Chapter 1 #3
I whimpered into his mouth as he let go of my jaw and dropped his hand to my ass, kneading the skin peeking from the hem of my shorts roughly.
The pressure pushed my pelvis forward, and I could feel the length of his hardened cock against my stomach.
I’d seen Phoenix in the shower once and knew he was enormous down there.
Whenever I touched myself, that’s what I thought about.
The muscle was like steel, and the theory that I had caused that to happen gave me confidence as I rubbed myself against it.
Phoenix made an animalistic noise of pleasure against my mouth and then drew back. “Fuck yeah.” Grinding against me.
I panted, trying to catch my breath as Phoenix rested his forehead against mine.
My eyes opened. The room was still in darkness, and Phoenix’s eyes were closed. I could sense the raw lust vibrating from his entire body.
So, he doesn’t see you as a child anymore. He wants you like a man wants a woman.
And then his next words were like a punch in the stomach.
“I need to fuck you raw, Court.”
Court!?
And the bottom of my world. Fell away.
The fact that Phoenix had dragged me into his bedroom, believing me to be Courtney Duck-Face Swan, made me feel physically sick.
Twisting my wrists free from where he still held them against the door, I placed my hands on his shoulders and pushed hard.
“Wrong, on every fricking level,” I snarled.
He wobbled back a step, his eyes flying open, and then a mixture of expressions swam across his face. Probably realisation that he’d fucked up in the worst possible way, coated with confusion. And that hairline crack across my heart split further.
It took him several seconds to compose himself, if you could call his following reaction that.
“Harper? What the hell are you doing?” he snarled. I had tasted the whisky on his tongue, but he didn’t appear that drunk.
“Me? You’re the one who dragged me in here like a rutting beast,” I whisper-shouted, placing a hand on my chest, attempting to regulate my breathing. My breastplate was rising and falling at double the speed.
Cursing viciously, my foster brother dragged a hand through his hair. “I clearly thought you were someone else,” he rasped, moving one muscled arm to flick the switch on the wall beside my head.
Yeah, no shit, Sherlock.
I squinted as that intense glow covered our bodies.
When I saw him in the light, he didn’t look as angry as his tone suggested.
Phoenix’s poker face was always tough to read.
Put it this way: if he hadn’t rasped her name out loud, I would have thought he was lying with his I thought you were someone else excuse.
Courtney and I were nothing alike, physically, and mentally.
“Maybe you should check before you force yourself on someone next time.” The fact that Phoenix looked uber hot in faded jeans and a gray wife-beater wasn’t helping my recovery.
At my reproach, his usual mask slipped into place, covering his earlier expression.
Those mouthwatering tattoo-covered biceps rippled moodily as he glared back at me.
“Why the fuck didn’t you stop me then?” he rasped, cracking his knuckles and then rubbing the back of his neck.
Don’t let him see how upset you are. Fight back, attack, attack!
“Wild horses couldn’t have stopped you,” I hissed, genuinely pissed off that I was getting the blame for his loss of control; men and their unreasonable, dumbass logic.
“You still should have said something?” Phoenix grunted, dragging a hand over his face. He was now blatantly agitated.
“Pretty difficult with my mouth full of your tongue,” I pointed out, punching him on the arm.
“Easy Thumper,” he grumbled, rubbing where my silly girly blow had struck. I hated that he used his old nickname for me under such circumstances. “And don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy it,” he added before getting in my face. “You were with me all the way, baby girl.”
I drew back, feeling threatened, not physically but emotionally. He had hurt me again. Phoenix had been known to reduce me to tears on several occasions. And he fed on that shit like the sadist he was.
No matter how I fought it, he still had the power to destroy me.
“What can I say? You’re experienced and clearly know your way around a woman’s mouth.”
“What?” he choked out, as surprised as I was by my words.
“Maybe I thought you were someone else,” I batted back spitefully. Yeah, right? Like anyone could mistake Phoenix for another man.
Still, the big guy didn’t like that. “Bullshit,” he growled, rolling his massive shoulders aggressively.
I tipped my chin up. “Look, you took me by surprise, that's all.” I knew I needed to calm him down. An angry Phoenix wasn’t a good Phoenix.
“I took you by surprise? You were climbing me like a tree, Harper. It’s a good job that I pulled away when I did. What’s the matter, run out of batteries?”
That comment yanked the tail of my tiger.
“You’re a pig,” I volleyed back, as understanding of his meaning hit me. I didn’t even own a vibrator, so he was way off.
“A pig that gets you off, clearly,” he smirked. Phoenix had one of those smug types of smiles that made you want to slap his face and jump his bones at the same time.
Not denying it, I smoothed back my hair with my fingers and cut him a look. “I didn’t mean during the kiss. That was fine. I’m talking about your behavior after it.” I was attempting to be the adult I wasn’t.
He made a rumbling noise in the back of his throat before grabbing my bony bicep and dragging me into him. “The kiss was fine? What the fuck does that mean? Are you saying you’re happy I kissed you?”
The confusion on his face seemed genuine, which was a good sign. I needed to be careful not to reveal my secret.
And what was that?
My secret was that no matter how bad the prick treated me, I still couldn’t get enough of him.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. My head jerked back as Phoenix dropped my arm like a hot rock.
“Phoenix?” came the shrill voice.
Are you kidding me? A pulse of something sharp and territorial thrummed through me before I masked it and glared up at the big, clueless lug in front of me.
I didn’t miss what appeared to be a flash of disappointment and wondered if that was because we’d been interrupted.
I didn’t take it personally. Phoenix got off on fighting, both physically and verbally.
“It sounds like your meal’s arrived,” I snarked in a hushed voice. It was probably for the best before I gave myself away. I’d be six feet under before I’d let him know how I really felt. Phoenix already had too many girls blowing smoke up his ass, the conceited ape. I refused to be one of them.
“Ready or not, here I come.” The way Courtney said the word ‘come’ was pure, unadulterated smut.
God, I hated her now. That came about after I’d heard Hudson telling Micah and Reed that she’d sucked Phoenix off in the girls’ restrooms only hours after her boyfriend, Maxwell, dumped her last year.
And now he intended to fuck her raw. Going bareback with any of the cheerleaders was dick suicide, surely?
The realisation that Phoenix was only minutes away from getting laid in my house made me want to hurl.
The handle rattled, and the door started to move inward. Phoenix rammed a hand beside my head, pushing it closed again.
“Just a sec,” he called out, his voice booming in my ear.
I twisted my head away from his armpit, stating in a hushed voice, “You might want to wrap it before you tap it. Everyone knows Courtney Swan is a walking STD.”
The distaste on my face must have been clear, as Phoenix had the sense to look uncomfortable.
I folded my arms over my meagre chest as he moved his arm and raised a finger to his lips, telling me to keep quiet.
It had always amazed me how quickly Phoenix’s face could switch from passionate and wild to an emotionless void.
“Keep your mouth closed or I’ll do it for you,” he threatened as he lowered his hand from his lips.
“Who are you talking to?” Court, as he’d nicknamed her, said. How high was her stupid ass voice? An image of me popping one of her fake tits jumped into my mind.
“No one,” Phoenix barked back, but then added. “Err, I’m just on call with Micah. Give me a minute.”
“Okie dokie, big boy,” the silly bitch slurred.
And I decided it was payback. How dare he kiss me like that and make it seem so real when all along he was imagining I was that skank?
Nothing about the girl was real. I’d heard Josh Sanderson say that Courtney’s lips felt like you were kissing a plastic straw.
That’s fillers for you. She also had the brain capacity of a fucking peanut.
My expression must have suggested that I was plotting something, as Phoenix shook his head and wagged his finger as my sinister smile spread.
Maybe I could make a few sex noises, and she’d realize someone else had claimed her prize; the gullible little shrew.
You are not and will never be exclusive.
Phoenix Carter doesn’t know the meaning of the word monogamy.
I took a deep breath, but before any sound could leave my lips, Phoenix shoved his palm over my mouth.
The blurted noise was trapped, and I flinched as he lowered his head to speak against the cuff of my ear.
He wasn’t hurting me, but he wasn’t being gentle either.
One of my hands curled around his wrist.
“You make any sound that screws this up for me, and you take her place. So, if you’re not up for sucking my dick, I’d say shut the fuck up,” Phoenix whispered into my ear.
OMG, did my foster brother just say what I thought he did?
Again, another image fluttered into my thoughts. It involved me on my knees, and well, I don’t need to supply you with the rest of that picture. It still made my sex throb.