Chapter 20
brONX
A smirk stretches across my lips.
The little hellcat actually thinks she can walk away from me like that?
I give her exactly thirty seconds to get wherever she thinks she's going, then I'm on the move. My dick's still hard as steel from her taunting, and every step toward the bedroom makes it ache worse.
She wants to play games? Fine. But she's about to learn what happens when you wind up a man like me and leave him hanging.
I find her in our bedroom, standing by the window like she's admiring the view instead of hiding from what just happened in the kitchen. Her spine is stiff, shoulders tense, but she doesn't turn around when I close the door behind me.
“Enjoying yourself, princess?”
“I don't know what you mean.” But there's a breathlessness to her voice that tells me she knows exactly what's coming next. And she wants it, too.
“Sure you don't.” I move toward her slowly, like a predator stalking his very devious prey. “You think you can put your hands on me like that and just walk away?”
“I can do whatever I want.”
“Yeah? We're gonna see about that.”
When I reach the window, I don't grab her. I just press my body against her back and let her feel how hard I still am, how much I want her.
“You feel that?” I move her hair away from her ear and dip my head to run my tongue along the shell of her ear. “That's what you did to me. What you always do to me.”
Her breathing hitches, but she still doesn't turn around. “So?”
“So now you get to deal with the consequences.”
My hands settle on her hips, fingers digging in just enough to make her gasp. I can feel the tension in her body, the way she's fighting herself.
“I'm not apologizing for walking away,” she says.
“Good. I don't want an apology.” My mouth finds the spot where her neck meets her shoulder. “I want you to stop pretending you don't want this as much as I do.”
“I never said I didn't want it.”
“No, you just ran away instead of finishing what you started.”
I turn her around slowly, giving her every chance to stop me. But she doesn't. Just looks up at me with those piercing, penetrating eyes that see too fucking much.
“Maybe I wanted to see what you'd do,” she says, her voice dropping to a husky tone.
“And what do you think I'm gonna to do?”
“Probably something that'll make me forget why I should keep my distance from you.”
“Such a fucking smart woman.” I cup her face in my hands. “Too smart for your own good.”
This time when I kiss her, there's no fighting, no games. Just pure need, raw and desperate. She melts into me like she can't help herself, and fuck if that doesn't make me harder.
Her hands fist my shirt, and I can feel her surrender in the way she presses herself against me.
“Bedroom,” I growl against her mouth.
“We're already in the bedroom.”
“Smart ass.”
I lift her into my arms. She wraps her legs around my waist as I carry her to the bed. When I lay her down on the mattress, she immediately starts pulling at my shirt, desperate to get it off.
“Someone's eager,” I say.
“Shut up and take your clothes off.”
I strip out of my clothes with lightning speed, tossing everything on the floor before I peel her out of her own. Every brush of my fingertips against her skin makes her shiver, every stolen kiss just builds the heat between us.
When she's finally naked, I take a minute to look at her. Really look. The way she shifts on the bed and parts her creamy thighs, the flush spreading over her chest, the way she's looking at me like she wants to devour me.
“You're staring,” she says.
“Can't help myself. You're fucking beautiful.”
Something flickers in her eyes at that. Her gaze softens and it feels…more real. For the first time. No walls, no armor.
Just us.
“Bronx...” she whispers.
But before I can respond, she pulls me down to her, crushing her lips to mine. This time the kiss is different. Deeper. Like she's letting me in instead of just taking what she wants.
Our tongues tangle and coil, heat flooding my insides as she grinds against my cock.
My greedy hellcat.
My hands map every inch of her body. I know what makes her gasp, what makes her arch against me, what makes her whimper and murmur my name. When I slide two fingers inside of her, she's already wet and ready.
“Fuck, you feel good,” I groan against her throat.
“Don't stop,” she rasps as I drive them deeper, moving them faster, dragging them against her clit.
“Wasn't planning to. I’ve got all fucking night, princess.”
I work her with my fingers, my thumb circling her clit, until she's panting and rocking against my hand. But when she starts to tighten around me, I pull back.
“Oh no, princess,” I say. “Not until I say so.”
“Bronx, I swear to God—”
“What? You'll kill me?” I position myself between her thighs, the head of my cock bobbing against her plump pussy lips. “It’d be worth it.”
I lower myself on top of her and thrust into her slick heat, a groan slipping from my lips because she feels so fucking incredible stretched around me.
Every clench of her muscles drives me closer to the edge of sanity where I’m already so damn close to losing my mind and myself in her.
“Fuck me, Bronx,” she says, driving her nails into my back. “Please. I want you to make me come.”
“So impatient,” I say, smoothing her hair away from her face.
Her lips quirk. “Always.”
I move slow at first, savoring the way she feels around me, the way her frenzied hands clutch me as I fuck her with long, deep strokes. But when she wraps her legs tighter around my waist, urging me deeper, to move faster, I lose what shred control I had left.
Our bodies rock together, perfectly connected and in sync. The rhythm builds between us, fierce and desperate. She meets me thrust for thrust, and her body wildly writhing beneath me.
“Come for me,” I command, sliding a hand between us to circle her clit. “Let me feel you all over my cock.”
“Oh God, Bronx…” she cries out.
She comes hard, back arching off the bed, tremors assaulting her body. The sight and sound of her falling apart pushes me over the edge. Streaks of white light blast behind my eyelids as the orgasm rumbles through me, shooting out to the head of my dick, filling her with everything I have.
I collapse next to her, and time stops. We lie there tangled and twisted together, breathing hard, our skin pebbled with sweat. She's curled into my side, and for once she doesn't immediately run or try to put distance between us.
“Damn. That was...” she starts, then trails off.
“Yeah. Hot as fuck.”
“We can't keep doing this,” she says.
I tilt her head toward me. “Why the hell not?”
Her brows furrow, mouth pulling into a straight line, like she wants to keep me out. This is where she pulls away, where the walls slam down on top of me. I’m used to that, so I wait for the inevitable to happen.
But it doesn’t.
She's quiet for a long minute, and I’m starting to think she's not going to answer. Then she speaks. “Because it's starting to blur the lines.”
The admission hangs in the air between us, thick enough to choke us both.
“Would that be so bad?” I ask, running a hand down the slops of her spine.
“Yes. Because this isn't real, remember? This whole marriage, this whole situation. It's all just...”
“Just what?” I ask.
“Temporary.”
I tighten my arm around her. “Maybe it doesn't have to be.”
She looks up at me then, disbelief in her eyes. “Come on. Don't say things like that.”
“Why not?”
She bites down on her lip. “Because I might start believing them.”
“Maybe you should.”
But even as I say it, I know I'm lying. Because the mission is still there, waiting. Kingston's expectations. Access to the intel we still need. The secrets I'm still keeping from her.
She must see something cloud my expression because she pulls back slightly.
“See? That's why this is dangerous. Because neither of us knows what's real and what's just... convenient.”
She's not wrong. But lying here with her, feeling her heart beat against my chest, it all feels pretty fucking real to me.
“Tierney—” I begin.
“No, don't.” She presses a finger to my lips. “Let's just... let's just have this. For now. Without trying to figure out what it means or where it's going.”
“Okay.” I kiss her finger, then her palm. “But just for now.”
Because I know you still need convincing and I’m gonna make you believe that this is real. Even if you don’t believe me now. You will.
But I don’t say any of that. She’d never accept it, not after what just happened between us. She needs time. We both do. But I need the time to figure out how not to destroy what’s happening between us.
She settles back against my chest, and I can feel some of the tension leave her body. We're both avoiding the bigger conversation, the one about feelings and futures and what happens when this arrangement runs its course.
But for now, this is enough. Having her in my arms, feeling her trust me enough to let her guard down, even if it's just physical.
My phone buzzes on the nightstand, probably Reign with more information on Declan's situation. But I ignore it. Whatever he's found can wait.
Right now, all I want is to hold my wife and pretend that what we just shared was exactly as simple as it felt.
Even though I know it's anything but.