Chapter 21
I could have sworn the sheet rock rumbled, as the pictures on the wall shuddered.
“Please. I can’t…please.”
I shut her up with my mouth, one hand sliding up her thigh, pushing her dress out of the way so I could get more of her skin. The other hand slid up her arm and pinned it above her head, fingers tangling with one another.
My mouth crushed down on hers, both of us fighting for control, driving deep within one another.
My hand slid between her legs, over her panties, and cupped her.
“Oh,” she moaned, and I continued to kiss her, trailing my mouth down her jaw, over her neck. When my fingers tugged her panties to the side, my fingers grew wet just by a bare brush.
“So fucking wet for me. You want this. You’re a dirty girl, aren’t you?”
“Stop talking and make me come.”
I let go of her hand, and slid that hand right over her throat, my thumb sliding along her neck.
“Oh, it’s like that, is it?”
Those piercing blue eyes narrowed.
“Always.”
I ignored the barb, and then with my gaze on hers, speared her with two fingers. She drenched my hand, my thumb pressing along her clit as she rocked her hips.
“That’s it, be a good little girl and ride my hand.”
“Don’t call me that,” she bit out, before I slid my thumb into her mouth, forcing her to lick and suck.
“Fine.”
And that was right anyway. Because she knew I only said the words to get a rise out of her. I never knew what I was saying when it came to her. Only that wasn’t something I was going to say.
No. We would keep this distance, as I finger-fucked her, and she drenched my hand as if she couldn’t hold back any longer.
And when she came, clamping down at my fingers, I kept moving, the sounds of sex filling the hallway .
There was nothing more I could do, nothing more that I could say. So I pulled my fingers out of her, and then used both hands to grip her hips.
“More?” I asked.
No matter how much I wanted to pretend that this meant nothing, something told me this was a lie. But no, this was just sex. A quick fuck, a hard one. She could debase me, call me names, and I would do just the same for her.
Because it didn’t matter.
Nothing mattered.
“I just...I don’t want to think.” She stared up at me with wide eyes and I knew what she needed—what she refused or couldn’t voice.
I nodded, understanding, then undid my jeans with one hand, keeping my mouth on hers. When we pulled away, and I slid the condom over my length, I couldn’t help but take a moment to step back, and stare at the beauty of her.
I had already pulled down her dress, so her breasts were bare, her nipples hard little points already swollen from my mouth from before. Half of her dress was slid to the side, the other half pushed up. Her panties were a damp mess shoved to the side, and I wanted her. Needed her.
I kissed her again, hating myself. And then I slammed deep inside her. One thrust, one motion, and she was screaming my name, pulsating around my cock as she came, and I moved.
The picture frames continued to bash against the wall as I fucked her hard against it. There was nothing more I could do, just this.
I needed her. Needed her more than the air I breathed. But I knew it had to be only for sex. It was what we were good for.
It wasn’t as if I really wanted more.
And when I finally came, pinning her to the wall, her fingernails dug into my shoulders, and I kept her to me, hips against hips, buried balls deep. Both of our breaths came in pants, as we tried to calm our hearts, but there was nothing more I could do. Nothing more I could say.
I pulled out of her and ditched the condom in the trash nearby. She righted herself, not meeting my gaze, and I ignored it.
Because this was just a mistake.
Just like it had been before.
“So, are we going to talk about it?” I asked, my voice a growl. I didn’t mean for the biting tone. I didn’t mean to say anything. But I was so damn tired.
Aria Montgomery shook her head and wiped a tear from her cheek.
I cursed under my breath, and moved closer, wiping the second tear with my thumb. Nothing made sense anymore. It couldn’t. I had done that. Doing what both of us had wanted. Playing a game. And I had left that tear. I hated the names. But the names were doing what we were good at. Playing a game.
“I can’t,” she whispered, her voice breaking.
I tucked myself back into my pants and swallowed hard. “Because you love him. Even with all he’s done, you love him.”
She met my gaze again, those blue Montgomery eyes staring daggers into my soul. “No, I... I know I can’t love him. And I don’t really.”
“Aria. You can lie to yourself every day. But you don’t get to lie to me. Not when we play games here. We can play games when I’m deep inside you, but you don’t get to play games here.”
“I loved the idea of him…but with this…” Her voice trailed off and she didn’t look at me. I knew there was more going on in that brilliant mind of hers than this moment. And I wasn’t part of it. We’d both taken advantage. Just like always. “This can’t happen again.”
I nodded tightly, knowing that all good things, even how dirty and manipulative they could be, had to come to an end.
“Fine.”
“You were with Daisy. My best friend. My cousin.”
And here it came—the rationalization. It surprised me it had taken her this long to find the road she wanted to go down when it came to pushing me away. Too bad I’d be the one walking—even if she didn’t realize it. “Well, Daisy’s not my cousin because that would have been wrong, but she is my best friend. I’m allowed to fuck other people you know.”
Aria looked like I had hit her, and I could have rightly hit myself.
“Aria...”
She shook her head. “I have to go.”
I looked down at her disheveled dress and hair and didn’t bother to tell her that she could get cleaned up. Because if she stayed, we’d fuck again, and then she would do the worst thing ever, and fall asleep in my arms.
And that’s not what we did.
“Fine. Go. But we’re done—you and me. I’m done being the one that you run to when things get hard because you know I don’t ask questions.”
Aria lifted her chin then, looking like the Montgomery I knew. So fierce, so passionate. So not mine. “All you do is ask questions, Crew. I’m the one that never has the answers. And you’re the one that never lets me ask mine .” And when another tear fell, and another, I didn’t bother to wipe them away. Instead, she turned and left, picking up her purse and closing the door quietly behind her.
Aria Montgomery didn’t want to cause a scene. She wouldn’t slam the door. Instead, she would leave, and once again I watched the woman that I pretended not to love run away.