Chapter 14
FOURTEEN
I hardly knew we were moving, so it barely registers when we stop.
Mesmerized by the sexual tension between us, I forgot Justice’s team leader was driving until the oversized SUV rocks to a stop in a field near a big metal warehouse.
“Home sweet home,” Beast says, interrupting my whirlwind of thoughts about the man beside me. He chuckles and climbs out, tossing a warning over his shoulder. “You kids stay out of trouble.”
Justice and I stare at each other for a second—my mouth achingly dry, his hands clenched on his thighs, coiled with tension.
We’re both a little flushed, and it’s all I can do not to whimper and shift in my seat.
The silence is electric.
Then the fuse between us sizzles down to the end, and we detonate. In a heartbeat, we crash together in a wild kiss.
Hands are everywhere. His large ones crushing me, my smaller ones searching for places to find his skin.
We’re both breathing hard, desperately tasting, feeling each other as if we might vanish any second.
Screw my ribs. I don’t care if they hurt later. I need this now.
He’s lifting me then, my legs wrapping around his hips as I straddle him, the fabric of the convenience-store dress his teammate bought me riding up, baring skin that feels brand new under his hands.
And when I’m settled on top of him, Justice freezes. His nostrils flare as his breathing roughens.
Watching the pulse jump in his throat, the way his control frays at the edges, makes my head spin.
Neither of us says a thing.
It’s not necessary. We’re on a one-way track together and there’s no turning back.
As I shift on his lap, my body finds the right angle against his like it’s known him for years, and yet, like I’ve been waiting my whole life to land exactly here.
A wanton sound comes out of me. A half-whimper, half-moan as he fists my hair, taking the kiss deeper. Inhaling me, making rough sounds in his chest.
I used to think being alive was just a scientific state. Cells dividing, synapses firing. But right now, life feels impossibly big. And like I’ve missed the point of it my whole life.
Shoving the dress higher, his warm, callus palms find my hip, tracing a heated circles, as I drag his shirt over his head.
That’s when I hit pause.
My goooodnesss.
I knew he was muscular. But wow.
“You’re incredible,” I whisper, tracing my fingers over the dips and hollows of his strength. Letting the heat sink into my palms.
He sits forward, an arm wrapping around my back, pulling me close.
“Rosalie…” His voice breaks low in his throat, raw and unsteady. “I want to be inside you so bad I can barely see straight.”
His thumb brushes back and forth over my hip, featherlight.
“But your ribs—” He swallows hard, his jaw clenched. “I can’t risk hurting you more. Even if it kills me.”
I reach for his button. “I’m not afraid. As a matter of fact, I’ll be in much more pain if you don’t.”
He growls a curse before his tongue spears back into my mouth, delivering a promise of what’s to come.
Something in him snaps. Growls rippling through him as his left hand grips my butt, giving him the perfect hold to grind me against him.
Oh—God—yes!
I’m suddenly smiling like a fool and have to break for air.
This is me?! About to have sex in a car? What?
My only sexual partner was a bedroom-missionary-no-talking type. He might have liked to collect sharp knives, but his bedroom skills were dull as my butter knives.
Now I’m in the arms of a man who is growling and grinding me all over his gigantic erection?!
I don’t know whether to laugh, cry, or just fall apart.
“You good?” Just rasps as he drags his mouth down my neck, biting the strap of the dress and pulling it aside.
“I am so good right now.”
“I’ve got protection if you want to take this farther.”
Oh my God. I was so caught up, I hadn’t even thought about that.
“I want.”
But the gentleman in him hesitates. I can feel it in the tremor of his hands, in the tight coil of restraint holding him back.
“If you’re sure.”
My reply is to bite his ear.
He digs into his cargo pocket, brow knotted until he pulls something out. The foil packet glints between his fingers as bright as a candy wrapper.
Red and pink, and blue.
For some reason, that makes me laugh.
It seems so whimsical considering what we’re about to do.
His gaze snaps to mine at the sound, and for the first time since we met, I see him truly soften.
“You think this is funny?” he asks, low, rough, a sexy smile ghosting over his mouth.
“Not funny,” I whisper. “Just… impossible. You. Me. All of it.”
I should be terrified of what’s happening. I nearly died less than twenty-four hours ago, and now I’m pressed against a man who scares me as much as he excites me.
His thumb brushes my jaw, tracing the edge of my chin slowly as if he’s memorizing it. “Sweetheart, impossible’s kind of my specialty.”
With him, the fear isn’t repelling—it’s invigorating. I’m alive. So alive.
He presses his lips to my temple, my cheek, the corner of my mouth, and the gentle gesture steals something big from me—my logic, my control, maybe even my heart.
“I don’t know what this is,” I whisper, “but I don’t want it to stop.”