to get it. Yes, please. I stay right there, circling and sucking and biting her clit until the last of the tension drains from her muscles.

Prudence snaps her trembling thighs closed, squeezing my head between them while she lets out a low, desperate moan. Some guys would take that as a sign of being done. They’d back off and get to work on their own pleasure. Those guys would be morons. I work harder, swirling my tongue with an eagerness that I hope she feels, until her back arches off the bed and she screams out her release.

The sound of my name rolling off her tongue in the throes of passion is my new favorite thing in the entire fucking world.

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