30. Riley
For a moment,it feels like time stands still, something brewing between us that feels even more intoxicating than the whiskey.
“Riley,” Dante says softly, his hand still cupping my cheek.
My pulse speeds up. I don’t hate it when he calls me “princess,” but for some reason hearing him say my name—having it sound real and raw and full of something that sounds a lot like the same craving I’m feeling—has me nodding, even though it wasn’t a question.
“Fuck,” I whisper, the feeling suddenly overwhelming me.
I squeeze my eyes closed, then pop them right back open when he runs a thumb over my lips, making them tingle.
“You okay?” he rumbles.
I nod, even though I’m not sure if it’s true. It’s risky to let myself feel anything for this man, risky to want things I shouldn’t have. But I can’t stop.
I turn my head, keeping my eyes locked on Dante’s, and kiss his palm where it still cups my cheek.
He smiles. Not the charming, sexy one that pulled me in from the first night I met him, but something more real.
My stomach swoops at the sight of it.
Is that what this is? Real? Because I’m used to being wanted by people who don’t even know me. I’m used to men viewing me as a conquest or an object. But I’m not used to the way Dante’s looking at me. Like he really sees me. Like he wants all of me.
And that’s new for me. I’m not used to being desired as a whole person.
I lean toward him without meaning to, drawn closer like a moth to a flame.
“Kiss me,” I whisper even though it would be smarter, safer, to pull away.
“Is that what you want right now?” Dante teases softly, sliding his hand down to wrap around the front of my throat.
He tips my head back, his lips hovering just over mine and those gorgeous green eyes so close they’re mesmerizing.
He’s giving me an opening, I realize. A last chance to get up, leave the room, and head back upstairs before my already muddled feelings get even more confused.
But I can’t.
I’m too drawn to him. Too intoxicated by the way he’s looking at me with something in his eyes I’ve never seen before, not even the night we fucked.
But he still hasn’t kissed me. He’s waiting for me to say yes, looking at me like no man ever has before, and even knowing what he really is and the kind of darkness that lives inside him, I want him anyway.
If I’m honest, I think I want him because of all that.
For once, it’s not recklessness or the need to escape my shitty reality and find a momentary release that drives me. It’s that I do know who Dante is, at least in part, and it calls to something inside me that I can barely admit exists.
So I lean forward, closing the gap he’s left between us, and press our lips together.
Dante groans, low and hungry. Then he takes control and deepens the kiss, his free hand tangling in the back of my hair as he sweeps his tongue through my mouth like he means it.I gasp as the simmering heat inside me blooms into something all-consuming and urgent.
“You’re fucking perfect,” he mutters, hauling me onto his lap.
I go eagerly, throwing my knee over his thighs when he grabs my ass and urges me to straddle him. He’s big in all the right places, and even with the heat of his hands bringing the welts on my ass back to life, there’s nowhere else I want to be.
“Kiss me,” I repeat, delving my hands into his hair and attacking his mouth again when the bossy order makes him smile.
His hands slowly run up and down the backs of my thighs, and I feel it in every nerve ending as he settles them back on my ass and pulls me against him.
“Fuck,” I gasp, ripping my mouth away from his as the heat of his clothed cock presses against me.
He groans, rocking his hips, and it’s almost everything I need. His shaft is thick and hard and throbbing in time with my own heartbeat, rubbing back and forth with an insistent pressure right where I need it, but with too fucking many layers of fabric in the way.
“Dante,” I start again, panting as I clutch his wide shoulders. “I need…”
“I’ve got you,” he promises, fisting my hair.
The sharp sting in my scalp is electric, and when he tilts my head to the side and drags his tongue up the side of my neck, the lethal combination sends a full-body shiver through me, pleasure tightening like a corkscrew in my core. He grabs my ass again and starts dragging me up and down his cock, and the hot pressure of his cock against my clit makes me moan.
“Fuck, princess,” he groans, pulsing against me through the barrier of our clothes. “You feel so fucking good. Like this hot little pussy was made just for me.”
“Then take it,” I pant shamelessly, rocking against him.
He chuckles, low and throaty, his fingers digging into me to control the pace. “I plan to, but damn, you’re so gorgeous like this. Look at you. Hungry for it, aren’t you, sweetheart?”
I’m fucking starving for it. Not just the sex, but all of it. The way his hands are controlling but his voice is light and easy. The laughter that mixes with the heat in his eyes. Everything.
“Thought so,” Dante murmurs, tilting me forward as he starts to move my body against his a little faster. A little harder. “Come apart for me now.”
I gasp, the tingling heat of an impending orgasm spreading from my pussy outward as I writhe against him, desperate for more friction. For everything he can give me.
“Fuck, that’s it,” he grunts, thrusting hard against my clit and holding me there, grinding against me as he eggs me on. “Let me see what my cock does to you. Let me hear it. I want you nice and wet so I can take you hard. Been dreaming of your sweet pussy ever since you gave me that first taste at the club. Now scream for me again, just like you did before. Come on now.”
He pumps against me once, twice, pushing his hips up in short, shallow, rapid-fire thrusts that set me on fire. The friction is almost too much with our clothes in the way, but it’s also fucking perfect.
Almost as perfect as the way he watches me as I start to come apart for him, his face flushed with arousal and eyes heavy-lidded with lust, as if he’s getting off on getting me off.
It’s one of the hottest things I’ve ever seen, and between one breath and the next, I shatter. I come so hard it feels like my head spins.
The room tilts around me, and it takes me a second to realize that it’s not just in my mind. Dante curses under his breath as he shoots to his feet, one hand still supporting my ass as I shudder through my climax and the other splayed across my back to hold me against him.
He turns around and tosses me back down on the couch, pushing me flat as he shoves my clothes out of the way. A low sound almost like a growl spills from his lips as he trails hot, open-mouthed kisses up my stomach, laving my breasts with his tongue before sucking a trail of possessive marks along my throat. I gasp, the heat from his mouth shooting straight down to my clit.
“So fucking sweet,” he murmurs, kissing my collarbone as he nips at my earlobe. “You taste like the kind of thing I could get addicted to, wild thing.”
He pulls my shirt over my head and tosses it aside, then he’s kissing me again. His mouth is ravenous on mine as he covers my body with his, his teeth grazing down my neck to my chest. Bracing himself with one hand on the back of the couch, he shoves the other down my pants, burying his fingers in my still-throbbing pussy.
“Dante!” I cry out, almost jackknifing upright at the overload of sensation.
But I can’t. His weight holds me down, and he doesn’t let up.
He feels too good. It’s too much, my clit so sensitive that it’s throbbing already. I can’t stop squirming beneath him, and he groans, backing off the minute I start to clutch at him and arch into his touch.
“Easy, princess,” he grits out, palming himself through his jeans with his other hand as he goes up onto his knees. “You don’t want this to be over too soon, do you? I’m gonna take care of you, give you every fuckin’ thing you need. But not yet.”
He’s staring down at me like I’m a meal he’s been starving for, and it looks like his cock is going to rip its way right out of his pants. I half expect him to straddle my face and shove it down my throat. Hell, I want him to. But when I reach for his zipper, he gives me a heated smile and pins my wrists together.
“I said not yet.”
I think about fighting him on that, but then he lowers himself over me again and takes one of my nipples in his mouth, sucking hard, and I quit thinking about anything at all. He works his way down my body, tormenting me as he goes.
“Goddamn. I need to taste you,” he mutters against my skin, his voice muffled as he keeps feasting on me as he speaks. With deft fingers, he drags my pants off, then sits back and gazes down at me, looking his fill.
My stomach flutters as I lie still under his scrutiny, which makes no damn sense. I’m a stripper. I’m used to being ogled.
But not like this.
“You’re so damn beautiful,” he murmurs, finally touching me again. He lifts one leg and kisses my ankle, nipping at the skin and making me squirm and laugh at the tickling sensation.
He smiles at me, then grips my legs tight and spreads them wide. “Be still.”
“Bossy fucker,” I say, biting my lip to hold back my smile. I squirm a little more, and he pins me down, still holding me open for him.
“You’ll know when I’m being bossy,” he shoots back. “And you’ll fucking love it.”
It’s the last thing he says before he drops his head between my legs, and the snarky comment I was about to make turns into a low moan.
His mouth is hot, hungry, and relentless. His jaw is rough with end of day stubble, and the contrast between that against my inner thighs and the smooth heat of his tongue, the powerful suction on my clit as he licks and sucks at me, has me writhing beneath him as I race hard toward another release.
“Fuck, Dante, fuck,” I gasp, and he pins me down and looks up at me with wicked fire in his gaze, switching to slow, languid licks that have me shuddering.
He smiles when he feels the tremors in my muscles. “You’re gonna come for me again.”
“Please,” I whisper, trying to lift my hips to grind against his tongue.
He holds me firmly in place, because he really is a bossy fucker. Then he dives back in like he’s trying to consume me whole.
When my second orgasm hits, it’s so much more intense than the first. He sucks hard on my clit, drawing out and heightening the sensations until it almost hurts. My hips buck up toward his face, somehow hungry for more even as the pleasure of it threatens to overwhelm me. His fingers dig in tighter as he holds my hips, moving with me so that the contact between us never breaks.
“That’s it, princess,” he growls, his voice pure sex. He drags his tongue back and forth over my sensitive flesh as I slowly start to come down, breathing me in with a shudder of his own. “Fuck, you really are addictive. Now give me one more.”
“More?” I repeat, still floating on the afterglow as he raises his head to look at me. My brain feels like mush, and I don’t even try to figure out what he means. I feel too good.
Then he dips down again, big hands pinning my thighs apart, and puts that skillful mouth back on my clit.
My eyes fly wide as I gasp. “Fuck!”
“You taste so incredible when you’re coming all over my face,” he murmurs, nipping at my flesh between words. “Do it again.”
“I can’t.”
“You will,” he says with a cocky grin. “For me.”
As if determined to prove that he knows my body better than I do, he feasts on me, pushing me past the point of oversensitivity, driving me higher and higher. I’m clutching at his head, practically crying from the intensity of his single-minded focus on forcing another orgasm out of me.
When it hits, it comes from somewhere so deep and powerful that for a second, I’m sure he really has wrecked me. I’m still trembling from the force of it when he surges up and crushes his lips to mine again.
I taste myself on him, and suddenly, I’m the one who feels addicted.
“I could do that all fucking night,” he murmurs against my lips. “But damn, I need to be inside you.”
“God, yes,” I whimper, a slow pulse of arousal moving through me as my exhausted body perks up at the thought of being filled up by him. “Fuck. Please.”
Dante groans, breathing deeply, then sits back and shoves his pants down, his thick cock jutting forward the minute it’s freed. He starts to stroke it, watching me intently, then digs a condom out of his wallet.
“Get me ready,” he says, passing it to me as he watches me with a dominant, hungry look.
I sit up a little, ripping it open and reaching for him. Fuck, I love his cock. Even better is the way he reacts when I touch it. His breath hisses out as I wrap my hand around the shaft and the muscles in his thighs go tense, standing out in stark definition, when I swipe my thumb over the leaking slit.
“Princess,” he groans, his voice strained with need.“Don’t tease me right now.”
I look up and meet his eyes as I roll the condom down. His eyelids droop, and he shudders under the firm slide of my hand. It’s hot as hell, but I don’t get the chance to disobey him by teasing him more than that, because the second I’ve got him sheathed, he presses me back down on the couch and drapes his body over mine.
“Need you,” he mutters. “I’ve been dreaming about your perfect little pussy since the first time I was inside you. Did it miss me? Did it miss my cock?”
“Yes,” I breathe, not even caring that it might sound a little pathetic to admit that. Because no one has ever fucked me like Dante has, and right now, I don’t care if he knows it.
Satisfaction burns in his eyes, and then he’s lining his cock up and shoving himself balls deep inside me.The sudden intrusion punches an obscene sound out of my lips, and Dante’s grin turns positively feral.
“That’s right. Let me hear you. I fucking love it when you get loud.”
Even after three orgasms, his size is overwhelming, but I’m wet enough that there’s no resistance. My pussy stretches around him, and Dante doesn’t give me any time to adjust. He presses my knees up to my chest, holding me exactly where he wants me, and starts fucking me with hard, demanding strokes, his eyes locked onto mine in a way that’s almost as overwhelming as his cock.
“Fuck, you’re tight. Hugging me like a glove. Your pussy feels as good as it tastes, so soft and wet it’s like heaven. I could fuck you forever.”
“Dante!” I gasp, digging my nails into his shoulders as his hips collide with mine over and over. There’s not a single shred of the usual laid-back charm in his expression now. Just intensity and ownership and something primal that makes every stroke feel like he’s trying to claim me.
A few minutes ago, I didn’t think there was any way I could come again, but the feeling of having him inside me lights up a whole different set of nerve-endings, and as I clench around him, hot pleasure starts to build low in my belly, the warning sign of an impending orgasm.
I don’t fight it, letting that heat spread outward slowly, my body rocking beneath his on the couch every time he bottoms out inside me. The slapping sound of skin on skin fills the living room, punctuated by the inarticulate noises coming from each of us.
He drops his head to kiss me, his tongue plunging into my mouth in a mirror of what his cock is doing, and as I kiss him back with everything I have, the bubble of pleasure breaks.
I squeeze my eyes closed, my face contorting and my nails raking his back as I come hard.
“Fucking beautiful. That’s it. Damn, princess, you were made for this,” Dante grunts as he fucks me through it. “Now look at me.”
I drag my eyelids open, feeling well and truly wrecked, and he pulls out and slips the condom off, his eyes burning right through me.
He leans over me, bracing himself with one hand next to my head, and jerks himself off hard and fast. “Watch what you do to me. See how fucking crazy you make me. Shit, Riley. Fuck.”
He’s so close that I can feel the movement of his hand as he works himself, the wet tip of his cock brushing my stomach with every stroke. The feeling of it lights me on fire, and I reach up and tunnel my fingers through his hair, dragging his face down toward mine, hungry in a way I’ve never felt before.
“Fuck,” Dante grunts one more time, hot ropes splattering across my core and lower belly as his lips meet mine in a fevered kiss. His hand keeps pumping between us as he milks out the last of his cum, marking me with it.
When he finally releases his cock, he drags his fingers through the mess he made, smearing his release over my pussy like he’s trying to rub it in. Then he settles a little more of his weight on me, his cum-slicked hand gently cupping my hip and the other cradling my face as he keeps kissing me, both of us trying to catch our breath.
I don’t know how long we stay like that, but it’s long enough that our kisses start to shift from hot and intense to slow and lazy, our lips melting together as our tongues explore and taste.
Finally, Dante presses a light kiss to my nose, then groans softly and draws back from me.
“Fuck, that was good…” He trails off.
“But?” I prompt, because I definitely hear one coming.
I let him help me up, pretty sure my bones are liquefied, and he scrubs a hand over his face to reveal a rueful smile.
“But I wasn’t supposed to do that. Madd laid it out for us when we first brought you here. None of us are supposed to have sex with you.”
My mouth falls open, the hazy afterglow I was enjoying burned away by a surge of emotion. Several emotions, actually, all so jumbled together it’s hard to pick them apart.
Seeing how Chloe is being treated by West Point really drove home how heartless these gangs can be, and I can’t deny that there’s some relief buried in the mix. From the beginning, when Maddoc first made me strip in front of them, part of me assumed they’d end up using me for sex.
So I’m relieved to know that sexual favors were never part of their plan for me. But at the same time, it still pisses me off to hear that they were talking about me behind my back like that. Making a deal—or, from the sound of it, Maddoc laying down the law—as if it was a given to them that I don’t have a choice in the matter myself.
But I do.
Ichose this with Dante.
This wasn’t about making the Reapers happy or bargaining for my sister’s freedom, this was about the two of us. Or, at least, it felt that way to me.
I blink, my jaw working as I stare down at the floor.
“Hey now, it’s okay, princess. Look at me,” Dante says, tipping my chin up.
I do, and whatever it is that he reads on my face, it makes his eyes turn soft and gentle as he cups my cheek again.
“Madd’s just doing his job. He figured sex would break down our guard too much. Make us sloppy and shit, and none of us can afford that.”
I want to ask him why he did it then, and if he thinks Maddoc is right. Is he worried that he’ll get sloppy in his duties as a Reaper now? Let his guard down around me?
I want to ask whether the connection I thought I felt between us—hell, that I still feel—is real or not.
But I don’t.
Instead, I push down the emotions I’m not sure I should even be feeling for this man and fix a wry smile on my face. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell.”
Dante chuckles. “I’m not worried.”
A beat of silence falls between us, and it feels like it’s full of all the things neither of us is willing to say right now. I drag my lip through my teeth, glancing in the direction of the garage. We’d probably hear some noises that would warn us before either Logan or Maddoc came in, but I have no idea when they’re planning to be back, and it’s probably not a good idea to push it.
“I should, um, get upstairs.”
“Yeah, you probably should,” Dante murmurs, tugging me closer. “Because if you don’t, I’m gonna be tempted to throw you back down on this couch and see what your pussy tastes like when it’s covered in my cum.”
He grins when I shiver at his words, then nips at my lip before he releases me and stands up. He grabs my scattered clothes from the floor and hands them to me. They’re all wadded and tangled up, and I’m still sticky with cum, so I decide I’ll just bring them upstairs and get dressed up there.
“Thanks,” I tell Dante, holding my clothes to my chest as I watch him tug his pants up. “For the whiskey. And the conversation. And… well, everything.”
He winks. “I’m not lying one bit when I say it was my pleasure, princess.”
I nod and turn to leave, and he slaps my ass as I go. It’s not hard, but the skin is still tender and sensitive, and the sudden sting is enough to make me gasp. Arousal drips down my thigh as my cheeks burn, and I glare at Dante over my shoulder.
He just smirks, heat glinting in his eyes. “Fucking beautiful. Red is definitely your color.”
My lips twitch, and I have to work to keep myself from smiling as I slip out of the room and head up the stairs.