20. Chapter 20 #2
Connor turned and took two silent steps toward me.
The look on his face said it all, and when he clenched his jaw, I gulped.
When I moved toward him so our bodies met, he was stoic, but his eyes followed my short steps.
His heart hammered against his chest—I could feel it when I rested my hands there.
Even taking a slow breath didn’t calm my own nerves, let alone his.
“Please talk to me,” I pleaded, pressing my lips to his chest and inhaling the faded cologne in his sweater.
“You were reckless today.” His voice was cold, hardened.
I shook my head, even though he was right. I still felt the anxious weight of Mickey’s gun in my hand. “I can handle myself.” With the way my voice shook, I didn’t think I would have believed me either.
“Oh?” Connor grabbed my wrists, and I winced when he squeezed a little too tightly. “And what was your plan? To put that bullet in your head? To let me walk in and find you bleeding out on the floor?”
His words hit like a punch to the gut, knocking the wind from me. “I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Plus, Mickey proved it wouldn’t have happened anyway. I worked to keep my breathing even.
“You could’ve fucking died, Grace! Are you hearing me?” When his voice boomed like that, I wanted to cower. I could suddenly see why people feared him—why my brothers were so concerned that he was dangerous. “And every man in that room would have let you.”
“I don’t need a man to take care of me. Not the Cassidys, not my brothers, and not you.” My stinging eyes betrayed me, but my anger wouldn’t let me look away, even when Connor tilted his head and lifted his brows in a challenge.
“Is that so?” Connor cupped my chin in his hand, holding my head still. I couldn’t look away now, even when my muscles twitched with the need. “Then why were you there? Didn’t you come looking for me because you needed me? You didn’t need to see me because you were hoping for exactly that?”
My jaw dropped, but he didn’t let go of my face. “Wow,” I said, blinking away most of the tears that welled against my bottom eyelids. The ones I didn’t catch rolled down my cheek. “You’re being such an asshole.”
“Do you want to repeat that?” he asked, holding my face firmer. We glared at each other with all the electric tension I could feel buzzing between us.
“I said you’re being an asshole.” My voice was strained beneath his hold, but then, he let go.
Connor took a step toward me, forcing me to mirror one back. “Are you sure you want to go down this route?” he asked, taking another, then another. I looked briefly behind me at the wall we were nearing.
“Are you sure you want to go down this route?” I snapped, glaring at him like I was prepared to throw a tantrum he could end in seconds. “Do you think I’m scared of you? You’re mad at me for no reason! I’m a fucking Moretti. I don’t need you to protect me. I had it under control!”
“For no reason?” Connor framed me against the wall, slamming his open hand against it just above my shoulder. “For no reason?” he repeated, louder this time. I swallowed the nerves that continued to claw their way up my throat. “I can’t stop picturing you dead!”
“I’m not dead. And you don’t get to control me.” I considered leaving and coming back tomorrow when he’d had time to cool down. But then his eyes locked with mine, and there, with all the anger, was something that kept me glued to my place.
He leaned toward me. “That’s a bold choice of words for a girl who came looking for me to fuck her like a cum-starved slut to get back at her family, don’t you think?” His chest heaved, and I pressed my legs together. How was he so sexy when he was livid like this?
“I came looking for you because I wanted to see you. And yeah, maybe I needed you.” I sniffled, ducking under his arm. “I thought that was something I was allowed to do. But now? I don’t know why I came over at all.”
He grabbed my wrist, stopping me from walking toward the door. “I think you still need me. I think you want to see where this little stunt of yours is going to take you. You want to see what will happen. Am I right?”
I shook my head, trying to yank my arm away from him. He only tightened his grip. “You’re wrong.”
“Are you sure?” he asked, tugging me back toward him. When my body met his, a small whimper slipped from my lips, and he lifted a single brow. I wasn’t sure at all. “I don’t think I’m wrong at all, and I think you want me to prove it.”
I emphasized each word while the intensity in his eyes glowed. “I dare you to try.”
Connor used his hold on my wrist to turn me so my back was against his chest, and then he pushed me back against the wall.
When he lifted my wrist above me, pinning it there, my cheek pressed against the paint.
My heartbeat drummed between my legs, betraying me.
His teeth sunk into the soft skin beneath my ear, and my body folded.
With my back arched downward and my chest against the wall, I had to work to remind myself I was angry with him. My body forgot about the frustration faster than I did, and with each passing second, I craved the release. I needed it.
“I don’t think I have to try at all,” he said, using his other hand to unfasten my jeans and push them past my hips. “Do I?”
I shook my head when he covered my mound, the heat from his hand radiating through the thin fabric that separated us.
My hips rolled, and when I started grinding, he pulled his hand away.
He pressed his face against my neck and inhaled deeply.
“Do you want more, Grace?” I breathed heavily, nodding against the wall with a huff.
“You have to say it. Use your words. Tell me you want it.”
“Damn it, Connor. You know I want it. I want you. I need you.” Where I thought I’d feel embarrassment begging for this man to touch me, I felt arousal instead. My body started to buzz with adrenaline-fueled lust. “But I’m still mad at you.”
“Good. Be mad at me, little pearl. Let me see you fight.” I groaned when he pressed his palm harder against me but didn’t give me the friction I was craving.
He stuck his hand beneath my lace panties, quickly spreading my lips and sliding two fingers into me without resistance.
“Giving up the fight already, hmm? I know you just want me to take care of you. Don’t you?
” I whimpered, and I could feel his smile, even though I couldn’t see it.
“Now, spread your legs a little wider for me.” I inched them apart while he groaned and hummed in approval.
The frustration still floated in his voice, hidden barely by gravelly desire. “Look at you. You’re already so wet for someone who is supposedly so mad.”
I bit back a moan when his fingers curled, but when he pressed his palm against my bare clit, I cried out. The wall was cold against my cheek, but the warmth from our bodies transferred to the drywall.
Connor’s touch was rougher than usual, but my stomach still twisted itself in knots, and the butterflies that rested there still raced to my chest. “I keep what is mine safe, Grace.” He thrust his fingers against my g-spot, holding me in his hand like he owned me.
“That includes you. That includes safe from people like Mickey Cassidy.”
“I never asked you to do that.” Tension swirled in my core, tightening the muscles in my legs, and my toes curled in my shoes. The jeans he’d shoved past my hips held my thighs in place while they shook, and Connor continued to write his possession on the inside of my pussy with his fingertips.
“I didn’t need you to,” he whispered against my ear.
“When I met you, I was drawn to you. I had to protect you. I crave taking care of you, and I know you love it. Just as much as this desperate, wet pussy of yours loves the way I take care of you.” He added another finger, driving them deeper into me while my eyes rolled back.
I was about to prove him right when he stopped.
Then, he chuckled an almost sinister laugh that felt like one more touch.
Connor kept his fingers inside me but didn’t move.
I gasped, feeling the desperation overcoming the stubbornness. “Please,” I whispered to the wall.
“Say you belong to me and you’ll never risk your life again.” My pussy rippled around his still fingers and the demand, and I clamped my eyes shut.
“I’m yours,” I whined. “I belong to you, and I’ll never risk my life again. I’m so sorry.” My voice was as desperate as I felt, but he didn’t move. Connor stayed perfectly still, pinning me to the wall beneath my confession.
“You scared the hell out of me today, Grace. I need you to mean it.” His breath on the back of my neck begged for sincerity.
I nodded. “I promise to be safe and to let you keep me safe.”
He let out a heavy sigh of relief, and, slowly, he started to move his fingers again.
My body melted into him and the wall. “Now tell me you’re my desperate, pathetic little slut, and only I can make you come the way you need.
” He dropped his head to my neck, inhaling before he ran his tongue along the sensitive spot beneath my ear. “Then beg for it.”
“I can’t.” I shook my head as well as I could against the drywall, and I wiggled the fingers above my head that were starting to fall asleep.
His words echoed in my mind but stayed too far from my lips.
I couldn’t bring myself to say it, no matter how much my pussy begged me.
It was true that nobody could make me come like he could, but the rest?
I didn’t know about that. I rolled my lips together.