Chapter 25
25
COLLINS
When I get out to the patio, I scan my eyes along the backyard, doing what I normally do when I walk into a space.
The girls and Ivan are huddled up around a table in the shade looking at photos of some sort. With the slow setting sun, the patio lights have kicked on, casting a warm glow to the entire area.
I want to go to Penny, but I also see her brothers making their way toward me so I resist.
The magnetic pull I feel when she is around is dangerous. Not only does it make me twitchy, it also makes me impulsive. And if douchebag Ivan doesn’t watch where he places his attention, I can bust both his eyes up so that everything he sees is through a lens of blood.
Ivan’s tone was pleasant earlier, yet the smug glimmer in his eye let me know he appreciates himself—and definitely a tad bit too much. He glances around the group, probably taking poll of everyone’s reaction. My teeth grit together at his attention on my Penelope, and there isn’t a damn thing I can do about it now without ruining the facade I have impeccably maintained.
I just hope she realizes that every grin she gives him is accounted for, and I will enjoy each lick I give her pussy to cleanse her mind of the fucker who wants to take what is mine.
But in the meantime, I slide my hand into my pocket and hit the button to send her a little pulse where it matters most.
And a reminder of just who she belongs to…
Her little gasp is muffled by a cough, and when she whips her body around to find me, I pretend I don’t notice.
When Nic and Graham catch up to me, they both gesture toward the girls, plus Ivan. “And so it begins…” the older Hoffman says.
Not on my watch.
“Well, that didn’t take long,” Nic snickers, his attention on his younger sister.
“Thoughts?” I ask, trying to gauge if we are on the same page or not.
Graham shrugs. “If you sabotage things too fast, it just makes Penny bitter and volatile.”
I nod. “This is true.”
But what they don’t know is that there is no way in hell I’m going to sit back and watch Ivan move in on Penny. We also have a contract in place that prohibits such during our time together.
“What are they looking at anyway?” Nic asks, moving closer to their table.
Graham and I follow, seeing that the photos are from the riverfront shoot—and they look amazing.
“Who would have thought the crying pictures would turn out like they did?” Penny mutters, holding one in her hand.
She’s right. They are phenomenal.
But her eyes tell a different story now, as I imagine she is trying to relive those moments at the water where she lost sight of reality.
I want to pull her in my arms and coddle her and make her understand I will do anything to remove that sad look from her eyes.
Anything.
“What if we did a Breakup Box?” Claire asks. “How cool would it be to help empower other women to find their new stride with the help of some revenge clothes and makeup? We can keep it comfy but also keep it purposeful.”
“I love that idea!” Angie says, her excitement building.
Jumping up from the table, she runs into the house through the basement door and returns with some printer paper and a pen.
“When inspiration hits,” Claire says with a giggle, “we waste no time.”
Nic bends forward to kiss her on her hairline. “I hope you know how proud I am of you ladies.”
“Yes, I agree. You have really found your path,” Graham says with pride.
Penny’s eyes connect with mine, and I can only hope I portray my emotions appropriately. She wipes at her mouth, and tries to hide a smile.
Good.
I’m proud of you too, Princess.
But the moment is ruined when Ivan decides to put a hand around Penny’s shoulders.
So I up the speed on her vibrator for a pulse, causing her to be visibly uncomfortable.
Good.
I count the seconds—nine in total—she leaves his hand there before she excuses herself from the table, most likely to be polite and make his unwanted attention less awkward.
“Good girl,” I whisper to her as she passes by me.
She ignores me. So I give her extra attention with the remote control, making her have a different walking stride with the change in rhythms. As she looks over her shoulder, I pat my pocket and watch as the color in her cheeks changes.
Then I crank up the juice and watch her squirm.
Sliding from his seat, Ivan takes the similar path as Penny.
“Can I have a word with you?” I ask confidently, causing him to stop in his tracks.
“Yeah, sure.”
Moving over to underneath the deck, I rotate my body so I can still see my surroundings.
The sun has basically set, and I’m counting down the minutes until I can take Penny back to my place and have my way with her wicked sex drive.
“Penny’s been through a lot this past year. The last thing she needs is a speed bump in her progress.”
“I can look out for Penny,” he says simply. “We have a past.”
“A fictional one you made up in your head. She won’t be one of your disposable women. You have quite the dating history.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because the Hoffmans are under my protection, and I don’t take my job lightly.”
Fireworks from a nearby holiday festival echo in the air, causing everyone to look up in the sky to see where they are being set off.
Ivan and I separate, and I go to find Penny.
“What did you say to him?” she asks.
“I told him to stay away from you, and that you won’t be one of his numerous take-and-toss women he has dated in the past.”
“When did you have time to look that up?”
“It’s not difficult when the showboater loves to post his face and who he is with on social media.”
“You are obsessed.”
“Not obsessed.”
She fixes a piece of flyaway hair. “You could have fooled me. How would you describe it?”
“Hmm…concentrated information gathering.”
“You are giving me buyer’s remorse.”
I eye her. “Is that so?”
“Is it too late to alter the contract?”
“How so?” I humor her.
“I want to add my exit strategy for when your overprotective tendencies become unbearable. Like they are now.”
“No deal.”
* * *
“Why are you so upset?” I ask, as Penny stirs in silence in the passenger seat.
I’m used to her telling me everything on her mind. I usually have a running commentary of just what she thinks of me and my methods, but right now? Nothing.
Silence.
And I’m about to lose my mind.
Then she places a hand between her thighs, removes the vibrator, and tosses it into the back seat.
But still, nothing. Not even a grunt.
“Talk to me, Pen.”
Rotating away from me in her seat, she stares out the window, clearly avoiding me at all costs. Even her knees are pointing away.
After several long minutes, I decide to pull off the road. I’ve had enough of her not telling me what’s upset her.
I cut the engine and open the sunroof to allow in fresh air. The tinted windows allow for some privacy. Luckily, the night air has cooled down a considerable amount.
From the distance, the echoing sound of fireworks fills the space, coupled with Penny’s sniffles. Does she have a cold? What’s going on?
When I turn to fully look at her, I can see the tears rolling down her face.
Fuck.
I hit the button on the side of my seat to send it backward to allow me more space between the steering wheel and my body.
“Penny?”
“Leave me alone.”
She angrily wipes at her eyes as if she’s pissed she is crying in the first place.
I unlock myself and then her from our seat belts, and nudge her toward me.
“Come here, Princess.”
“No.”
My face relaxes, as I try to coax her to obey. “Penelope, come here and let me hold you.”
Come on, baby, give in.
Without another word, she climbs into my arms, straddling me.
Good.
She’s exactly where she belongs. Her touch, being this close, is proof of perfection.
I want to demand she tells me what’s really bothering her. I want to wrestle the words out of her mouth and make her promise not to give me the silent treatment again in the future…
But instead, I just wrap my arms around her and hold her to me, with one hand rubbing little circles into her back and the other getting lost in her beautiful hair.
And finally, when her breathing slows and she is relaxed, I peel her off the front of me—ever so carefully—and look at her eyes in the moonlit darkness of the vehicle.
“Why are you so angry with me?”
“You really don’t know?”
“I would rather hear your pure thoughts without my own assumptions muddling anything.”
“You were a jerk to Ivan,” Penny blurts out without any prelude.
“Was I?” I knew she was upset back at the barbecue, but I thought we had moved forward from it. Maybe I just secretly hoped we had. “I actually thought I was being reasonable.”
Penny’s jaw opens, dropping with gravity. “Reasonable?”
“Yes.”
She makes some unintelligible grumble sound but then clears her throat and clarifies, “I’d hate to see what unreasonable looks like.”
“It usually involves a body bag and an alibi.”
“Sheesh! Ivan is a friend. No need to put a hit out on him. Seriously.”
“Guys can’t be friends with girls.”
Her eyes narrow on mine. “Says who?”
“Says science.”
“Well, science can be wrong.”
“We are genetically conditioned to want to mate. So keeping things friendly will be the last thing on his mind. Trust me. He wants you. And I refuse to give you up, Princess.”
“Ivan isn’t like?—”
“Three times you’ve said another man’s name while you are on my lap. Three times, Penelope.” My fingers grip her waist. “When you are straddling me like you are”—I rock her back and forth for added emphasis—“you are never to have another man’s name fall from those lips.”
“Collins?”
“Yes, Princess?”
“I’m really horny. Can you make it all better?”
My eyes darken. I’ve been on edge for the last twelve hours, counting down the time I can toss her onto my bed and bend her to my will.
And here she sits, perched on my lap like a freaking goddess, telling me she wants me to take care of her.
How can I ever deny either of us what our bodies are conditioned to crave?
“Lift up those gorgeous hips.”
When she does, I unbutton and unzip the fly to my shorts. It takes me a few seconds to free my straining cock, and when I do, I can feel the pre-cum leaking from the tip.
“Hurry.”
Oh, no, you don’t. I’m in control of this despite how utterly out of control this girl makes me.
“I want you to slide those fucking tease of a panties aside and show me what’s mine. That’s it. You’re being such a good girl, Princess.”
Taking a finger, I trail it along her wet slit, spreading her juices all over the lips at her opening. Her scent fills the car, and I hope it never fades.
I want every memory with Penny embedded into my space.
And tonight, we surely are making some lasting ones.
When I’ve teased her enough, I slip my middle finger into her, pumping inside a few times. She’s ready. All the foreplay at the barbecue prepared her for my claiming.
Removing my finger, I add a second.
And then a third.
“I need you,” she moans.
Taking out all three fingers, I bring two up to her mouth in offering. “Open wide.”
And she does—like the good girl she is.
So, I slide them in and out of her mouth while I lean forward to clean off the third at the same time.
It’s moments like these where I fantasize about whisking her away and creating as many ties as possible between us that can never be undone.
I desire a forever , when the reality is just a for now .
Men like me play for keeps but always expect to lose. Because with Penny, I will perpetually suffer a loss. Every. Single. Time.
And while the odds are always stacked against me, it’s a gamble I freely take.
So it’s best I soak up every single, fleeting moment while they last, just as I am now.
“Collins…” she says breathily, slurring her words around my fingers pressed against her tongue. “I need more.”
I remove my fingers and groan when she grinds her pussy against my cock.
My lips find refuge against her dampened ones, and the taste of her consumes me.
Just when I think I’ll explode from Penny pressing herself against my hard cock, I decide to take us both out of our misery.
With two firm hands, I lift Penny off my hip, just to lower her slowly onto my desperate cock.
“Slide down, Princess. You control the tempo.”
“You feel so good… I want to stay here forever.”
As do I, sweet girl. As do I.
Biting back my feelings, I give Penny the freedom to set the pace. “Ride me, Princess. Take from me what your body desires.”
And she does.
And tonight I saw fireworks more than just in the sky.
I saw them reflected back in her eyes.
* * *
“What you doin’?” Penny asks, before her eyes close from the brightness hitting them from the overhead lights in the parking garage.
“Putting a jacket on you and carrying you into our building.”
“I can walk.”
“Clearly, you can’t.”
“Someone will see.”
I cover her head with the hood. “Now they won’t.”
Even in her grogginess, Penny still manages to pout out that bottom lip of hers. I want to bite and kiss it, but I also want her inside my safe haven as fast as I can get her there.
It’s the safety net of having her in my space that helps me to be calm.
Pulling over on the side of the road to fuck each other’s brains out wasn’t what I would refer to as my norm.
In fact, I’ve never done something so impulsive before at night, along a low-traffic side road.
But that’s what Penny does to me. She makes me move past my comfort zone.
What was I supposed to do when she was whimpering about being horny? It’s not like I could really drive safely with a hard-on poking at the steering wheel either. Pair that with her tears, and I was a goner long before she slid her delectable pussy down on my cock and rode me to completion.
I should have known that leaving the party in our heightened states of arousal would only end one way. I still can’t believe she won. I blame it on me being so committed to making her lose control that I was distracted. Deep down, I didn’t want her to lose and risk the chance of that asshole noticing how she gets flushed when she’s fully immersed in pleasure.
Now I’m going to have to cope with how to get us into Limit-X as a couple without losing my ever-loving mind over other men—and women—looking at what I have deemed as mine .
I know why people go there. They go for a kinky release. Or to find easy, malleable prey.
There are rules set in place, and Yuri works very hard at maintaining a safe environment for exploration, but things can happen…and nefarious people can slip through even the strictest protocols.
So I need to be prepared mentally prior to going.
Because I’ll go fucking feral if someone thinks they can make a move on her.
There won’t be a security guard or dungeon monitor there who will pull me off anyone who even thinks about messing with Penelope Hoffman—especially when we are under contract.
She is mine to protect.
Mine to serve.
I look down at Penny as she shifts in my arms and rubs her hand all over my chest.
I smirk down at her, and she catches me watching her exploration.
“Hi.”
She manages to look innocent, and in the scheme of things, she really is that way.
I’m the one who is corrupting her.
I’m the wolf that is salivating over the little lamb.
My smile can’t be contained around this girl. “Hi.” She doesn’t seem sick, yet I can’t help but ask, “Are you feeling okay?”
Penny swallows. “I think I just need some water. My throat is dry.”
I nod in understanding. The later part of the evening consisted of more alcohol consumption, so it’s no surprise that she is slowly feeling the negative effects of those choices now.
I get us into the elevator and up to my floor. As soon as the door clicks into place and the security system is set with just the push of a button, I feel like I can finally relax.
This entire day was one big stressful event. Between the fear of casting suspicion on our arrangement and the desire to bury Ivan in the field behind the Hoffman house, I’m ready for some downtime.
All of the things I will need to handle can wait until tomorrow.
Right now, focusing my attention on taking care of my princess is just what I need to distract me from the life that is lived outside of these walls.
I toe off my shoes. Penny follows suit with hers, flinging them across the room in opposite directions.
Why do I find her chaotic behavior that is so opposite of my rigid routines charming?
Before Penny, any amount of mess would have sent me on a mental tailspin. Yet now I find the clutter comforting.
That’s what Penny does to my space—my life.
She shakes it all up.