Chapter 38 #2
I take my time undressing her, not gentle, not rough, just thorough. Her nightgown ends up in a heap on the floor. My hands map out every line of bare skin. I keep my mouth on her neck, her chest, the soft spot below her ear that makes her whole body jolt.
“Color?” I murmur against her skin.
“Green,” she gasps. “So green.”
Good.
I strip my shirt, kick off my jeans, and settle between her thighs. The music outside is a distant throb. In here, there’s only her breathing and the small, wrecked sounds she makes when I drag my hands over her.
“Tell me what you want,” I say.
“I want you,” she says. “I want all of you.”
I let the words spill out that have been caged in my chest for months.
“I thought about you like this since the first day you rolled those eyes at me at the bar. I’d lie awake and picture you under me, full of me, taking everything I give you and then begging for more.
I’m so glad you said yes that first night. ”
Her nails dig into my shoulders.
“You want more?” I ask. “You want me to fill you so deep you feel me for days?”
“Yes,” she pants. “God, yes.”
My control frays at the edges.
“Say it,” I murmur. “Say what you want me to do to you.”
Her cheeks flush, eyes blown wide. “I want you to put your cum inside me,” she whispers like it’s a secret. “I want to feel you claim me. I want… I want to know you want me that much.”
Every muscle in my body goes tight.
“I just… keep thinking about it,” she breathes.
“Thinking about what?” My thumb drags along her lower lip.
Her breath stutters. “About you wanting it anyway.”
I go still.
She swallows. “About you wanting to breed me.”
Heat detonates low in my spine. My grip on her hips tightens until she gasps.
She whispers, softer, filthier, “I want you to want to leave something in me. I want you to want me like that.”
“Jesus, Penelope…” The words scrape out of me. “You have no idea what you’re asking.”
“I do.” Her nails dig into my shoulders. “I want to feel owned.”
A growl tears from my chest.
Owned, claimed, filled.
She doesn’t even realize she’s weaponizing every fucking trigger in me.
I bend my forehead to hers. “You’re playing with fire.”
“Then burn me.”
My restraint snaps like a rubber band pulled too tight.
She doesn’t need foreplay or preparing, my girl wants to feel and feel she will.
When I push into her, we both groan. She’s tight and hot around me, nails dragging down my back. I move in a steady rhythm, set to the echo of the bass outside.
“I’m going to give you exactly what you want,” I tell her, voice low, almost a growl. “I’m gonna cum in you over and over until you can't walk. Fill you up so much you’ll feel me every time you sit down.”
She shudders. “Oh God.”
“You’ll take it too,” I go on. “You’ll take everything I give you with that pretty mouth saying yes, more, please. You’ll let me breed you if I tell you I want it.”
Her voice breaks on a moan. “Silas.”
“Color?” I ask.
“Green,” she gasps. “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
Her body arches into mine. I keep my pace, keep my dirty promises in her ear, keep my hands on her hips and her throat and everywhere that makes her come undone. I hold her through the climb, through the moment she tenses tight around me, through the way she shatters with my name on her mouth.
She drags me over the edge with her. I drop my forehead to hers and let it hit, a hot rush that blurs my vision and makes my breath stutter.
For a moment it’s just heartbeats and the feel of her under me, warm and sated and safe.
When the fog clears, I ease out and drop back onto the couch.
She sprawls across my chest, hair damp with sweat, cheek pressed over my heart.
We stay like that for a while. My hand draws lazy circles on her back.
Her breathing syncs with mine. The noise outside fades into the background that my brain stops processing.
Eventually, reality taps on my shoulder.
“We should go,” I say. “We can’t leave Gideon and Talon alone with their thoughts all night.”
She groans but slowly climbs off my lap, legs wobbling just enough to make my blood stir again. I reach for her nightgown, ready to help her slip into it when I notice the mess on her inner thighs—the evidence of exactly what we just did.
Habit kicks in. I rise, reach for the small towel folded on the little cabinet.
Penelope catches my wrist.
“Don’t,” she whispers.
I pause. “Angel, let me clean you up.”
She shakes her head. “No. I want to feel you on me while we walk out of here. “
My breath leaves me in a low, guttural sound I don’t recognize. Her fingers trail down, brushing the inside of her thigh.
“You like that, don’t you?” she murmurs. “Knowing I’m full of you.”
“Angel…” My control is slipping more and more the longer she leaves my cum between her legs.
She steps closer, chest against mine, lips grazing my jaw. “I want them to look at me and know I came from you tonight.”
Heat punches straight through me. My hands grip her hips because if I don’t hold onto something, I might actually fall.
“You’re going to kill me,” I whisper.
She smiles. “You started it.”
For a moment I can only breathe her in, her scent mixed with sweat, sex, and the faint sweetness of the club’s perfume in the air.
I reach for her again, not to clean her, but to drag my fingertips through the slick on her thigh, watching her shiver.
“You’re sure?” I ask.
Her answer is immediate. “Yes.”
I swallow hard, nod, and let my hand fall. “Then put your nightgown on, Angel. Before I take you right back onto that bench.”
She laughs under her breath, slips the nightgown over her head, the hem brushing her still-sticky thighs. When she turns to face me again, her cheeks are flushed and her eyes bright with satisfaction.
“Do I look like I just got railed in a sex club?” she asks.
I tuck a piece of her hair behind her ear, my voice a low growl. “You look like a woman who was worshipped. And everyone out there is going to see it.”
Her mouth curves. “Good.”
We leave the room and head back through the main floor. The club feels louder now that my blood has cooled. She walks close to my side, that faint wobble in her step making satisfaction purr under my ribs.
Outside, the air is cooler, smelling like rain and asphalt. The parking lot lights cast everything in a harsh white. We make it ten steps before I hear it.
“Penelope.”
Her name lands sharp and cold.
Abi stands near our row of cars like she materialized out of spite. Designer coat, perfect blowout, makeup flawless. Her eyes are a different story, she’s furious.
Penelope’s whole body goes rigid beside me.
“Abi,” she says, voice flat. “What are you doing here?”
“I could ask you the same thing,” Abi answers. Her gaze flicks over Penelope’s nightgown, her flushed skin. Then she looks at me. Her mouth twists. “Of course.”
“Of course what?” I ask.
“Of course it’s you,” she says. “Dominic’s brother. The one who always thought he knew better. The one who dragged him into every bad decision he ever made.”
My jaw tightens. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“No?” Her laugh is brittle. “My husband is dead because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants and couldn’t handle the consequences. Now you’re out here screwing his son’s classmate in a sex club.”
Penelope flinches. “I’m not his classmate.”
Abi sneers. “Oh I’m so sorry, I forgot you’re a TA. And a whore. Just like your mother. Trading bodies for attention.”
Heat races up my spine. “Watch your mouth.”
She turns that venom on me. “You’re pathetic, Silas.
Too old for her, too damaged to be with anyone your own age, so you hitch yourself to the first broken girl you can find.
Just like Dominic. He cheated, he lied, and then he checked out when things got hard.
What are you going to do when she leaves you? Put a gun in your mouth and join him?”
For a moment the world goes silent.
I step between them without conscious thought. My body blocks her from Penelope, my hands clenched so tight they ache.
“You’re going to shut up,” I say calmly. “Right now.”
Abi’s eyes flash. “Or what? You’ll hit me? Real gentlemanly, Silas.”
I take a breath through my nose. “I don’t need to lay a hand on you. But you should pick your words very carefully from now on.”
A flicker of real fear flashes behind her anger. It’s small, but I see it.
She masks it fast. “You think you scare me?”
“I don’t care if I scare you,” I say. “I care that you understand this. You don’t touch Penelope. You won't talk to her like that again.”
Penelope steps up beside me then, voice steady even though I can feel the tremble in her fingers. “And you’re not talking to him like that,” she says. “And you’re not talking about my mom like that again either.”
Abi’s lips press into a thin line. “How much do you pay her to fuck you, Silas?”
“Don’t you have a doting fiance to go home to? Does he know you’re wandering around a sex club at night…alone? Are you scouting for husband number four?”
Abi laughs. “For your information I was hiring a PI. My daughter has disappeared. Penelope, your father is going to be devastated when he finds out how far you’ve fallen.”
“My father,” Penelope says, “is going to find out a lot of things. You might want to start praying he believes you when you lie to him. Because I don’t anymore.”
Something mean and sharp flickers in Abi’s gaze. “We’ll see about that.”
She turns on her heel and stalks toward her car. The engine roars to life a minute later, tires squealing as she peels out of the lot.
The silence she leaves behind feels heavy.
Penelope sags against me. I wrap an arm around her automatically.
“You okay?” I ask.
“That woman,” she whispers. “I swear, if murder was legal…”
“Already on the list,” I mutter.
Penelope huffs out a shaky laugh. I guide her toward the truck, open her door, and help her climb in. Her hands are trembling as she buckles in.
We drive in silence for the first few miles. She stares out the window, and I keep one hand on the wheel, the other resting on her thigh. Every time she exhales, her fingers twitch toward mine like she’s making sure I’m real.
When we turn onto her street, the house is dark except for the soft glow spilling under the living room curtains. Gideon’s awake. Good.
I park. Penelope hesitates for half a second before getting out, like stepping out of the truck might pull her back into reality. I place a hand on the small of her back and steer her inside.
The door clicks behind us.
Gideon looks up from the armchair, book untouched in his lap. His eyes track every flicker of emotion in Penelope’s face. “What happened?”
Penelope swallows. “We… ran into Abi.”
I swear the temperature in the room drops ten degrees.
Gideon stands slowly. “Define ran into.”
“In the parking lot,” I answer. “She apparently was hiring a PI to find Minxy. She unloaded on our girl.” I lay out the confrontation in clean, efficient detail. Every insult. Every accusation. Every deliberate attempt to cut Penelope to pieces with Dominic’s ghost.
Gideon’s jaw flexes hard enough I hear his teeth grind. “She called Dominic weak?”
“She compared me to him,” I say. “Suggested I’d off myself when Penelope leaves me.”
Penelope winces. I reach for her hand without thinking and she takes it instantly.
Gideon drags a hand through his hair. “She’s escalating. She’s desperate, paranoid, and slipping. This is good.”
Penelope glares at him. “How is that good?”
“Because desperate people make mistakes,” Gideon answers. “She showed her hand tonight.”
I nod. “She’s scared.”
“Terrified,” Gideon agrees. “And she should be.”
Penelope sinks onto the couch. Her shoulders shake once, the last tremor of shock she’s been holding in. I sit beside her. Gideon kneels in front of her, thumb brushing a tear I’m sure she doesn’t realize escaped.
“You’re not alone,” he says softly. “She can’t do anything to you without hitting all of us first.”
“I know,” she whispers. “I just… didn’t expect her to show up there.”
“She won’t catch you off guard again,” I tell her. “Not with me next to you.”
She nods. Breathes. The worst of the tremble leaves her fingers.
Then her phone buzzes.
“It’s my dad,” she says. “He never calls this late.”
“Answer it,” I tell her. “Put him on speaker.”
She takes a breath, swipes to accept, and lifts the phone.
“Hey, Dad,” she says, voice only a little unsteady.
“Penelope.” Chad’s voice comes through the speaker, warm and tired. “We need to talk.”
Her fingers tighten around the phone. “About what?”
“About a few things,” he says. “Abi just got home and said she ran into you. She’s upset. I’d rather not do this over the phone. Can you come to the house tomorrow?”
Every muscle in her body tenses.
“No,” she says. “I’m not going to the house.”
There is a pause on the line. “Pen…”
“I’ll meet you somewhere else,” she says quickly. “The park near the house. By the pond. Two o’clock.”
Another pause. Then, quietly, “Alright. Two o’clock. We’ll talk then.”
“Okay,” she says. “Love you.”
“Love you too, kiddo,” he says, and hangs up.
Penelope sets the phone down and presses the heels of her hands to her eyes.
Gideon rests a hand on her knee. “You’re not walking into that alone.”
“I know,” she says. “I don’t want to.”
“You won’t,” I promise.