Chapter 33
CHAPTER 33
Ivy
“I was looking for you, but then your neighbor said you were here, and—”
“You went to my house?” I interrupt.
He approaches. “I wanted to tell you—”
I raise a finger to interrupt him. “Please … don’t.”
“Ivy …”
My eyes tear up. “No. Get out.”
He raises a hand, the hurt on his face palpable. Visceral. Deadly to my own damn heart.
“I know what you’re doing here.”
“You only think you know,” I scoff.
“Please. You have to stop this,” he says, still getting closer and closer. “Before you get caught.”
“No.” My fists ball. “I need this money. You don’t understand how much I’ve already sacrificed.”
“Then tell me,” he says, still clutching that damn bouquet. “Please, let me help you.”
“Why would I trust you? Silas and Heath are your buddies. You made your choice,” I scoff. “You let them use you to trick me with marked money and force you to your knees to tell me you love me to fool me? So that you could fuck me too? What a cruel joke.”
“It’s not a joke,” he says, holding up the flowers in front of my face. “I have fallen in love with you. And I came to find you because I wanted to give these to you because I wanted to apologize.” He swallows, and it feels like my lungs cannot drag in the air I so desperately need. “I’m sorry,” he says. “I’m sorry for not telling you sooner. I’m sorry for betraying you. I’m sorry for taking part in their games. For making you confused, for—”
I slap him.
It only registers with me the moment a red mark appears on his face.
But then he leans in and pecks me on the top lip so gently it melts my heart. “Being obsessed. For making you feel something you don’t want to feel. For falling deeply, madly in love with you.”
More tears well up in my eyes, but it’s the gentle, soul-crushing smile on his face that kills me.
And I throw my arms around him and kiss him so hard we nearly fall, but he catches himself on the desk, dropping the bouquet on the floor.
Still, I don’t stop kissing him, pouring out all of my frustrations and needs into this one single kiss of desperation … desperation to feel like I’m not alone, like my desires matter. To feel loved. And here he is, offering it on a silver platter like he’s never wanted anything else than to please me.
How could I resist?
I’m still angry, still burning with fury over being used like a toy and seeing the one guy who made me think he cared to take part in it. But this boy has done something to my heart that neither of us can deny. And I’m done playing games, done feeling like I owe anyone an explanation for my wants and needs.
I kiss him with everything I have left in me despite my brain telling me I shouldn’t and my whole goddamn life being on the line. I kiss him because if I don’t, I will never remember how to breathe.
“Oh fuck …” he murmurs beneath that mask, still kissing me. “Ivy, please, you have to stop.”
“Why?” I ask.
He opens his eyes while kissing me. “Because I want you so badly, I can’t even fucking breathe.”
I smile against his lips. “I know that feeling. Don’t hold back,” I whisper.
His hands slide across my waist and cup my ass, and the groan that follows makes my body heat lightning fast.
How is it that he’s so easily wound me around his finger?
Suddenly, he spins me around, shoving me against the desk before kissing me all over my neck, my clavicles, my chest, and every inch of skin his lips roam across, as though he’s worshipping the mere presence of my body in his hands. And something about that is so damn sexy that I return the kisses with equal amounts of yearning, kissing and licking at his top lip until he shivers in my arms.
“I want you. I want you. I want you. I want you, I want you, God, I want you .” He says it so many times it almost feels like he’s reciting a mantra. “Can I have you? Please, can you be mine?” He’s whispering between kisses and touches filled with devotion, and even though I shouldn’t, I desperately want to believe him.
My hands move down his chest as he pushes my legs apart with his body, curling up the fabric of my dress. I slide my hands inside his pants until he gasps and moans at the same time when I grasp his dick. He’s already hard in my hands, and something about that makes me feel so damn good that I start jerking him off.
His lips claim mine with a ferocity he’s not yet shown before as he plops me down on the desk and fumbles at my dress in an attempt to get the zipper on my back down. When the zipper is finally released, he tears down my dress in one go and pulls off my panties, all while never taking his lips off mine.
His tongue rolls around mine as his fingers slip between my legs and coax out the wetness by rubbing me. He moans into my mouth when I rub him just as feverishly.
“You gotta stop me,” he murmurs between kissing me. “I can’t hold back.”
“You want me, don’t you?” I ask.
He nods, licking my top lip. “More than anything.”
His breath falters in his throat when I squeeze his shaft and then release him. “Then fuck me.”
He immediately grips my thighs, lifts my legs, and rips down his pants, ready to go.
CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!
Max abruptly stops, and we both turn our heads toward the sound, which came from what I thought was a bathroom door. But it turns out it opens into another bedroom instead, and the door just got slammed into the wood. A guy with a white mask on his face leans against the door opening, the tattoos and those familiar black tunnels in his earlobes immediately giving away who it is.
Heath Preston.
“Beautiful. Just fucking perfect.” Heath’s voice booms through the room.
“Heath?” Max mutters, swiftly pulling away from me.
“I’m impressed you managed to stop her from robbing them,” Heath says, still leaning against the doorjamb. “Or maybe she’s just distracting you so she can continue after she’s tied you up.”
“What?” Max says. “No. Of course not.”
I feel exposed and embarrassed because Heath’s eyes glide over my body like he’s savoring a meal he’s yet to consume.
“That’s not—What are you doing here?” I sneer, trying to compose myself as I get off the desk and pull my dress back up into place even though it won’t stay and keeps falling off my shoulders.
Heath tilts his head, his thumb brushing across his lip. “Oh, don’t stop because of me.”
“What do you want?” I ask. “Or did you just come here to humiliate me further?”
“No,” he responds, dark eyes darting to Max. “I saw him and wanted to confirm my suspicions.”
My eyes narrow. “Of what?”
“You, sneaking around to steal …” I swallow. “Him, still trying to profess his love to you after everything we’ve done.” He makes a tsk sound and shakes his head. “I’m disappointed in you, Max.”
Max pulls his pants back up, but they barely fit over his hard-on.
Heath pushes himself off the wood and casually walks to the couch to the right of us, flopping down with his legs spread open wide.
“Well, go on then … continue whatever you were starting there,” he says.
I frown. “Have you gone insane?”
A wicked smile spreads on his lips, and he chuckles. “Maybe I have … finally.”
I roll my eyes and push Max away. “I can’t do this.”
But the second I head for the door, a certain clicking noise stops me in my tracks.
“Don’t even think about it.”
“Heath, no!” Max yells, anger distorting his face.
My eyes connect with the barrel of a gun.
“You want to shoot me?” I seethe.
But instead of pointing it at me, Heath points it at Max. “Do you want me to shoot him instead?”
I immediately step in front of Max to protect him. “Fucking try, I dare you.”
Heath snorts. “So courageous, defending your boyfriend. It’s cute.”
“He’s not my boyf—”
“Then what is he if not the boy you just kissed like you were madly in love and wanted to fuck his brains out?” He pauses before adding, “You love him.”
A blush creeps onto my cheeks.
“You … do?” Max mutters behind me.
Heath snorts, contempt dancing in his eyes. “It’s obvious, and I feel so stupid not to have noticed it sooner that he wasn’t the only one falling.”
Max’s fingers find mine in the dark, and I swallow back the nerves.
“Why do you even care?” I ask.
He frowns and places the gun down on the couch armrest. “Why do I care?” he repeats, leaning forward while gripping the armrests. “Because you stole something from me that wasn’t yours to take.”
My teeth grind together. “I’m already paying for that dearly.”
“No,” he says through gritted teeth.
What is he talking about? I already gave them my body in exchange for the money I stole. What more could he want?
“You two want each other so badly? Then have at it.” He looks Max dead in the eyes. “Kiss. Her.”
Max swallows and steps out beside me. “Why?”
“Prove it to me. Show me you’re not lying. Show me … what it looks like,” Heath says, licking his lips.
Max tentatively nods at me while all I can do is glare at the gun on the couch.
“Relax, I won’t shoot …” Heath says, tilting his head. “But I can’t promise the guys out there won’t if they find out you were about to steal from them.”
Of course, another veiled threat. What else did I expect?
I sigh and look at Max, searching for answers, but he’s as much bound to them as I am. They use him like they use me. And I don’t want to see him hurt either.
Max grips my face and makes me look at him. “Don’t look at him. Look at me.”
His lips slowly collide with mine, pulling me away from the dangerous eyes watching me from the couch. His lips push mine apart as his tongue laps me up, licking and suckling at my lips to pry out my tongue, so I join him in this dance of sexual tension. And the more he kisses me, the harder it is to resist.
“Kiss me,” he whispers into my lips. “And I’ll make you forget about him just like I have.”
Just like I have? What does he mean?
Still, I kiss him back just as eagerly, roaming around his mouth with my tongue like my life depends on it. His moans suffocate whatever resistance I had left as his hands slip down my chest, fingers grazing past my nipples until they’re taut and desperate for him to touch.
I moan into his mouth, and he hardens against me once more, his kisses becoming more brazen while he grips my breast and squeezes.
His lips disappear down my neckline, and I tug at his waistband to lower his pants.
“Yes, that’s it,” Heath groans. “Make him want you. Desperately. To the point he can’t stand the thought of not being inside you right. Fucking. Now.”
I pull out Max’s hard-on and jerk him off because I must. Because I’m forced. Because … I want to.
I shudder against him, my lips trembling as I pause.
“Don’t think. Just fuck me,” Max whispers. “Wherever you want, however you want, I’m yours.”
I kiss him so hard I nearly forget Heath is even here. Suddenly, Max lifts me in his arms, cradling my ass, tearing down my dress again until nothing’s left to the imagination. And when he lowers me onto his shaft, I mewl with delight.
My legs curl around his body, and my feet hook together as he begins to move me up and down while holding me by my waist. His kisses are so soft and gentle, almost like a caress, and they twist me into knots that are impossible to unfurl.
He feels so good inside me as he whimpers with each thrust, almost like he can’t believe I’m in his arms and that he’s allowed to take me like this. And something about that makes me so fucking feral that I grab his hair, tilt his head back, and force my lips onto his like a crazed animal.
Suddenly, two hands slide up my back and around my waist as a set of lips land near the base of my neck, dragging a line up toward my ear. “That’s it, little thief … let yourself go.”
Heath’s tongue drags along my skin, coaxing out more moans while Max buries himself inside me deep.
“You take him so well,” Heath whispers, placing delectable kisses underneath my ear. “It almost makes me … jealous.”
Jealous? After everything he already took from me? What more could he want?
“Kiss him hard,” he whispers, his hands slowly sliding up to my breasts, squeezing them. “Let me see your undoing.”
The moment Max’s mouth lands on mine, I bite his lip in shock …
As another hard-on enters me.