Chapter 37
Hollis
“I feel like I owe you an apology,” I say, doing my best to resist the urge to run my hand over her back. I lose the battle.
“Why?” she asks, nudging my arm. “Don’t pet me. I’m not a dog.”
I bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling even though she can’t see me with her head curled under my chin.
“Maybe I don’t,” I mutter, pressing the palm of my hand firmly to her skin. Not touching her at all isn’t an option. She doesn’t complain. “Seems you don’t have a problem at all telling me what you want and don’t want.”
“I just don’t like—”
She narrows her eyes at me when I lift her chin and make her look at me.
“I want that from you. I need you to tell me what you like and don’t like.”
“And you’ll listen?” she asks, rolling her eyes.
“I will sometimes, but you’re never going to get your way all the time with me, Mads. Know that going in.”
“Because you’ll let me leave if I don’t want to stay.”
My grin is slow. The woman has to know the answer, but she seems hell-bent in forcing me to say it.
“I’ll crawl over the edge of the earth through broken glass on my knees to track you down, baby. Never forget it.”
She scrunches her nose. “That sounds all fucking caveman to me.”
I shrug, urging her head back down onto my chest. “So be it.”
A long silence fills the room around us, but I’m not wondering whether she’s questioning why she left the Severino compound with me. She’s exactly where she wants to be for now, and if that decision changes, I’ll just have to be creative in keeping her exactly where she belongs.
“I enjoyed it,” she says after a long pause. “I knew it was going to be uncomfortable the first time.”
“Because my cock is too big?” I tease, hissing when she twists my nipple. “That will get you tied down and fucked again, Mads.”
I grin when I feel her smile against my chest.
“Does it make me fucked up—”
“Yes,” she answers before I can finish.
I pinch her ass, loving the way she rolls her hips to get away from my fingers rather than pulling completely away from me.
“I wish I could pop your cherry over and over and over.”
She lifts up, staring down at me. “It really hurt, and I don’t mean just a little, Hollis.”
I shake my head, grabbing her chin when she tries to pull away.
“If you ever expect me to change, it’s not going to fucking happen. If you think there will ever come a time when the thought of being the only person ever inside that tight pussy of yours doesn’t turn me on, you’re going to end up disappointed every time. Understand that now, Mads.”
Her eyes search mine, but I don’t know that she found what she was looking for before she drops her head back to my chest.
I know she has a lot to say. I know there are some very serious, very complicated conversations we have to have. Normally, I’d avoid them at all costs, but Madelene Lombardi isn’t the type of woman you ignore. Even if she weren’t right on top of me, my thoughts would be on her.
But then instead of opening her mouth and holding a conversation, she backs away, standing at the edge of the bed.
I watch, not supplying any help when she looks around the room. She has nothing to change into but the bloody clothes she stripped out of. I didn’t offer to have anything sent up for her, despite this expensive-ass hoity-toity hotel probably having some sort of boutique downstairs.
I hadn’t planned on letting her out of bed for a month, honestly.
She scoops up the towel she dropped during her taunting and teasing earlier and wraps it around her body. If it’s what she needs right now to put up a barrier, a faux protection for her safety, I won’t argue about it.
“What?” I ask when she huffs, my eyes locking at the hem of the towel where it barely covers her thighs.
The blood there, just the faintest of smears, draws my eyes.
“You’re fucking crazy,” she snaps, noticing what I’m staring at.
I’m slow to raise my eyes to hers. Everything about this woman gets me riled up.
Even with empty balls, I still feel like a fucking animal, needing to rut into her and mark her as mine.
The men who harmed her, the ones that could’ve compromised her future are dead, but there’s still this insistent need inside of me to curl around her and growl at anyone that comes within ten feet of her.
“That’s not changing either,” I assure her because those thoughts aren’t exactly sane.
“What are you thinking?” Her voice is low as if she can either read my mind or her thoughts are taking her to some weird possessive place as well.
My cock threatens to thicken once again at the idea that she may want to own me as much as I do her.
“What are your expectations?”
I stare at the mounds her tits are making just above the towel she has wrapped around her body.
“Expectations?” I bite my lip as I think. “I expect you’ll eventually be able to take my cock down your throat without gagging.”
She huffs.
“I expect you’ll complain that my cock is too big for your ass, but you’ll take me there anyway.”
I know this isn’t what she’s exactly asking about, but since she didn’t specify, I figure now would be a great time to let her into my head a little.
I’m finally able to meet her eyes when she props her hand on her hip, the classic are-you-fucking-kidding-me stance, not enough to make me reconsider what I said.
“You look like you’re about to give me a piece of your mind,” I say, trying not to smile because she’s fucking adorable. I doubt telling her so would go over very well. I hold my hands out to her. “Give me some pussy instead.”
She looks down at my now fully erect cock, chewing on the inside of her cheek as if she’s in serious contemplation about what to do.
“You will really hurt me if we go again so soon.”
There’s no tease in her voice. It’s nothing like it was when she first walked out here and I told her she’d have to pay for every bite of food she took.
Like a bastard, knowing she’s sore from where I was inside of her turns me on. I want her to feel me there. I want her thinking of me with every step she takes.
“Poor little pussy. Let me kiss it better.”
She huffs again, and I don’t know if she’s aware of the way her hips move closer just a fraction of an inch.
“I don’t really have an answer,” I tell her. “I came to Chicago to kill those assholes, so you had a choice. That’s what you said you wanted. You wanted to be able to choose the direction your life took.”
“I did.”
I sit up on the edge of the bed, grinning when she comes right to me when I hold my arms out. I pull her close, making sure she’s looking me in the eye.
“I can’t give you a choice. I’m no better than Alessio in that regard. You’re fucking mine, Mads. There can’t be any other way. When we get back to Texas, we can work on figuring out exactly how that looks, but—”
“We?” She swallows. “You want me to go with you?”
I tilt my head. “Have you not listened to a word I said?”
Her cheeks heat, flushing the prettiest pink. “I thought it was hormones and post-sex whatever making you say sweet things.”
I blink up at her. “Telling you you’re stuck with me because I’m a possessive asshole who won’t take no for an answer is saying sweet things?”
She tries to look away, her face growing redder as if she’s embarrassed.
“It’s not going to be easy on you or this delicate body of yours,” I say, tugging at the tucked knot of her towel, my eyes locking on her tits as the fabric falls to the floor.
“Do you know how expensive just this hotel room is? That’s not even considering the cost to travel all the way up here from Texas. ”
She moans when I suck her nipple into my mouth, her hips rolling as if she’s already forgotten all about the soreness she complained of earlier.
“You owe me so much.” Another nip at her skin, and the moan that slips out of her mouth makes my cock leak like it hasn’t gotten any action in months. “Gas prices are super high right now. My truck needs an oil change from all the travel. The expenses are endless.”
She pulls back, trying not to smile as she presses her hands to my shoulders.
“And you’re expecting me to earn all of that on my back?”
I shake my head, a sinister grin tugging up the corners of my mouth.
“Sweet, sweet, Madelene. You should know I’m not that vanilla. You will spend the least amount of time on your back, baby.”
I draw her even closer, forcing her to spread her legs. She doesn’t complain when I grip her ass and pull her body to straddle mine. Her mouth hangs open, the tiniest of squeaks coming from her when I press the tip of my cock to her pussy.
“I didn’t know sore pussies still leaked for their men.”
“She has a mind of her own,” she whispers, her lips moving against my jawline.
I’m breathless, struck stupid, when I pull her down onto my length. She doesn’t complain, despite her fingernails digging into my flesh.
“You’re going to get me pregnant,” she whispers.
Swear to God, I nearly come. She just unlocked some fucking hidden part of me I never knew existed.
“Shut up,” I hiss.
“Seriously, Hollis. I’m not on birth control.”
I inch back so I can look into her eyes. “If you think I won’t fuck my cum into you for a month straight just to know I did exactly that, you’re underestimating my need to own you.”
A slow smile spreads across my face when her pussy clenches, rippling along my shaft.
“Someone likes the idea of that,” I tease, rolling my hips upward to press into her deeper.
“Mind of her own,” she reminds me.
I press my lips to hers and spend the rest of the night getting lost in her.