Chapter 8
EIGHT
Sinner searched Opal’s face for long heartbeats. What she’d shared with him didn’t shock him—but he was shocked she told him anything at all.
Neither of them moved, their stares caught in that tight hold they hadn’t been able to break from the first time they saw each other.
A flicker crossed her face, and he saw the moment she made up her mind.
She rested her hand on his chest, fingers splayed like she was steadying herself. Her touch was light at first, exploring, but she moved like a woman who knew what she wanted.
When she rose onto her toes and brushed her mouth against his, there was no hint of hesitation.
His body reacted instantly, fire racing through him with an urgency that surprised even him. He’d wanted her since the restaurant, since he saw her smile. And even though he knew she’d been acting the part, he wanted to see it again and again.
He wanted to put real smiles on her beautiful face.
But this had become more than an op, more than partnership. He needed her to know he was in this and he wasn’t walking away.
Maybe it was feeling protective of his mom after what they’d endured when he was growing up.
Maybe it was seeing his cousins getting touched by much older men in his uncle’s pizza shop.
But when Opal told him what happened in the alley, something fierce and protective had settled in his chest. Knowing what could have happened while he wasn’t there to stop it—
He issued a low rumble, cupping her head and drawing her deeper into the kiss. He hadn’t wanted anyone with a force like this before. This raw attraction had started back on the first day, in the war room, when she showed him what she was made of by not breaking eye contact.
He tugged her flush against him, and she molded her sharp curves to him like they were one body never meant to be parted. His cock steeled behind his fly.
Her lips moved in a demand that he matched stroke for stroke. She tasted like heat and desire, and he couldn’t get enough.
The moan she made sent a thrill straight to his core. Growling, he tore his mouth free.
“Make that sound again for me.”
“Sinner…”
Taking over again, he eased his hands up her spine, all the way from the curve of her buttocks to her nape before he sank his fingers into her hair.
The strands slipped through his fingers like threads of silk.
Damn if he didn’t picture her hair spread across his chest after they rattled these flimsy hotel walls with her screams of pleasure.
He tugged lightly on her hair, arching her neck and planting his lips right over her pulse.
Whether she wanted to make the sound or not, she gave it to him—an unhinged rasp that tore at him.
With a sucking pull on her throat, he palmed her small breast through her borrowed blouse, and her nipple pebbled at his touch.
Her hand flailed in the air and found purchase on his chest, twisting his shirt. She tugged—just once—pulling him toward the bed.
Not yet.
Panting, he broke from the kiss. Her eyes were hazy with desire. For a beat, he didn’t know if he could stop.
Christ, he wanted her so badly his hands shook with the effort of pulling away.
He caught her wrists, holding her in place, forcing her to look at him. “Opal.”
Her eyes flashed, some of the blurry haze clearing.
“I need to know.” He lowered his forehead to hers, breathing in the scent that was all her. “That this isn’t you trying to make things disappear. That you’re not doing this to bury what happened tonight—or run from your past.”
True to herself, she didn’t look away, always stubborn and brave in that way that got to him.
Her breath hitched. “I’m not trying to forget. I’m choosing.”
The words hit him square in the chest.
She slid one hand free of his grip and rested it over his heart, right where it thundered. “I’ve spent my whole life reacting. Surviving. Tonight, I don’t want to react. I want to… I want to want something. I want you.”
The last of his restraint shattered.
He claimed her mouth again, slower this time but no less intense, pouring everything he hadn’t let himself say into the press of his lips. He framed her face with his hands, thumbs brushing her cheekbones but careful not to touch the scrape some asshole put there.
She melted into him, sliding her arms around his neck and fitting her body to his again. He was so much bigger than her—all over. Yet she seemed to find the perfect points to connect their bodies.
They started again, their kisses amping up the heat between them until she raked at his shoulders, nails biting just enough to make his breath stutter.
“Sinner.” The way she murmured his name nearly broke him.
He scooped her up in his arms. God, she was as slight as she looked. He carried her three short steps to the bed, his mouth never leaving hers. His body pounded with what came next.
Taking all the care in the world, he lay her on the mattress, destroying the pillow wall she’d created between them the night before. She arched up to meet him, her breasts locked to his chest and her thighs wrapped around his hips to pull him in.
Christ, he never cared about taking things slow with any woman before. But he wanted to memorize every single, brain-altering moment with Opal.
He left her mouth and trailed his lips down her delicate chin, to her throat…and lower. Nipping at her breast and receiving a moan in response, he continued on, clamping his lips around her tight nipple through the fabric of her top.
“Oh…god.” She rolled up to meet him, completely shredding his control. He couldn’t last another minute without getting her naked.
He worked the buttons of that blouse, making damn sure it was a wrinkled mess when he was finished. Every soft inch of freckled flesh he exposed made his cock throb harder. Precum leaked from the tip, and his balls ached for release.
At this point with any other woman, he would have sprinted straight for the finish line, but with Opal, he took detour after detour.
He ran a fingertip from her collarbone to the sexiest line of cleavage he’d ever seen in his life, pausing over the light spattering of freckles across each swell.
“Sinner…please.” The heated plea chipped away at his tenuous restraint. With a growl, he stripped off her blouse and hooked a finger in the strap of her bra, drawing it down to expose her breast.
Her nipple puckered when his tongue hit it, and he lost himself in teasing her to the point of no return, swirling his tongue around it, flicking across the tip and looking into her eyes as he drew the taut bud into his mouth and sucked.
She dug her fingers into his hair and wrapped her legs around his waist. All of a sudden, she stilled.
“Oh god, you’re big.”
He didn’t have words to express how much her words pleased him, especially when a woman like Opal didn’t waste any.
She raked her nails down his spine and yanked his shirt up and over his head. He shifted his weight from arm to arm to help her shed the garment. The first impact of their bare flesh incinerated any thought of turning back now.
Opal was his tonight—and every night after if he had anything to say about it.
Pinning her with his body, he kissed her long and deep, letting her know this meant more.
She skated her fingers over his chest and abs, watching his face as if she needed to memorize the moment too. When she popped the button of his pants, his jaw locked.
Whatever she saw on his face put a soft smile on hers—the first real smile he’d seen—and his heart kicked in response.
“It’s been a long time, sweetheart.” His voice was gravel and grit scraping over lust so heavy he could scarcely breathe.
Her black eyes flickered. What he said must have met with her approval. Then her lips were on his chest and he was working her pants off. He skimmed the thin string of her panties, riding a finger along the slight curve of her hip, forcing himself to slow.
She didn’t give him the chance.
* * * * *
Opal had never been one to stop thinking, not even in the throes of desire. But with Sinner’s hands on her body and his mouth trailing white fire down her neck, she discovered that surrender could feel like power.
Tension shook in his muscles and his breathing turned ragged as he held himself back. He was giving her space to change her mind. And that consideration only made her want him more.
“I’m not fragile,” she murmured against his ear. “Stop treating me like I’ll break.”
His answering growl vibrated through her chest, making her nipples pinch hard. “You have no idea what you’re asking for.”
She searched his eyes. “So show me.”
Something shifted in the depths as that last thread of restraint snapped—and suddenly his hands were everywhere. Rough palms skimmed down her ribs. Fingers looped in her panties and dragged them down her legs with an urgency that made heat pool low in her belly.
The cool air hit her skin for only a second before his body covered hers again, all hard muscle and scorching heat. She’d never felt so small and yet so powerful at the same time. The way he looked at her made a tiny lock in her chest flick open like he held the key.
She fumbled with his pants until he took mercy on her and finished the job himself.
When he kicked his pants away and settled between her thighs with nothing but the thin barrier of cotton briefs between them, her pussy was already drenched.
The thick length of him pressed against her core made her heartbeat triple.
“Oh my god,” she breathed, her hips rolling involuntarily.
He captured her mouth in a kiss that was raw possession, sliding his tongue against hers as he slipped a hand between them. The callused brush of his fingers over her damp folds made them both groan.
“So wet for me already.” His gritty voice had her insides clutching with need.
He gently stroked his fingertip up her slick seam, parting her to him. When his thumb circled her clit, she gasped and arched into his touch.