Page 96 of Your Fault

“It’s not fair, you being the one crying,” he said a few seconds later.

“I’m crying because I can’t give you everything you want, and you’re going to wind up getting sick of me,” I confessed, stifling a sob in my throat.

I couldn’t stand seeing that I’d disappointed him. I wanted to go because if I didn’t, I’d break down, and I didn’t want to do that in front of him.

“I should go,” I said, wiping off my cheek with one hand and looking away.

I heard Nicholas draw a few deep breaths. Then he crossed the room and kissed me so intensely, I had to hold on to his arms to keep from falling.

“I could never get tired of you—not in a million years.” With that, he quickly pushed me down on the bed and got on top of me.

He kissed me again, and despite his gentle words, I could tell something was different about him. The way he touched me, the way he kissed me and took off my clothes were more like a struggle he was engaged in with himself than an act of love between the two of us. I’d hurt him when I left, and there were consequences for that. His kisses intensified, and soon his mouth was roving my neck and my breasts, finally arriving at my thighs.

“Nick…” I whispered.

Nicholas didn’t hear me; he was lost in my body, lost in kissing every inch of skin within reach.

“Shh…I don’t want to talk anymore, Noah.” He hushed me, taking off my panties and climbing between my legs. “We’ve already said all there is to say.”

When his lips met mine, I decided to forget everything.

I couldn’t sleep.

Nick was next to me breathing slowly, deep in dreams, squeezing me against him tightly. With his arms around me like that, I could barely move. I watched him sleep and felt a knot gather in my throat.

The night before had been so intense, both physically and emotionally, that I’d ended it destroyed. I went to the bathroom to wash my face and try to become a normal person again. When I looked in the mirror, I saw something that shocked me.

“I can’t believe it,” I said, furious.

I left the bathroom and walked over to him, enraged. He was awake and was observing me imperturbably from the bed.

“Why did you do this?” I asked.

Ignoring my question, he got up, put on a pair of sweatpants, and walked to the bathroom in silence.

“Is this how things are now?” I said, turning to see him gripping the side of the sink and letting his head hang. “You’re punishing me now?”

He looked up. “Oh, by kissing you, I’m punishing you?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t going to let him turn the tables like that. “You know I hate that, Nick. I don’t want to be marked. And you did it knowing I hate it. That just makes it worse. You’re an idiot.”

“And you’re a spoiled little baby. You need to understand everything can’t be the way you want.”

I laughed sarcastically. “Please! You’ve never heard the wordnoin your life. That’s why you’re punishing me, because I’m the first and only person ever to do it.”

Nicholas came close to me cautiously. “For me, you are the first and only one.”

But we both knew that wasn’t true.

“I’m sorry, okay?” he went on. “I got carried away in the moment, but can you please stop acting like I did something wrong? They’re just kisses…kisses from me.”

I sighed in frustration. I didn’t want to fight with him. I’d had enough the night before.

“What if it was you? Would you like it?” I asked.

“Are you kidding?” He forced a smile. “I love your lips. There’s nothing I’d like better than a mark that would remind me you had kissed me somewhere.”

I wasn’t convinced. “You’d let me leave a mark on you. How so?” I dared him.

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