Page 17 of The Almost One

“You realize those words have the opposite effect, right?” I’m looking around, wondering if I should have brought my gun with me.

“Yes, but still. This is going to feel so good. I promise.” I groan again because cock in pussy still isn’t on the menu, apparently.

“The only thing that’ll feel good is—” She places her index finger on my lips and frowns.

“Do not finish that sentence, Marco. I’m trying to be good here.”

“Let me reassure you,”—I kiss the pad of her finger then suck it into my mouth before biting the end—“you are at your best when I’m fucking the sass right out of you.” River’s only answer is a growl, bared teeth and all, before she turns, offering me her perfect profile, and does the last thing I expect her to do.

She screams.

Like, full on someone-is-trying-to-murder-me-in-a-Halloween-movie scream. Immediately, I scan the entire area to make sure cops aren’t going to descend on me and throw me in jail.

“What the fuck, River?” I whisper-yell, my hand flying to her mouth to quiet her down. It’s as I’m doing it that I realize my action could be misconstrued if anyonedidshow up to save my Little Miss Trouble.

Pulling my hand down, she turns to me and grins.

“I swear, it feels so good. All the stress just flies away.” In this very moment, under the high beams of the crescented moonlight, River looks so young. So hopeful. She looks like the carefree girl she should have grown up to be.

My heart constricts knowing my world very nearly destroyed her world. I may not have killed her parents, but someone did. Someone who wanted her dead too.

Someone who is still gunning for her.

“Try it. I promise, it’ll help.” Her hands rest on my chest, her fingers curling around my shirt and pulling me to her so she can whisper dirty words to me. “I’ll deepthroat you right here and now if you do it.”

I grin, shaking my head at her because she knows exactly how to get her way.

Little Miss Trouble, indeed.

“Fine.”

She squeals. Fuckingsqueals,like I’ve given her the best birthday gift imaginable.

Facing the same stand of trees she did, I take in a deep breath and, before I can think better of it, let out a cry that makes the small animals scatter.

In that moment, I empty myself of my frustration. My worries. My responsibilities.

I exorcise my sins and my lies, the truths I’m withholding vanish into the darkness, and my head clears for a brief second in time.

Just as my lungs burn with the lack of oxygen, I lean forward—my hands on my knees—and heave in breath after breath.

“So?” Shaking my head at my eager little wife, I turn to face her before rising to my full height. My lungs burn like they’ve run a marathon and my heart feels like it’s about to burst wide open.

“Is this the part where I admit defeat?” I have her in my arms again, my hand splayed across the small of her back, when she closes the already tiny space that separates us.

“No, silly. This is the part where you trust that I’ll always have your back.” Staring at her, utterly lost in her depths, especially with the dim lighting out here, I try my best to keep this moment sacred.

“Is that right?”

“Yes, Mr. Mancini. You don’t have to be some kind of titan. I’m a badass bitch with large shoulders and great ideas.” Pushing her chin up with my thumb, I tilt my head enough to lick a path through her parted lips and delve deep into her mouth for a mind-blowing kiss.

Her arms circle my neck, her entire body molded to mine as my cock recognizes that I might just get my wish tonight—outdoors and by the light of the moon. It feels symbolic or something, like her witchy ways have seeped into my soul.

River moans and I swallow her sounds, take them deep inside myself, when my phone rings and utterly destroys all my filthy plans with my wife. I can’t ignore it, not with my entire family at the hospital and my father recuperating from a massive heart attack.

“You should get that.” My wife, always thinking of others.

“Lina, is everything okay?” I lick my lips, savoring the taste of my queen as I rub my thumb across her mouth.

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