Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Dare
A villain acted without restraint. A villain took what didn’t belong to him. A villain pretended he was better than he was.
A villain committed a sin and told himself it was for salvation.And in kissing her again, that was what I’d done.
But God help me, she was my undoing.
“You’re so good…too good,” I growled and kissed her harder. My angel.
Her mouth was heaven under mine. Soft and warm and welcoming. But also bold. She met my tongue stroke for stroke, both demanding to be conquered and then letting it happen— a voracious victim to my claim.
Fire bled into my veins as I pulled her closer, her curves fitting me in a way that was the same and different as those decades ago— when I’d first kissed her here.
Those memories should’ve been a warning. A piercing siren. A bright flare. Retreat .
But I couldn’t anymore. I couldn’t run from life—from living. From loving. Not anymore.
Groaning, I wrapped my arms around her, my hands finding purchase under her ass as I lifted her off the counter and carried her to the bedroom.
There, I sat on the edge of the bed, positioning her on my lap.
How many times had I imagined having sex with her? When I was a teen, it had been the running soundtrack in my mind every time we were alone, but I always held back. I guess I’d always had this kind of restraint warring inside me— or maybe I’d always known that Athena deserved more than I could give her.
But this was nothing like I’d imagined. Fantasy had given my younger self a level of patience that my older self didn’t possess.
I didn’t take my time undressing her. I pulled off her shirt and bra in seconds, not caring what ripped or tore in the process.
I didn’t slowly explore the perfect shape of her body with plenty of time for her to stop or protest. Instead, I sank my teeth into her neck and filled my hands with her breasts, weighing and shaping their soft fullness. And the way she responded was far from a protest.
Athena bowed into my hands, murmuring, pleading for more.
“Fuck, you’re perfect,” I rasped, bringing my mouth down her chest until I reached her nipple, drawing the soft peak between my lips.
Her gasp was like music to my ears as she clutched me tight, but the way she tasted was pure heaven.
I was gentle—as gentle as I could be. Until I wasn’t. Until I closed my teeth on her nipple, and Athena jerked against me, her core bumping my throbbing cock.
I released her on a hiss, pleasure exploding like dynamite in my gut.
“Again,” she ordered—or maybe begged.
Either way, I complied, locking the tight bud between my teeth and flicking my tongue over her.
Fuck…
She ground against me, her hips rocking along my angry cock with weight and friction that made me an addict. I bit and licked and sucked until the pleasure—the pain—threatened to kill me.
And then I flipped us—flipped her.
She let out a cry of surprise, her back landing on the soft bed as I rose above her with only a single thought—a single mission on my mind.
“I have to taste you.”
I removed her leggings and underwear in one swipe and then settled between her thighs.
Her legs found their way over my shoulders as I kissed the inside of her thigh.
“Dare…” she breathed when I got closer—when I could smell the sweet musk of her desire.
“Keep them wide for me, Angel,” I begged, tugging her legs a little farther apart. “This is only my second meal in a decade.”
I torpedoed her swift inhale with the slide of my tongue along her seam. From her entrance to her clit, I claimed the whole of her pussy as mine.
Athena cried out, her body rising to meet my mouth as her hands clutched the back of my head.
“Hold on,” I warned, and then flicked my tongue over her clit.
For minutes, the wet heaven between her thighs became a battlefield, and my mouth would settle for nothing less than complete surrender. Her moans became whimpers, whimpers became cries, and cries became pleas for mercy.
“Show me how good you are,” I rumbled. “How wet and perfect you are for my cock.”
“Dare…” She could hardly get out my name. Her body was arched so tight—so taut—that one more suck on her clit would send her spiraling.
I teased two fingers at her entrance and then steadily pushed them inside. “That’s it,” I groaned, feeling her muscles tighten.
My breaths labored, need making my head feel light.
“You have no idea how bad I want to be inside you.” I spoke because if I didn’t, I was afraid I’d black out. I felt every pulse of my dick like it was the beat of my heart. Pure, unfiltered need raged through my veins. “How hard I am right now…” I hissed and reached for my throbbing cock, pulling it free from my jeans. “God, you feel like I might not fit.”
I wrapped my free hand around my length, stroking just as I stroked the inside of her hot cunt.
“Dare, wait—ahh!” She whimpered and clutched my head as I brought her right to the edge of her orgasm again. I let her pull my head back, finding her hazy and heavy-lidded eyes. “I want you,” she said in a rush, her body breaking apart at the seams. “I need you inside me.”
“I know, Angel, but I need you to be a good girl and come for me first. Once I’m inside you, I don’t know…” I trailed off, the words alone were enough to make my cock start to leak. “Just need to give you one first.” My voice cracked at the end, betraying how on edge—how uncontrolled I really was. “Can you let me do that?”
“Yes,” she murmured, and I felt her body become like putty in my hands .
I might be a villain for this—for pretending she could be mine—but I definitely was for wanting to give her pleasure like this. I wanted to make her come in a way that would ruin her for any other man. Past. Present. Future. This would be her standard—I would be her standard. For the most pleasure and pain one person could make her feel.
I set my tongue on her again, knowing this was it. Knowing after this, it will be my cock and not my fingers spreading her wide. Knowing after this, there’s no going back.
I alternated between swirls and flicks, changed speeds and the pressure against her clit until she gushed on my fingers and her strained cries became a single sound.
“That’s it, Angel. Drench me. Drown me. Be a good girl and give me everything.” Her body trembled and jerked uncontrollably as I curled my fingers inside her pussy and sucked hard on her clit.
And she gave.
Gave in.
Gave up.
Gave it all.
Her release barreled through her like a hurricane, shaking her muscles from her bones and drenching my tongue with her release.
It was so damn good. So sweet and warm and so fucking precious. But I was too fucking feral to enjoy it.
As soon as she was remotely stable, I moved up her body, my mouth branding a path from her stomach to her sternum to her neck. There, my teeth found purchase in the soft corner of her shoulder.
“Hold on,” I grit out, waiting until her limp arms linked around my shoulders before I reached for my cock.
I angled myself toward her heat, my tip dripping onto her clit before it was notched at her entrance.
I hissed, sharp pleasure staked to the center of my chest. I couldn’t stop. The wet heat of her pressed to me…another few seconds, and I would come right there. I couldn’t stop. Couldn’t prepare her…couldn’t prepare myself.
All that was left of me was the need to be inside her.
I pushed into her pussy. Her hot, wet, tight…I groaned, “So fucking tight. Holy shit…” I couldn’t breathe. The hold she had on my cock was also around my throat. Too fucking tight even for air to fit through.
But I couldn’t stop.
I heard her gasp when my piercings moved inside her. Metal and man stretched her clenching muscles, forcing their surrender. And the metal inside me…
“Fuck, I’ve never…I had no idea…” I couldn’t form words for what I was trying to say.
I’d gotten the magic cross right before Amira, but Amira and I…we’d never…I’d never been inside a woman after getting pierced.
“Tell me,” she whimpered as I pushed forward, every inch spreading her wider.
“You’re so beautiful, the way you’re taking my cock.”
I wanted her to see this. Just like the constellations, I wanted her to see the way I burned for her in the darkness.
“You’re so swollen and pink and wet. Taking me deeper even though it looks like I’m too big for you.” I had to stop—to groan and push farther. Can’t stop. “I’ve fucked my hand so many times to the fantasy of this. Your kiss. Your touch. Your smell. Your taste.” I shoved deeper, hearing her breath catch, but I couldn’t stop. Wouldn’t until she had all of me. “And it was all nothing…nothing compared to this.”
I thrust my hips all the way, feeling her body surrender and take the last inch of my cock, so my tip kissed her womb.
“Fuck, you feel incredible, Angel,” I rasped, ragged, as I began to move. Sliding out and then shoving back inside, my piercings stroking her inner muscles as I moved.
“Dare!” She quaked, but I was lost.
Out and in. Harder. Faster. “Relax for me. Relax for my cock,” I begged, my chest heaving. “I need you to relax for me like a good girl.”
Whether she did or I didn’t give her a choice, I had no fucking clue. All I knew was that I moved over her like a beast, driving into her tight heat with feral force.
“Fuck, Athena,” I garbled, my body like a beast breaking free of its chains. Her heat. Her tightness. The way it pulled and teased my cross. “I can’t stop…I can’t…”
“It feels so good, Dare. Please, I want all of you. Please…” she begged, the husk of her voice—the plea. She wasn’t just talking about all of my cock or all of my orgasm…she wanted everything.
The sound that came out of my lips was savage. I reached for the headboard, somehow knowing if I didn’t hold on, I’d fuck her right through the damn thing.
And then I fucked her like the villain I was. I slammed into her sweet pussy like it was all mine. Mine to fill. Mine to break. Her muscles stretched and clenched around me, her womb met the depths of every drive.
She latched her arms around my neck, my hips moving too forcefully for her legs to hold her steady.
I didn’t know how this could go, but I prepared for it to be fast. To be furious. To be unrestrained and unable to focus on her pleasure while being trampled by my own. It was why I’d made her come first. Before.
But I wasn’t prepared for what was happening.
I wasn’t prepared for the way her eyes went wide when my cross hit a spot so deep and pleasurable inside her, she looked up at me like I’d given her back her sight .
I wasn’t prepared for the way her body instantly responded, her pussy growing wetter, tighter, as chasing my release demanded another of hers. Wasn’t prepared for her fingers clawing at my back
“Come for me, Angel,” I begged. “Come for me like a good girl.”
The pulse of her pussy was too much. I couldn’t stop my release—I couldn’t stop myself from coming undone. My head tipped back with a roar that rattled the whole goddamn house as I drove as deep as I could get and let my orgasm take me.
And somewhere in there, hers came for her, too.
Athena fractured around me, her body holding me so tight it was impossible for any of my pieces to fall apart.
Air dumped into my lungs, but it was something else—something warmer and thicker and stronger—that filled my chest. That reached for all the dark, cobwebbed cracks left by guilt and loss and sealed them all up. Filled them with her.
Carefully, I lowered myself to the side, pulling her with me—on top of me as our breaths fought for steady purchase.
“Are you okay?” I said hoarsely, fear creeping in that I’d been too rough.
“I’ve never been better,” she murmured and turned her head, and then I felt her lips press to the center of my chest. “Are you?”
I stilled. I was more than okay. I was…alive. Because of her.
“Yeah.” I kissed the top of her head, letting my eyes close as I held her for one more minute. “Now let me clean you.”
I maneuvered her to the bed, biting back my own grunt of pain as my cock slid free. I managed to stand before I dripped onto the bed. I was still hard…still leaking the last bit of cum that seemed never-ending, wanting to fill her.
Shit.
“Athena…ar e you…”
“I have an IUD.” She read my mind.
No. If she read my mind, she’d see it picturing her pregnant with our child. Her stomach filled. Her eyes glowing. If it was a boy, we’d name him Ryan. A girl, Judy, for her mom.
Fucking hell. I was imagining our family, and she still didn’t even know the truth about who I was.
Tomorrow. The decision followed me to the bathroom. Tomorrow, this ended. There was no hiding the truth from her now.
I warmed a cloth and returned to the bed.
“Dare…” She pulled my face to hers, kissing me as I cleaned gently between her legs. When I was finished and drew back, she asked, “Will you stay?”
My heart cracked. That she thought I could leave her now…after that…there was no more leaving. No more running.
Only the morning and the truth it would bring.
“I’ll be right back,” I told her, returning the cloth to the bathroom and then moving back to her side. The bed sank under my weight, and I heard her breath of relief before I even answered, “I’m not leaving, Angel.” Never again.
I pulled her body tight to my own and slid my hand to her thigh, gently moving it over my waist.
“Dare…” She shivered when I slid the tip of my cock along her seam, feeling her grow wet again.
I’d never done this before, but I couldn’t resist. Having her…having been inside her…it felt like I couldn’t breathe right without my body buried in hers.
“In fact, I’m going to stay right here…” I pushed back inside her. “All night…” I let out a hiss as her sore muscles welcomed my piercings and then tightly clutched my heavy length. “So you know I haven’t left,” I finished saying as I filled her completely, enjoying the way she gave a small shud der in my arms.
“All night?” she murmured, adjusting her position in a way that made me see stars.
“Angel, I’d stay here all my life if you’d let me.” The words were out before I could stop them—temper them. I was getting ahead of myself. Letting myself feel too much for the woman who both knew me better than anyone and yet only knew a lie.
If I wasn’t careful, the truth would end up claiming two broken hearts instead of one.
And then, on the edge of sleep, with the woman of my dreams nestled in my arms as securely as her body held mine, I realized that hiding who I was wasn’t my worst untruth; believing I ever stopped loving her was the greatest lie I’d ever told.