Chapter 27
chapter twenty seven
the drivers seat is pretty comfy
It was perfect, actually, how this all happened. Although if you’d have told me this was how my day was going to end, I’d have never believed you.
To be honest, I still didn’t know if I believed it myself.
But I had no more energy to run from something that felt so right.
I’d been running from him all day, since the second I figured out his smile wasn’t totally awful, and it said something that I was glad when he found me.
Because for a second, it silenced every voice telling me what I’d heard was true.
But only for a second. Then the anger that had consumed me all afternoon was all I could see. All I could feel.
I don’t know why I’m thinking about that when his mouth is on my neck and there are plenty of more pressing things I need to be thinking about.
Like the way his lips felt on my jaw. Like the way his hand was riding up my skirt.
More importantly, how Marcus Romano admitted he liked me and how I just wanted to kiss him harder because of it.
Thank God for the summer rain that was fogging up the windows; without it, the entire crowd outside the club would have seen this very illegal act we were doing, and come tomorrow morning, I’d be another headline.
But somehow the thought of being caught in here with Marcus didn’t scare me.
Unlike with Jamie, whenever I saw his and my names together after the attack, it made me want to change my name altogether.
But when the mental image of a passerby picking up a newspaper in the morning and reading ‘Cora Holland and Marcus Romano found making out in a telephone box,’ suddenly it was only my last name that sounds like it needs changing.
I’m kidding. Obviously. And that thought evaporates the second one of Marcus’s hands trails down the back of my thigh, hiking it up against his side.
Kind of.
His fingers spanned across my wet skin, squeezing like he was checking if they were ripe.
“This is insane.” I practically moaned into the air.
He lifted his mouth off my neck to breathe, “Tell me about it.”
His voice was a drug I’d happily become addicted to. It was low and sexy and had all the power to make me forget this was the closest I’d been with someone for a while. But Marcus had a way of making me feel safe in moments like this, as though Jamie was a dream. As though Rainie was a mere blip.
And it was more than just his words making me feel so safe.
When his hand travelled from the back of my thigh, he moved slowly, like he was giving me time to process, like he wanted me to know his next move.
It was the kind of hesitation that didn’t make me think he didn’t want this.
More the kind that gave me the power, all while giving him every ounce of mine.
His hand was on my waist, but I knew it would be, and it stayed there while his mouth kissed its way back to mine, our tongues swerving as our lips overlapped.
His hand hovered, like he was memorising my shape, and something about that had me lifting mine to the hem of his shirt, grasping at the fabric, desperate to get a better feel for what was under there.
That wicked smile of his curved against my mouth mid kiss, before he slowly pulled back, his eyes like the dark side of the moon. “If you’re trying to get me naked in public, I’d think again.”
I smirked, tilting my head. “You’re the one who dragged me in here and kissed me. I’m just following your lead.”
He raised a brow, watching me like he was enjoying watching me unravel. Then softly, “You take the lead then.”
“How?”
He tucked a wet strand of my hair behind my ear, his touch impossibly gentle for someone so solid. His hand at my waist slid higher, just under my ribs, not rushing—just there. “Tell me what you want.”
A laugh escaped me, soft and real.
“Seriously,” he leaned closer, still not touching more than he already was. “Lead the way, angel.”
My mouth shut, centering on his words and the way they made my stomach hollow. It was that feeling of being known, and wondering when this person took the time to figure you out enough to know you so well.
I met his eyes as my hand glided around his waist, steady and deliberate. “Okay. No sex.” Then, quieter, “But I want this. I want to touch you. I want to enjoy it without feeling like I owe something. Just… be in this moment. With you.”
He nodded, like it was the only answer he needed.
I lifted his hand from where it rested beneath my ribs and guided it higher, right over my heart.
“Because I love the way I feel like I can say no, and you’ll still stay.”
He didn’t say anything at first, he just held his hand there, over the thud of my chest like he was grounding me. Or maybe grounding himself.
Then, softly, “I’d stay if you never touched me again.”
My throat tightened. “That’s the problem. I want to.”
He smiled, smaller now, something private. “Then go slow. Take whatever you want. I’m not going anywhere.”
I’m. Not. Going. Anywhere.
Without letting another moment slip by, I leaned into him, our mouths hovering for a moment before resuming our kiss with double the force. The air caught fire almost instantly, like we’d never stopped.
“Tell me where you want me.” He demanded between kisses, his hands lingering at the base of my neck, waiting for their command.
My head fell back as his mouth found my neck again, and I moaned out, “Here.”
I guided his hand south to my breast. He took the lead then, palming the swell while his thumb skimmed over the peak of my nipple through the chiffon. It would be easy to blame the cold for why it was so hard, but my body and I knew it was all him.
His words. His voice. His body.
My dress was cut low enough that he didn’t have to move much to reveal it. And if I thought him touching me through my dress was maddening, I hadn’t even known the feeling until his skin was fully on mine.
A low groan escaped me, and as it came out louder than I’d meant to, Marcus’s mouth covered mine in a kiss. “Do you like this?”
My arms snaked round the back of his neck. “Like isn’t a good enough word.”
Once again, he smiled against my mouth. “What else do you want me to do?”
I’d never quite liked hearing my name so much.
I kissed him again, until his thumb flicked my nipple and my core melted, my mouth acting faster than my mind. “Here,” I said, guiding his hand down my body until we found the pool of heat gathering between my legs.
He practically growled against my mouth as he felt where I was taking him, and he pulled his head back enough that I could watch his eyes darken even more. “You sure?”
I nodded. “Uh huh.” As I said that, I guided his hand to my bareness.
And his reaction? Soul melting.
His eyes were on mine, darting between them like he couldn’t quite get the question out.
I answered anyway. “Thongs are awfully uncomfortable.”
His forehead sank against mine as his fingers took the lead, caressing me in a way that felt like I was a statue in the arms of its sculpter. “Part of me is very happy about that.”
My mouth hovered over his neck, kissing gently. “And the other?”
He shrugged, his thumb pressing into my clit, making me gasp. “Finding it very hard to not take the fucking lead.”
As his thumb began to circle, I felt my body go weak. “Yeah. Me too.”
The backs of my knees threatened to buckle, but luckily his other hand was like a stone pillar against my back, keeping me from crumbling.
I leaned my body further into his, the swell of my breast pressing up against him.
I kept my eyes on his as his thumb married my clit, altering his pressure in just the right way to stop me from spiralling and ending this entire thing before it had even really started.
While my clit became his, my mind wandered to everything else I wanted him to do, how I wanted him to have me. And somewhere between him dipping his mouth back to my neck and him hitting a nerve that made me want to call his name, I breathed, “I want you in me.”
My breathless breaths hit his face as he pulled back, looking down at me like I was everything.
“Whatever you say.” His mouth collapsed onto mine in a hungry kiss, right as his fingers travelled over my wet folds, sliding perfectly to my opening.
I must have nodded against him when he stopped, like he was really making sure I wanted this, and that only made me want him more.
After a beat he slipped one finger in, and it was like the start and the end of me. My head fell away, arching along with my back as a moan escaped my throat. He caught my mouth the second it got too loud, quieting me in the only way I wanted to be from now on.
His finger moved like he knew me, like he’d practised this a thousand times before. And with that he added another, his arm pumping at a pace that made me dizzy.
“Holy shit.” I moaned against him, my hands clutching his neck as the gold glass of the booth met my back.
“You good there, angel?” His voice was dripping with mischief.
I nodded against him, wordlessly, before kissing him and moaning into his mouth.
But what made this feel even better was that I’d decided this.
I hadn’t felt forced or pressured. This was happening for no one’s gain but my own.
This was all for me, because of me, and that realisation had me sinking further into him, my hips grinding on their own accord, wanting to feel every part of him.
He grunted as he swapped my lips for my breast, his teeth pinching my nipple in a way that had me gasping into his neck. Another finger found its way inside of me and there wasn’t a part of me that wanted this to end.
I groaned against him, my arms clutching tighter. “Keep that up and it’ll be over in about five seconds.”
“Is that a challenge?” He asked, his fingers speeding up, sending me into orbit.
Our foreheads rested together. “Now it is.”
Being a man of his word, Marcus pumped his arm faster and faster, until I felt the base of my spine tingle in that familiar way I’d only ever achieved on my own.
I called his name and that only made him work faster.
My core tightened and my legs clamped to hold him there, to make sure the feeling didn’t disappear.
But a few seconds later and I’d reached a pinnacle.
“Fuck, Marcus.” I moaned, as my body melted into his, my legs caved, and my head arched back.
We became a breathless heap slumped against the back wall of the booth, our chests heaving in unison, like somehow what he’d done was enough to get him off too. I looked up to find the tips of his hair wet, his skin shiny and his mouth gaped as his head rested on the window.
He really was a vision. Like sin wrapped in leather. To look at him you’d think he was capable of ruining your life. But that wasn’t him. Not with who he cared about. Not with me.
Marcus brushed the hair out of my face, cupping my jaw as his eyes raked over me. “You okay?”
I nodded, resting my body against him. “Yeah.” I breathed. “Are you?”
He nodded. “I’m just happy you are.”
“But you are?”
Softness drowned his features, like it meant everything to him that I cared enough to even ask. “I’m okay.”
This time, when I reached up onto my toes and kissed him, it was slow, and deliberate.
Thank you for making me feel unbreakable again, my lips said.
Don’t mention it, his replied.
I sat in his lap the entire car ride back to the hotel, letting sleep from the day I’d had take over me.
He must have carried me up to the room because I don’t remember walking, and when he sat me down on the side of the tub, and let the water run until it was a big, bubbly bowl of heaven, he placed me in it.
It was only while I was making shapes with the bubbles did I really reflect on what had happened.
I let someone touch me and not once did I want to hide. Not once did I think about how this made me look. Not once did I ever want to tell him to stop.
And sure, maybe that was because I was setting the pace, telling him what to do.
But part of me couldn’t help but wonder whether this was just what happened when you properly fell for someone.
They become your safe space without you knowing it.
And everything that felt like a nightmare with someone else becomes a dream with them.