Chapter 34 Tempt the Beast
TEMPT THE BEAST
LILAH
Islept with my fake to-be husband. And then I did it again and again all night long. Now I’m standing in a pretty room in a white dress. I can hear the clucking of Mom, Shana, Tara, and Madelyn on the other side of the curtain. I’ve tried on three dresses, three duds. Fourth time is the charm.
There’s a lump in my throat as I stare at my reflection in the mirror. The dress is elegant lace with a gently flowing skirt. It’s everything I’ve ever wanted from my wedding dress.
I ache now at the thought of marrying the man. I’ve been aching since I slept with him. There’s a sore heaviness in my heart, because I know this isn’t real and lasting like a marriage should be. I know he won’t give me that forever after I so desperately want.
The forever after that I so desperately want with him.
“Honey, show us the dress,” Mom calls from the other side of the blush pink curtain.
I’m about to tell her this isn’t the dress. That I hate it. It’s awful and I won’t wear it.
But there’s a lump in my throat threatening to cut off my air supply. For a moment, I can’t speak at all. Emotion becomes too much and salt stings my eyes.
It’s a moment too much for Mom. The curtain shifts and Mom is there.
The worried line between her eyes vanishes the moment she sees me. Her hands lift to catch her gasp. “Oh, baby.” She drops her hands to give me a shining smile. There’s salt in her eyes now too, for an entirely different reason. “Oh, this is the dress.”
I shake my head, but I still can’t speak. I’m helpless to fight the pull when Mom’s hand closes around my wrist. She tugs me from the room, and everyone gasps.
They coo and cluck over the dress, but I think Madelyn sees through it to the pain I do my best to bury deep. I can tell she wants to press, but she bites her tongue.
Instead, she asks, “Is this the dress?”
“It’s my dream dress.” A tear slips free.
Everyone mistakes it as a happy tear—a tear of overwhelm—but Madelyn reads it for what it is.
I’ll wear my dream dress to my fake wedding.
I’ll give another part of me to a man I’ll never get back.
I’ll give another piece of me to a man who gives me only fake in return.
I truly break down at that thought, my heart shattering in my chest. They think it’s emotional overwhelm, but Madelyn pulls me close, whispering, “You’ll survive. I promise, you’ll survive this.”
I get the dress. I suffer through lunch and the ride home in Shana’s car—she wouldn’t take mine, convinced that it’s not road worthy.
I’m exhausted by laughing when I wanted to cry. I’m spent from the smiles when I only wanted to hide. So, when Shana pulls into the drive and I see an SUV I don’t recognize parked beside Briggs’ truck, I sort of want to die.
Then my fake fiancé—whom I’m now sleeping with—steps out onto the front porch, looking utterly delectable in his boots and cowboy hat. I sort of hate that I know what he hides behind those snug jeans. That I know what he feels like inside me.
I hate it because I’m going to crave it until I take my very last breath, I’m certain.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” Shana asks gently.
I startle, tearing my eyes from Briggs. “Yes.”
“You feel a little fragile to me. You know I’m here if you need to talk about anything, right?”
I nod, but again I can’t seem to shove that frog from my throat.
“Briggs has a little surprise for you,” she tells me. “He’s very excited.”
I force a smile I know shakes before I exit her car to find my fiancé striding toward me. My heart gives a lurch inside my chest. His eyes drop to my lips. He frowns.
“How was your morning?” Is that concern I hear in his voice?
“It was good.”
His eyes scan my face like he can read the truth beneath my bright smile. Can he?
His eyes flick to his mom. I’m pretty sure I see a muscle pop in his jaw. “Everything go smooth?”
Shana fights a smile as she assures, “It did.”
His eyes come back to me. There’s a frown knitting his brow. “Did you find a dress?”
I nod, but Shana says, “It’s utter perfection. She loved it so much she cried.”
His eyes are soft as they search mine. “You cried?”
I brush it off. “Just a few tears.”
His eyes are still searching. He takes another step toward me. Crooking his neck, he asks low, “Is that why your eyes are red? You cried a few tears?”
“Okay,” I relent. “It was more than a few.”
“She’s going to make the most beautiful bride,” Shana tells Briggs as she heads toward the house.
She’s out of earshot when he murmurs, “She’s always beautiful.”
I don’t know why, after all we’ve done, that I blush when he says that. It’s ridiculous.
Briggs holds his hand out for me. “I have something for you.”
“What?” I narrow my eyes.
“Call it a wedding present.” He leads me away from the house and I figure he’s taking me to his truck when he stops beside the SUV. He opens the driver’s door and gestures inside.
I gape, first at the car then at him. “This?”
“Do you like it?”
“This is my wedding present? A car?” I swear, I’m speechless. This just doesn’t happen in my world. Briggs doesn’t happen in my world.
“It was delivered today.”
My brain is short-circuiting. “You’re joking.”
“I’m not.”
“Briggs, it’s a car.”
“It’s actually an SUV with a truck engine.”
I poke my head into the massive vehicle. “It has a lot of seats. I’m one person.”
He grins wide at me. “You want four kids.”
My ovaries do a happy dance.
I sputter. I thought I was speechless before but now…
“I—um—I mean…”
He laughs, rich and full. It strikes a cord deep inside me, the hum vibrating long past when it should. “Do you like it?”
“I can’t accept it.”
His smile falls. Goodness, he’s attractive even when he’s got that growly scowl.
“Yes, you can.”
I hold firm. “It’s too much.”
“You’re going to be my wife. It’s my job to ensure that what you drive is safe.”
My hands find my hips. “My car is perfectly safe.”
He mirrors me with his hands on his hips. “This is safer, Lilah.”
“It’s also expensive.”
He quirks a grin. “Women are expensive.”
I scowl. “I’m not marrying you for your money, Briggs.”
“Is that so?”
I flinch at his words, but there’s a smirk playing at his lips. I narrow my eyes. I’m too tender right now to spar with words, but I also can’t let him get the upper hand. Probably because I’m so tender.
“It was why I was marrying you.”
He folds his arms over his chest and leans into the side of the massive SUV. The thing might as well be a truck. He drawls, “And why are you marrying me now?”
“Your dick,” I blurt before I’ve thought it through. Then I run with it. “Good dick is hard to find and I’m not in the mood to search for better right now. Check back in an hour.”
There’s not a soul on this earth that could miss the dark look that passes through his eyes. He kicks off the vehicle to crowd me against the still open door. I hold my ground even though I feel both tender and excited. The emotions this man pulls from me are wild.
His pitch has turned from teasing to serious in a flash.
Goosebumps prickle my flesh, raising the hairs.
“The only dick you’re concerning yourself with is mine, little lunatic.
” He continues to crowd me until we’re nearly chest to chest. My head is tipped back, his forward. He’s so much bigger than me.
There’s a thrill in my belly. Gone is the tenderness of the day.
I’ll reacquaint myself with the sore heaviness in my heart later.
I lift my chin and taunt, “Is that so?”
“Do I need to remind you how much you like it?”
“Your mom is in the house.” I press my palm into the center of his chest, but I’m not really trying to push him away. “And there’s no storm to muffle the sound.”
Every muscle in Briggs’ body tightens. There’s a darkening in his eyes. A thunderstorm.
One moment, I’m standing against the open door of the SUV. The next I’m thrown over his shoulder. A shriek peals from between my lips as Briggs slams the door shut, striding fast in the direction of the barn.
I slap my palm into his back. “Put me down.”
“Quiet.” A sharp sting bites my ass at the clap of his palm. I shriek again.
“You’re going to pay for this!”
“Tell me again how you’re thinking of looking for other dick,” he growls low. “Give me a reason, little lunatic.”
“I’m not looking for other dick. Oh, my goodness, Briggs. It was a joke.”
He grips the back of my thigh with a hot, hard hand. I love that I can feel the rough nip of his callouses against the soft skin.
“It wasn’t funny.” He keeps walking. His strides are long and even.
I can’t help but laugh. “It kind of was. I mean—ahh!”
His hand is no longer gripping the back of my thigh, but it’s slipped up higher. So high I can feel the sweep of his fingertips against my panties. I stiffen. My distorted breaths turn painfully choppy.
“Who is laughing now?”
Neither of us, apparently. I can feel the bullish breaths billowing from him and I’m now a panting mess as he strokes me there long and slow. Oh my…
“Briggs,” I moan when a finger slips under the fabric to touch me. I squirm over his shoulder. “You’re going to drop me.”
“Then quit moving.”
“But you’re touching me!” I wail.
“I told you I don’t share, Lilah. You agreed to be mine.”
“I wasn’t serious.” I tense when a finger pushes between my slit.
He hisses between his teeth. There’s dark pleasure in the sound. “You’re wet.”
“Briggs,” I moan. I’m flushed everywhere. I’m not sure if it’s arousal or embarrassment. I think it might be both.
He slips a finger inside and I bite my lip to muffle a cry as he strokes me long and slow. “Sweet fuck, Lilah.”
He adds a second finger, stroking my walls until I feel tight and wound. His steps sound like thunder on the ground as the blood rushes to my head where I hang over his shoulder as he quite literally works me over.
Every step he takes, my body jostles on the digits he’s fucking me with. My walls contract around him, and I swear to heaven I’m going to come undone right here over his shoulder. I’m so close.
So…oh… “Shit!” I scream as he pulls his hand free.
I hear the rattle of a doorknob and Briggs walks me inside. I’m slung over his shoulder and then I’m flat on my back on his desk, legs hanging over the side.
I’m about to push myself up—to give him the what-for for getting me close to the edge only to stop—when I feel big hands shove up my dress.
His fingers hook the band of my panties, and he pulls them down my legs in one quick, swift movement.
Then I feel one hand on my belly, pinning me back to the desk as the other shoves my thighs open.
Then I feel hot wet cover my core. Sharp beard bites into my inner thighs.
A shriek of pleasure and shock sounds from the deepest, darkest depths of me.
Magma spills in my veins as Briggs groans.
The sound vibrates through the whole of me.
He sucks my clit into his mouth, swirling his tongue around the button before he releases me with a pop.
He growls low, “I’ve been dying to taste you.”
I don’t get a chance to form words before he robs me of them with his mouth back on my center.
He sucks and rolls and fucks me with his tongue before he drags the tip of his tongue back up to my clit.
He plays with me there, flicking and nipping and soothing the nips with hard, hot sucks that have stars winking behind my vision.
He pulls me to the edge before yanking me away only to drag me, unwilling, back to the brink.
My mind spins. My heart riots. There’s a dip and flutter in my belly. An empty ache in my core.
“Please,” I beg, my hand drifting down to sink in his hair. “Please…”
He rumbles a dark laugh against me, and then he sinks his hands into my inner thighs, spreading me impossibly wide for him.
I’ve never been like this for a man. I’ve never had a man want me like this.
I don’t know—
Do I like this? I feel vulnerable and…
He drops his mouth back down, covering me with a blazing hot tongue before he sinks it deep inside me, flicking up and stroking long. All thoughts of vulnerability vanish in the promise of intense pleasure.
I’m so close, my thighs quiver and my core pulses. I cry out and he pulls away.
My cry turns into a murderous shout. I’m going to kill him.
“Why?”
He chuckles, deep and dark and deadly. My eyes snap open to the sound of his buckle in time to watch as he pulls his length free.
His jeans still hug his hips and he’s still wearing his shirt.
I must have flicked off his hat on the walk over here, because his hair is a wild mess from my fingers. He’s sinfully sexy.
My eyes drop to his cock. It’s hard and long and thick. Veins line the length and there’s a wet drop of precum on the angry red tip.
My eyes lift to find his are already locked on me. “When you come, you come with me inside you.”
That’s all he says before his hands are at my hips and he’s slamming home inside me.
He fucks me like a monster let loose from his cage. A man deprived of the only thing that feeds him.
He fucks me like a man possessed, and I scream when I finally shatter around him. Another piece lost forever to the devastation of us.
I guess this is what happens when you tempt the beast.