Chapter Twenty-Two Larissa
Chapter Twenty-Two
LARISSA
TYLER UNZIPS THE tent and steps in, the small amount of firelight outside, along with the flicker of a lamp, outlining his tuxedo-clad body.
The air about him is far more sinister than when he left, conveniently matching mine since I learned of Julien’s true station.
The anger I’ve been suppressing since is within reach as I lift to sit and greet him.
“Have a good night?” I ask as he pulls his duffel from the floor without replying. Turning to leave, he stops short before craning his head back towards me.
“Julien just made it a point to tell me that you’re versatile with the use of both your hands, so maybe I should be asking you.”
Unable to help my smile, I stand and stalk toward him dressed in his Henley and his sweats, which I rolled down to rest on my hips.
“Careful,” I whisper, “you sound jealous. We simply played a few games that required a little skill.”
“I don’t get jealous. That’s a child’s emotion, or one for men in love—I’m neither.
And with you, the games are no surprise,” he snarks as I grip his bowtie.
Feeling his eyes on my profile, I’m in the midst of unraveling it when the unmistakable scent hits me.
Keeping my nostrils from flaring, my simmering blood threatens to boil as I place it.
“Chanel,” I name, lifting my eyes to his.
“I would know that fragrance anywhere. One of my mother’s favorites. Classic.”
He gives me nothing in his expression, his posture tight as I slowly coil his bowtie in my palm like I did his tie on his balcony. A similar interlude that seems like a lifetime ago. “Tell me, did fucking whomever she was get me out of your system?”
Fire thrumming in my veins, I push off his jacket, and he allows it as I start to undo his shirt buttons, eyes not leaving his as I lick my lower lip. “Did it work?”
Shirt undone, the light flitters over every part of his insane build beneath.
The linen giving way to the line of ridged bumps leading down to his trim waist. Running my hands over his pecs to push off his shirt, I glide them down his arms, leaving the shirt hanging at the cuffs, before running my palms over his stomach to his belt.
The heat in his voice covers me as he speaks. “I’m no fucking martyr.”
His confession, as if he were speaking to someone else, gives me pause. “Who would be idiot enough to think that of you?” I ask, unfastening his belt.
“Are you really going to try and make this more fucking complicated?”
“What’s complicated? Even if I loathe you—which, make no mistake, I fucking do—I can admire the way you look in and out of a tux.” I slowly pull his belt free, holding both ends in my hand. “And you didn’t answer the question.”
His gaze scorches my profile as I undo the button of his slacks, unable to help my victorious smirk. “Your silence is damning, Marine. The fact that you couldn’t fuck me out—”
He presses two fingers between my parted lips before thrusting them into my mouth, coming close to gagging me as he silences my tongue.
I smile around them before sucking them as he cups the back of my head, dipping to run his nose along mine.
I smell it then, the hint of whatever he was drinking, and can’t help but further my grin as he presses his fingertips in, purposefully gagging me a second time.
Instinctually, I wrap my lips around him as we stare off.
His eyes roam my face freely before fixating on the stretch his fingers cause as he briefly flexes them.
Eyes flaring, he starts to ease his fingers in and out of my mouth, massaging my tongue as a heavy pulse begins to beat between my legs.
My attraction to him rivals my contempt, but contempt wins as I bite down on his fingers. Cursing, he pulls them out of my mouth, shaking them furiously as I step back and score the belt as hard as I can across his bare chest. “You fucking bastard, you sent your fucking henchman to me!”
His eyes flare in surprise, but only briefly, before he rushes me, jerking the belt from my grip.
“You were going to let him kill me!” I roar, rearing back as he grips my arms, refusing me any chance of striking him a second time.
“Yes, I fucking was,” he hisses. “Too bad he didn’t see fit to save me the burden!”
I shake my head in disbelief as my rage threatens to blind me. “Fuck you! My life is just as fucking meaningful as yours!”
“You sure you believe that?” he snaps. “You’re so flippant about dying and aren’t doing a fucking thing to ensure your value to my club. A club that you threaten every day you keep this little fucking grudge against me, all for not wanting to play with you!”
It’s then that I tilt my own head and study his impenetrable expression, reading his intent just the same. “You wanted to scare me, again. Jesus, that’s all it was.”
“No, it fucking wasn’t. I don’t play games, because I don’t have time for them. And that’s all you are to me now, Larissa—a time suck I can’t fucking afford.”
Jerking myself free of his grip, I step up to him, rage lacing my words.
“Liar,” I snap. “The truth is that you’re too much of a pussy to deal with me yourself.
Too afraid I might get close enough to cut you back, to draw blood, like I did today.
Talk in circles all you want, dead man, but my days of believing the lies you tell yourself are over.
That’s why Julien spared me—because he senses it.
You fear me because you feel it when we’re together.
You’re just too much of a fucking coward to admit it. ”
“You’re delusional, and your judgment is fucking laughable.”
I lift my chin. “Prove it.”
He glares down at me, an edge in his eyes that I’ve never seen. He tilts his head menacingly as he considers me, anger just beneath the scorching heat emanating from him.
“Want to play?” His tone sends a chill up my spine just before he kicks the lantern and it pops out with a spark, leaving us in the pitch black. “Then, by all means, Larissa. Let’s. Fucking. Play.”
Inching back slightly to view my opponent, I make out his heavily firelit silhouette as I bat away all emotion, mentally arming up for whatever battle he’s decided we’re already engaged in.
In an instant, he’s gripping my hair and thrusting his bitten, bleeding fingers back into my mouth.
The metallic taste coating my tongue as I greedily suck.
Hunger sparks everywhere in his expression as he thrusts them in and out, and I angle my head to take them in deeper.
Cursing, he buries them to his knuckles as if testing the waters, testing me.
I open my throat, taking them easily as I swirl my tongue around what I can.
An animalistic growl sounds from his throat as he dips, running his nose along mine, keeping our gazes connected in the dark as he draws me into him.
Towering over me, shoulders tight, the air around him charging as I edge toward the darkness shrouding him, threatening to pull me under.
Determined to keep control, I smirk around his fingers as a very detectable threat surfaces in his eyes.
Unable to help the goosebumps that mar my skin, they explode to life along my neck and chest as the energy between us ramps up.
The static firing between our chests sets me alight, and I successfully hold my gasp at its arrival.
In a matter of mere seconds, it’s all there.
Every exchange we’ve had, every look, every touch, and every whisper through the dark now permeating the air.
The tension grows impossibly thicker as he pulls his soaked fingers out before faintly skimming my nose with his again.
His lips brush mine as he speaks. “I don’t lose, Larissa. Ever.”
“From what I know—which I admit isn’t much—sex is pretty fucking simple. If we do it right, we both win.”
He shakes his head as he releases me suddenly, and I damn near stumble back as he doles out his order. “Go to bed.”
“Boring,” I retort, turning to do exactly as ordered. “You are so fucking boring, Tyler.”
He turns on a dime and jerks my arm, pulling me flush to him. “I will use you,” he spits venomously. “I will use your body and treat whatever happens as if it’s nothing, because that’s what it will mean to me, fucking nothing.”
“I’ll use you right fucking back. You flatter yourself that I’ll, what, fall in love with a soulless dead man?
” I step forward, all too ready to poke the bear.
Brimming with the darkness I’ve long battled to leash, I allow it to coat my insides slightly.
Long heartbeats extend between us as his eyes bore into mine.
Adrenaline spiking, I feel his opposition, his venom, along with his inner struggle as he dares me to engage him.
Knowing he needs one last push, I summon up any excuse.
“What did I tell you would happen if you touched me again in anger?”
His lips lift at the corners. “I’m not angry.”
“No?” I slap his smirk away, my palm stinging as I step up to him. “How about now?”
In one swift move, my hair is fisted again before he takes both my lips between his teeth and bites down.
In the next second, I’m clawing his chest to the point I know it’s painful.
The strain in his body emanates from him, his restraint slipping as I lean in and trail his lush lower lip with the tip of my tongue.
My own lips pulsing from his bruising bite.
“Hmm, I can’t taste her, Marine.”
Sinking to my knees, I start with the button of his pants. He stares at me, seemingly unaffected, as I unleash his massive cock. Just before my knees touch the ground, he tightens his hold on my hair to make it painful. A reminder.