Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
July
This morning, I never expected to have Theo back in my apartment. Here he is, though, taking up every inch of space in my living room—and my head.
My nerves endings are like little live wires flapping around, ready to start a fire the second he touches me. I’m aware of things about myself that I usually take for granted. Like, how fast I’m breathing. How quickly my heart picks up tempo when he comes within reaching distance of me. My panties are molded to me, soaked in his pleasure. I just rode in a cab in this state of post-orgasm breathlessness, while Theo never took his eyes off me once, his intensity blanketing everything in my new world. Turning everything a deep purple. Keeping me balanced on the balls of my feet.
Dierdre…hell, anyone would tell me this is bad. This hot, prickling awareness of Theo. This state of not knowing what will happen next, my body and heart on high alert.
But he’s standing two feet away from me and I’m already craving more of his presence. I’m magnetized by his unpredictability and darkness. I’ve never had either. I’ve never been someone’s obsession. I’ve never had someone be my obsession. And from so many angles, I’m sure this entire situation appears to be risky, but there’s a whisper in the back of my mind telling me he’s worth the risk and a hell of a lot more.
“Are you hungry?” I ask.
He slips his phone out of his pocket, casually turning it over in his hand, his attention burning a path up my thighs. “I’ll take care of food. You go change.”
I shouldn’t like being told what to do, right?
I’m going to let it slide because he suggested exactly what I want.
Maybe that’s why I enjoy being commanded by him. His wishes echo mine.
“Okay.” I move on slightly shaky legs to my bedroom, toeing off my flats and stripping out of my clothes. I pile my hair on top of my head in a knot and take a quick shower in my ensuite bathroom, applying deodorant and dabs of perfume while the steam settles around me. Then, back in my bedroom, I pick out a simple pair of black underwear, then return to the drawer to swap them for a frilly silk emerald pair. I choose a white, worn-in nightshirt that makes me comfortable, but still shows a lot of leg and molds to my breasts like a second skin.
I’m tempted to wait in the bedroom for my nipples to soften, but as long as Theo is in my apartment, staring at me with the obvious desire to sleep together, I don’t think they ever will—and I doubt he’ll complain. With a deep breath, I emerge from the hallway and find him sitting on the couch, hands clasped loosely between his legs, his eyes on me as I enter the room. As if he was just staring at the end of the hallway this whole time, waiting for me to return. Not looking at his phone or the television. Just…waiting.
“What did you order?”
“Thai,” he said, his deep voice rippling across the room.
“Perfect. That’s exactly what I wanted.”
He nods slowly, tongue tucking into the corner of his mouth. “Someone named Dierdre is texting you nonstop.” He points to my phone where it sits on the coffee table. “You might want to answer her before she calls the cops.”
“Mmm.” Wincing, I take a few steps forward and pick up the device, tapping out a quick proof of life message to Dierdre. “You met her in the bar. Don’t you remember?”
“Baby, my mind has been wiped clean of anything but you in that fucking skirt.”
“Oh,” I breathe, my tummy flipping dramatically. “I hope you’re not offended. She just thinks she has the right to say whatever she wants. And often does.”
He gives an almost imperceptible shake of his head. “What did you tell her?”
I hold up my phone to read back the exact message. “Everything is fine, I promise.” I chew my lip, before reciting the next part. “I’ll give you a full rundown tomorrow.”
Theo’s eyebrow ticks up. “And will you? Give her a full rundown?”
“An abbreviated version,” I mutter, my face beginning to grow hot.
“Uh-huh.” He smirks, then—and lord, he’s so handsome with that flash of humor on his face, my toes curl on the hardwood floor. “Come here, July.”
“To you?”
“I don’t want you anywhere else.”
Is it safe to be this flushed? To have my pulse pounding for this long? I guess I’m going to find out, because I cross the living room to where he sits on the couch, allowing him to pull me down sideways into his lap. I’ve never sat in anyone’s lap before. Not since childhood, at least, but I’m only awkward for a moment before my frame molds naturally to his larger one, my legs draped over his formidable thighs, my shoulder tucked against his chest. Before I’m even settled, he’s unfurling my hair from the bun on top of my head, stroking the long strands with his big fingers, and I simply go softer than butter on a skillet.
“Do you have family in Chicago?” he asks.
“My aunt lives here. She works in real estate and helped me get a good deal on this apartment.” I’m trying not to moan over the gentle pull of my scalp and how good it feels. To be touched. To be soothed. “My parents are in Arizona, though.”
“No brothers or sisters?”
“You can’t tell by the only child energy I give off?”
He puffs a laugh. “Now that you mention it…”
I smile with my eyes closed. “What about you? Where’s your family?”
“Maine.” He’s silent for a handful of seconds. “I’ve got two sisters. They’re married with kids. My parents are divorced, but they still live in the same town. I went to see them after I came home, but…I don’t know, they couldn’t act normal around me. I could tell they wanted to ask me a million questions about being held prisoner.” He shrugged. “Thing is, I might have told my father, if he’d asked. He served in the Army, too, but I guess there’s a limit to what he can stand when it comes to his own son, because he never got the bravery. It got hard to be in a room with so many unspoken words.” He makes a grinding sound in his chest. “I told them I’d be back for Christmas. Hopefully it’ll be easier next time.”
“Maybe they needed time to recover from four years of uncertainty. If anything, it means they love you. They can’t stand having those blanks filled in. Yet.” On impulse, I lean in and kiss his scratchy jaw, watching in fascination as his breath temporarily shallows in response, his head turning, eyes scrutinizing my mouth. “In the meantime, if you want to tell me what happened over there, Theo, I’m here.”
He looks at me without speaking for so long, I start to squirm.
“What?”
“I was thinking, hell no, I don’t want anything but sunshine and rainbows in your head.” He frowns, visibly troubled. “But that’s not really possible, if you’re with me, is it?”
“Maybe I don’t want sunshine and rainbows,” I whisper, laying kisses on his jawline, listening to the increasingly heavy slam of his heart. “After all, I chose to live in Chicago and work in advertising.”
His brief laugh seems to surprise him. “That is true.” He slides his fingers into the back of my hair and cradles my skull, fisting my hair just enough to be comforting and hold my attention. “You chose to live in Chicago and be a badass with a presentation on Friday. How is that going?”
I bite my lip. “Umm.”
He lifts his eyebrows.
“It’s going fine, I guess. I have a pitch forming, but every time I try to practice the presentation, my nerves cause me to forget all the words.”
“Is that so?” His grip tightens in my hair, tipping my head back to expose my throat, his open mouth skimming very lightly over the delicate skin. “Maybe we need to put you in wartime conditions, so you’re not caught off guard in battle.”
“Excuse me?” I giggle.
“You don’t think I forgot my end of the deal, do you?” His lips roam over mine and I moan without any forethought, because it’s my most honest reaction. And he’s been steadily thickening beneath my bottom since I sat down. Knowing he wants me is the most potent aphrodisiac of all. “I’m supposed to be passing on my no-bullshit attitude to you, preparing you for this presentation.”
“And you don’t think you’ve been doing that?”
“ Have I?”
“I could have easily been arrested for public indecency about an hour ago! That’s something I couldn’t have imagined a few days ago.”
“I’m the one who pulled your panties down.”
I purse my lips and notch my chin higher. “Maybe I’ll pull them down next time.”
“ For me .” Before I can predict his actions, Theo is standing up with me in his arms and wrestling me down onto the couch, coming down heavy between my parted thighs, my wrists captured soundly above my head. “You’ll only pull them down for me, July.”
“That was implied,” I hiccup.
“Was it?”
“Yes.”
He’s shaking, his breath coming in short pants. “Jesus Christ, I’m so fucking possessive of you. It comes up and bites me out of nowhere.”
“I don’t hate it.”
“Yeah?” He snaps his teeth a hair away from my lips. “It makes me want to forget you’re a virgin and do very rough things with this body.”
“I don’t hate that, either.”
“You don’t know how hard I can fuck.”
“Oops.” I look him square in the eye while sliding my knees up and down his ribcage. “I guess you have to show me.”
Theo breathes hard for several beats, his sex like a lead pipe between my legs. “Now, do your presentation.”
I blink. “What?”
He dips his mouth to my neck, sucking a mark onto my skin in a raw, purposeful way that panties grow damp. “Do it now, baby. Let’s hear the pitch.”
“Are you serious?”
“Keep your hands above that pretty little head,” he rasps, his touch tracking down my sides to my hips, inserting them beneath the couch and my bottom, kneading, lifting me toward him for a slow, thorough hump, before my cheeks are released and he’s drawing the nightshirt up to my neck, groaning without shame over the sight of my breasts, my nipples at such stiff attention. “Give me the pitch. Doing it while you’re distracted is going to make it easier when the time comes for the real thing.”
“Uh…uhhhh.”
He sucks my right nipple into his mouth, rolling the bud around on his tongue with a drawn-out grunt. “The pitch, July.”
“Oh. Um…” My back arches as if I have built in hydraulics, the pull of his mouth is so savoring, the relentless suction a revelation. “Every parent believes their child is unique. Cut from a different cloth. A leader. Every parent wants a Yerbi baby…and…and…” He’s kissing down my stomach now to my panties, breathing hard against my mound, as if he’s praying to an altar, his eyes glittering with lust as he watches me from below. “W-well there’s a lot more to it and I’m still playing with the slogan, but…oh God, oh God…”
“That’s a weird slogan.”
How am I giggling at a time like this? “Yerbi. Feeding the leaders of tomorrow. O-or…We follow the right recipe now, so they can lead…tomorrow. I’m still working on it!”
“Sounds fucking great to me, baby. I think you’re a natural.” He removes my panties in one swift blur of movement, shaking his head with visible awe at what he reveals, his big hand dropping to adjust the ridge in his pants. “All that hard work deserves a reward—”
The door buzzer rings.
He curses. “I’m inclined to ignore that.”
“But it’s noodles.”
His lips jump, head dropping forward. “Fine, we eat first,” he growls, giving my bare sex a look of blistering regret as he climbs off the couch. “But I’m going to be thinking about dessert the whole time.”