Chapter 46
ELIJAH
What am I doing?
The voice in my head screams. Louder and louder as Finley’s hand traipses from my stomach to my chest. Coiling around the unbuttoned collar of my shirt while Jayden presses her flush to me.
His mouth devouring hers with the same frantic grit that aches in my bones. His hand grips her throat tighter like all the sensation and emotion coiling around my insides.
And he’s close.
So fucking close, I can feel his energy encapsulating me. Pulling and gnawing at my awareness because all I need is for him to look at me the same way Finley is.
And she’s closer.
He wants you like I want you.
Yearning glows in her eyes with every swipe of Jayden’s tongue over her lips as he possesses her mouth without trepidation. He takes and she gives.
Perfectly.
Beautifully.
Freely.
Freedom suddenly means so much more than safety. It’s the ability to give every part of you. The possibility of caring for who you want, how you want. The chance to fall, knowing that even if you crash-land, you are not alone.
I’m so tired of being alone.
My hands grip her hips tighter. With my fingers digging into her soft flesh while she whimpers and moans. The urge to pull them to me and devour every single sound they’re making overwhelms me.
He’s in love with you.
The voice grows louder and louder. Until my insides are bulging with the need to howl their madness into the feverish air.
Finley’s body rocks into mine. Our chests colliding with each inhale. Our torsos rubbing with every move.
Midnight eyes widen with a guttural gasp as Jayden bites down on her lip, his teeth yanking at the mouthwatering fullness as though she’s too delicious for him not to drag the moment out.
Then he presses his glistening lips to her ear, his stare meeting mine. My entire body rocks with the shiver that rolls down my spine. Clenching my stomach with the unfettered desire blazing in his eyes with every word he whispers in Finley’s ear.
I know what he wants before she makes a move.
I know it because I want it, too.
So desperately that my heart threatens to jump out of my chest when she tugs herself into me. Her lips ghost mine with the whisper of the peach hard seltzer she’s been drinking and the mint and lime of Jayden’s mojito.
My hands hike up to her waist, clinging on for dear life, when her eyes flicker to mine, pulling me under her lust-soaked spell.
“You want this, right?” She asks.
More than my next breath. More than another second of life.
Warm, trembling hands mold to either side of my face as she searches my face for an answer.
“It’s okay if you don’t, Eli.” The tip of her nose nudges mine lightly. “I’ll still love you. Even if you don’t want me, I’ll always love you. Forever.”
The words hit me like a sucker punch, leaving me winded and incapable of saying anything in return. But all the noise fades into nothingness.
The world melts away.
All that’s left is me, her, and him.
I’ve never wanted the way I do right now. Never needed anything the way I need to taste her now. To drink in her Jayden-tinged breaths. Devour the lips that he abused.
It’s all I can do as I yank Finley all the way into me. My mouth crashes with hers. Teeth knocking together with desperation as I wrap my arms around her and feel Jayden’s heat coursing through me with the eagerness of my pulse rushing through my body.
Awakening all my senses. Fuzzing all my fears… the past.
Finley tastes so fucking perfect with his kiss ripe on her tongue. Sweet, strong, and so damn addictive, I can’t stop myself from crushing her whole body to mine. Savoring every whimper that vibrates from deep in her chest, sucking it into my lungs until everything aches and burns.
It’s never enough. Not the bite of her nails into my nape or the bruising force of our lips working together with more greed than I can restrain.
“Eli,” Finley moans over my lips when my hips buck into her, my painful bulge throbbing from the friction when she grinds deeper into me.
Jayden’s grip on her hips presses into me so hard that I feel every knuckle along with the hiss of his breaths when his mouth puckers on the back of her neck.
Finley shivers when he orders, “Bite his lip, baby. Show him how hungry you are for him.”
My mouth gapes open, the command zapping all the air from my lungs, replacing it with unrelenting lust. A craving that scorches through me from the throb of her bite to the bottom of my spine. My erection grows so hard, I can’t think past roar of my blood pounding in veins.
Twisting my hands in her hair, I lick back into her mouth. A new urgency clawing at every rung of my spine, squeezing my ribs so tight that I can’t catch my breath as I deepen the kiss. Relishing the approving groans vibrating from Jayden’s mouth.
It’s a reminder that his tongue was fucking her mouth minutes ago. And that only makes me want to take more. To taste more. To delve deeper.
“Fuck,” I growl as I come up for air, my eyes opening to Jayden’s intense stare.
White-hot longing flames in his eyes every time the lights strobe across his gaze.
“You want to get out of here?” He asks, voice hoarse and trembling like he’s one breath away from unraveling right where he’s standing.
I nod, asking Finley, “Ready to go home?”
She glimpses up at me, then quickly over her shoulder at Jayden. It’s obvious she’s looking for an answer to what happens now.
What just happened—the line we just crossed, can’t be uncrossed.
Not for her. Not for me. Not for him.
We’re in this together now. And I don’t know what that means.
“Don’t think too hard, Lucky,” he tells her, pressing a kiss to her temple. “You want Eli and—”
“I want you, too,” she retorts brusquely, desperation cracking her voice.
Jayden’s gaze flashes to mine as though he’s waiting for me to say something. To know what to do now that we’re here.
I don’t.
“I need you,” Finley tells him, twisting in my hold so she can face him. Her hand cups his jaw, and while I watch her thumb rake across the shadow along it, a pang of jealousy echoes in my chest. The itch to touch him pulses on my fingertips when she glances back at me and says, “And I need you.”
The instant her other hand hooks around my neck, everything changes with the current that runs through us.
I know that the choice we make now will change our lives forever.
As uncertain as I am of how we do this, there isn’t a single doubt in my mind as I grip Finley’s hand and tell them, “Let’s go.”