Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
ALEX
W hen I see Tori rushing down the street with a small bag slung over her shoulder, I climb out of the car and jog after her. I catch her arm and turn her toward me. “Where are you going?”
“Away from here. To stay at a friend’s. I don’t care.”
“What happened?” I take her hand, consciously calming the savage inside me, the beast who wants to pick up in real life where we left off in our text exchange. “Come on, Tori. The night’s getting cold.”
She’s only wearing a strappy top and sweatpants, both of which outline her perfect shape temptingly, her round breasts making me want to touch her, take away her emotional pain with a physical release that will have her shivering all over… not from the cold this time.
In the car, she wraps her arms around her middle.
“You’re not going to believe this,” she whispers.
“Try me.”
“It’s Damien. He’s not a stranger. He’s got a connection to me. Sort of. It’s so messed up.”
I take her hand, careful not to let my touch wander anywhere else. “Explain.”
“Mom had an ex who was into some shady stuff. A ‘two-bit criminal,’ she called him. Anyway, she’s not proud of this, but she cheated on him. Twice. When he found out, he was angry. Apparently, he sent her threatening texts and even letters for a while. She hid all of this from me. He has a son. Guess what his name is.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me.”
Tori nods. “I know, right? My thoughts exactly.”
“I’m sorry, Tori.”
“Do you think that’s why Damien got the job in the first place? He started after me.”
“Maybe, but I doubt it. More likely, he started working there, learned who you were later, and decided to get revenge for his dad. Or maybe he doesn’t even know.”
She tightens her grip on my hand. “So much for casual, huh? I’m pulling you into a freaking conspiracy .”
“You’re not pulling me into anything,” I tell her fervently. “I’m here; I’m involved because I want to be. Let me take you to my apartment.”
“Won’t Elliot be sleeping?” she asks.
Am I being paranoid, or is her tone strange? She sounds suspicious. I can’t figure out why she would be, though.
“I’ve got the beach house, where I live with Elliot, and an apartment I use when my shifts end at awkward times or if I’m on call.”
“Oh.” More suspicion, I think. “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
“No. I don’t want to leave you alone. I’m here for you, Tori.”
“So this is your bachelor pad, huh?” she says, walking ahead of me and looking around the modern, bare apartment.
“That’s not how I’d describe it.”
She walks around the living room, looking at the pictures on the walls, watercolors of nature scenes that were hanging there when I moved in. As she studies the place, I imagine her sprucing it up, giving it some character. Through her eyes, it probably looks sort of depressing.
“There’s a spare room,” I tell her. “If you’re worried about me pouncing on you.”
She turns, pouting, so beautiful it hurts being close to her. All those years, I was cynical and alone, but deep down, wanting my one and only. As she stands in the semidarkness, her eyes glimmering with excitement, I can’t fight the truth.
I’ve found her. Tori is the one.
“Is that what you want?” she whispers.
“What I want is too damn savage for words.” My voice shudders.
She raises an eyebrow. “Try me,” she whispers.
I know she wants to forget, but can I give into my desire now, so soon after she’s had a fight with her mom?
Perhaps another man, a better man, would take the high ground here. But I can’t resist the hunger blazing in me. I walk across the room and sink my hands greedily into her hips.
“What I want is to forget about everything. That rat with the gun. This conspiracy you’ve pulled me into. I want to forget about your stubborn promise to keep this casual. I want to forget about everything, Tori, except your desire.” I slide my hands to the voluptuous round globes of her ass, eliciting a moan that goes right to the base of my dick, making my balls swell. “I want you to feel how hard you make me. I want to slip in your perfect pussy and show you how badly I need you…”
A look of nervousness flashes across her face, but then she sinks her touch into my shoulders. She pulls herself right up against me, standing on her tiptoes.
“Then take what you need.”
Fuck .
She couldn’t have said anything more captivating.
I kiss her passionately, claiming her lips as I lift her off her feet. She giggles adorably, wrapping her legs around my waist, letting me drive my solid length against her through the fabric of our clothes.
Carrying her through the apartment, I kick open the bedroom door and place her on the bed. She reaches up, clawing for me. There’s a hint of hungry desperation in her movements. It’s like she doesn’t want us to be apart because then she might doubt herself.
I need to be the mature one if I’m noticing things like this.
Don’t I?
But I can’t.
I fall upon her, letting out a groan when my lips come to her neck. Her noises urge me on, her breath catching as she slides her arms down my back. She tears at my shirt.
“Are you trying to hint at something?” I tease.
Her cheeks flush gorgeously.
“I need you to say it,” I growl.
“Take your shirt off,” she whispers.
I lean back and tear my shirt off. Buttons pop, making her laugh. Then I grab her shirt and try to pull it over her head, but that same look of nerves flutters over her face. She places her hand on my wrist.
“What are you afraid of?” I ask, every muscle tense and throbbing.
“Are you sure you want to see me?”
“You’re joking,” I groan. “There’s no damn way you’re asking me that. You’re the only woman I want to see.”
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” she murmurs.
“Maybe I shouldn’t,” I snarl, pulling her shirt over her head, revealing her luscious tits hidden within her bra. “Maybe I should be good. Maybe I should try and pretend that this Valentine’s thing doesn’t mean a damn thing. Maybe…”
But I can’t resist her anymore. I kiss down her mounds, then unclip her bra at the front. When the material falls away, I let out a shudder of pure desire. Her breasts are round and large, the definition of curvaceous. I tenderly massage one while bringing my mouth to her other, sucking her nipple.
“Oh, Alex,” she whimpers urgently. “Yes, yes…”
I slide my hand from her breast and over her stomach. When she cringes, I reluctantly release her nipple and lean back. “What the fuck was that about, gorgeous?”
“What?” she murmurs, but I can tell she knows what I mean. “It’s just, when you touched my belly… But it’s not a big deal.”
“Your figure is perfect ,” I tell her, kissing her lips, then her breasts, then her stomach. She giggles. “Perfect, Tori, and don’t you dare think otherwise, got it?”
I return to her lips, gliding my hand down her body as our kisses become more urgent. I slip into her waistband and into her underwear, my dick leaking as I get closer to her clit and her warm entrance.
Her heat gives me an aching preview of how she’ll feel wrapped around my shaft. She moans, opening her mouth, our teeth clicking in the mayhem of lust.
Her eyes are wide with almost disbelief as if she’s stunned by how right this feels. I smear her wetness over her sex, groaning as I rub her faster, captivated, no, hypnotized by the pleasure sizzling in her expression.
After a minute or two, she begins to move her hips in time with my hand. It makes her breasts shiver and shake, her body twitching. My cock has never been harder, my tip pushing urgently against my pants, trying to escape, trying to claim her.
“Oh, oh,” she gasps, her mouth opening and closing like she’s struggling to stop from screaming. “Freaking… fucking… oh…”
I move to her entrance, slipping my finger inside as I press the heel of my palm against her clit at the same time. No matter what happens, I’ll never forget the way her moan changes when I apply pressure.
It goes from excitement flooded with desire to unstoppable. Nothing could prevent her curvy, flawless body from gifting me with an orgasm now. She closes her legs around my hand, trapping it there.
I rub her so hard, fingering her slit, my dick pulsing as I imagine pushing inside of her instead. She feels so tight; it’s easy to imagine her wrapped around my shaft, gliding up and down, coaxing wave after wave of come from me.
She turns her face to the side as she goes over the edge, biting on the sheets, her body trembling all over.
“Fuck,” I moan, grabbing her pants.
She touches my wrist again. “Alex…”
“I need you,” I tell her, the truest words I’ve ever spoken. “I need your body. I need to be inside you. I need to look into your eyes and see them flood with another orgasm, but this time, with me buried deep, all the way inside…”
She shakes her head. “I’m sorry.”
“You’ve got nothing to apologize for.”
I know I should stop. There’s something she wants to say, but there’s another part of me that just wants to tear her pants off, reveal her thickness, kiss and lick her lips and her clit, and make her go wild again before I slide my throbbing dick into her.
“No – you’re right. But I don’t want to do anything else. I mean, I want to. But… it’s just moving fast, okay?”
Somehow, I manage to drag my hand away from her. But with her being half naked, it’s still difficult to focus.
“Maybe you should…” I chuckle savagely. “I can’t even say it. That’s how badly I want you.”
Her smile breaks through her anxiety. “Maybe I should put my clothes on. Is that what you were going to say?”
“Yeah… unfortunately.”
She laughs, but the laughter stops when she has clipped her bra and pulled her shirt over her head. “I don’t want to make a big deal out of this, especially after everything that’s happened.”
“Whatever it is, you can tell me.”
She sits up and takes my hands, biting her lip.
Again, she looks nervous and scared even by what she’s feeling, the connection growing between us. When she gets that look, I think she’d do anything to sever this bond.
She wanted to keep it casual, but we are way past that.
“Tori?”