CHAPTER FIFTEEN
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Vesper
WHAT THE HELL AM I doing?
I’d never been so carefree and idiotic. I felt like a moron as I dashed left, then right down a maze of black walls with glow-in-the-dark graffiti as strobe lights blinded me.
It was a sensory overload but not the reason my heart galloped in my chest.
It was because of him.
He’d refused to tell me where he was taking me. At the time, it had pissed me off but now, I was glad. There was no way I would’ve agreed to this stupidity but, my God, it was liberating.
I hadn’t been this silly in decades. I hadn’t been silly period. Being an only child meant I was more adult than kid from the moment I could speak. My mum was strict and tolerated perfection while my dad was under her thumb and never spoke otherwise.
Ryder was a cyclone in my quaint carefully rowed field. He’d just decimated my neat little cabbage patch, but I didn’t care in the slightest.
“I’m gonna find you, Ves!” His voice shouted over the boom of a guitar.
A manic giggle fell from my lips as I careened around a wedge wall and slammed to a stop in front of a metal staircase. Without thinking, I took the steps two at a time, able to see the floor between the open weaved metal construction.
The moment I was on the bridge, I charged back the way I’d come, looking below, seeking my prey.
He thought he could win?
No way.
Not going to happen.
It took a few moments, but I found him prowling like a cheetah around a corner, his gun high like a marine in a real war, his face splattered with pink and green laser beams from the crazy light show above.
Crouching down, I put my gun through the slats of the metal bridge and fired at the red bullseye on his spine.
Immediately, my vest trumpeted and his wheezed.
“Ah, shit. What the hell?!” He spun around, looking down the alleyway he’d stalked down.
When he couldn’t see me, I slapped a hand over my mouth to hold my giggles.
But then, he looked up.
We made eye contact.
My heart stopped.
Oh, no.
“Ah, there you are, my little Vet.”
I squeaked and darted to my right, running along the bridge—not knowing if it was a dead end or freedom.
“I’m going to catch you!” Ryder’s shouts merged with a cymbal crash and tambourine jingle. “And when I do, I’m going to take something I’ve wanted to take for months!”
I slammed to a stop. What the crap did that mean?
Was I safe here with him? He could do bad things to me and no one would know. No one would hear me scream.
For God’s sake, he took you home and bought you soup.
If he was a secret psychopath, I think he would’ve chosen that particular moment to murder you.
Then again, I had been sick and gross. Perhaps he hadn’t wanted a transference of germs.
My mind raced, demented with the noise and lights.
Then the bridge juddered beneath my toes and I knew—just knew —he’d found the staircase and was only a few seconds behind me.
I flew.
My feet clanged on the metal as I headed left at a fork and darted down another set of stairs to vanish into a small tent that smelled faintly of marijuana and had a glow-in-the-dark painting in the shape of Professor Einstein.
I huddled in the dark, waiting for him to either shoot me or appear in the entrance where I’d shoot him.
He did neither.
Arms wrapped around me from behind.
I screamed.
His lips landed on my ear. “It’s just me.”
I froze as his gun clattered to the floor and he spun me around. Breathing hard, he yanked away my weapon and tossed it with his. “Gotcha.”
I trembled.
I didn’t know why he hadn’t shot me. This wasn’t part of the game. But I couldn’t speak as he walked me backward and backward, faster and faster until my spine slammed against Einstein’s nose. Grabbing my wrists, he yanked them above my head.
I groaned as his lower half pressed against mine, welding his hard cock against my belly, driving his thigh against my clit. “Tell me now if this is a problem and I’ll stop.”
I shivered as his nose grazed my cheek.
His teeth nipped at my jaw. “I thought I could go slow with you. I thought I could wait until after the game, take you for a nice meal—even though you told me not to—and then kiss you sweetly when I dropped you off home.”
His voice changed to a deep rasp. “But that was before you shot me. Twice. That was before you ran away from me and activated cave man urges I didn’t know I had. ”
His breath scorched my skin as he pressed a kiss on my throat. “So, Vesper. What’s it gonna be? Can I kiss you?” He rocked his hips, pressing me harder against the wall.
I didn’t have control over my body anymore. All I felt was heat and pulsating deep in my core that matched the mayhem music around us.
“Can I taste you before I go out of my fucking mind?” His growl made me drenched.
Who was this man? He’d successfully hidden this sexuality beneath cute pickup lines, impatient quips, and the caring stares of a man who rescued dogs as a hobby. I’d seen hints of an opinionated asshole at the beginning, but I didn’t see him anymore.
I would never have guessed being with him would be like this.
Like every dream come true.
“I need an answer, Ves,” he grunted, his teeth teasing my ear lobe. “Can I? Jesus, please tell me I can kiss you.”
Vocabulary wasn’t something I could achieve in my current condition.
So a nod would have to do.
The moment my chin tilted up then down, it was over.
Not just the game but also my life as I knew it.
“Thank Christ for that.” His lips fastened on mine—hot and heavy and wet.
His fingers lashed tighter around my wrists, holding me firm as he forced my head to crash against Einstein’s nose and accept a nasty, feral, hot-as-hell kiss.
This wasn’t a first kiss.
This was something explosive. This was dangerous, dirty, and brought things out of me I didn’t know existed.
Instead of yielding to him and playing the meek, sensible girl I’d been all my life, I gave him back that dirty heat. My mouth opened wide as his tongue teased my lips, giving him full entry with no refusal.
His groan ricocheted into my chest as he pressed his entire body against mine. His thigh rocked, giving my clit delicious friction as his erection dug harder and hotter into my hipbone.
Having him lose himself in this dark, maniacal world allowed me to do the same. I shed my skin of Vesper Fairfax—co-owner and perfect student—and became a sexual minx instead.
I tugged where he held my wrists, forcing him to give me slack.
His fingers unlocked as his grip skated down my body to join with his other hand which cupped my face. He held my cheeks prisoner as my own hands snarled over his body, digging into the ridges of his spine, crushing him closer, then dropping to knead his ass.
I didn’t let embarrassment or questions fill my head.
I just let myself live.
I let myself feel .
And if that meant we were nothing more than dry-humping, sexually frustrated strangers kissing like horny teenagers, then I was fine with that.
I cried out as his hands dropped from my cheeks to fasten on my breasts. The black lace bra I wore beneath my top felt like barbwire around my sensitive flesh as my body begged for him to strip me, bite me, take me.
My brain turned off.
My hands shot between us. I cupped his balls with one hand and caressed his hard length with the other.
“Holy fuck.” He thrust into my hands. “What the hell are you doing to me?”
He kissed me harder, yanking my straight hair as if I deserved a lesson for shocking him and touching what he said I was allowed to touch.
His tongue speared into my mouth.
His teeth caught my lower lip.
His growl, his grunt, his hips thrusting into my hand.
He utterly consumed me.
I wanted to get naked.
I needed him inside me.
His hand burrowed between my thighs.
I parted my legs for him. I moaned as he cupped me. His finger pressed right where I needed him.
And then, he was gone.
His heat ripped away, his mouth, his passion.
I stood there gasping like a stupid out-of-water fish as he paced in the small space, yanking his hands over his face and into his hair. His cock strained against his jeans, visible as the strobe lights continued to disorientate us.
“What the hell was that?” he asked, his face white but eyes so black with lust they clenched my stomach and made me ten times wetter. “How the hell did you do this to me? Who the hell are you?”
I swallowed, rubbing my bruised and sore lips from his assault, revelling in the sensual pain. “You just said hell three times.”
He slammed to stop. “What?”
“Nothing.” I copied him and fluffed my hair, trying to repair the damage.
“That’s all you have to say after a kiss like that?” He planted himself in front of me. “Is that normal for you?”
The rock n’ roll music didn’t let up. This was not a conversation for this place. However, I couldn’t deny I’d never been kissed like that. “No, that wasn’t normal.”
“That’s it?” His forehead furrowed. “That’s all you have to say?”
I splayed my hands. “I don’t know what you want me to say?”
“How about ‘wow’ or ‘holy shit?’ I need to know you felt what I just did. I’m going out of my goddamn mind.” He paced again. “If you felt the same, I don’t understand how you can be so calm. I feel like you just destroyed me. And if you can do that with one kiss…what the fuck is going to happen when we sleep together?”
“I’m not calm.”
I’m freaking the freak out.
It was our first kiss and yet things had happened on a crazy deep level.
“I think—let’s just get out of here, okay?” I was sick of yelling. If he wanted to talk about this, we could, but not in this thumping tomb.
Ryder pinched the bridge of his nose. “Part of me wants to take you right here—to rip off your jeans and punish you for making me lose my mind. The other part of me wants to shoot you twice just to even the score, but most of me wants to go somewhere private. Somewhere I can pin you down, fill you up, and show you just how badly I need you.”
My breathing picked up as my body melted even more. “How badly are we talking here?”
He fisted himself. “Pretty sure I’m going to have a heart attack if you don’t touch me again.” His blazing eyes dropped to my breasts. “Pretty sure I’ll turn into a raging monster if I don’t get inside you soon. Your taste, Ves…” He shook hi s head. “Fuck.”
It was me who approached him this time.
Me who dropped all propriety.
I placed my hand over his heart—the chaotic rhythm matched mine. “In that case. Let’s go.”