Chapter Twenty-Two
Zane
There are tears in her fucking eyes, and it cracks something in me I didn’t know I was holding together.
She turns to go, and the second she moves, something inside me snaps.
“Sky.”
She freezes, but doesn't turn to face me. She stands there, spine locked up as if she’s bracing for another hit.
I step around the car until I’m in front of her.
That’s when I realize what I’ve done.
Her eyes are glassy. Shining with something more profound than pain. It’s not only hurt. It’s betrayal. And I fucking did that to her.
It hits harder than any punch I’ve ever taken.
I drag a hand through my hair. Every part of me wants to grab her face in my hands, press my forehead to hers, tell her I didn’t mean to fuck this up. But I did.
I always do.
I fuck everything up. I break the only good things I get.
“You’re not a broken charity case, Sky” I say, voice thick.
She doesn’t react. Just stares up at me, and lets me stand there in the mess I made.
“You’re not like the others.”
“What others?”
I swallow hard. My jaw grinds.
“All of them.” The words taste bitter, but I force myself to keep going. “The girls I’ve fucked and forgotten. The ones who don’t mean shit once I pull my jeans back up. You’re not that.”
My throat burns because she’s not some girl I found at a party. Not some name I’ll forget tomorrow.
And now she’s standing in front of me with tears in her eyes because I let my own shit fuck it up again.
I take a step closer. My lungs are on fire, voice barely scraping out.
“I woke up this morning and panicked.”
Her eyes flick to mine.
“I didn’t know what the fuck to do with the way you made me feel, Sky.”
She exhales hard. “So you left?”
I nod. “Yeah. I fucking left. Because you’re the only girl who’s ever mattered, and that scares the shit out of me.”
She doesn’t move. Just watches me as if she’s trying to figure out if I’m just another asshole with pretty words and dirty hands.
“You think I don’t care?” My voice drops to a whisper. “You think I could fuck you, touch you like that, and walk away clean?”
She stays quiet.
But I see it in her eyes. The cracks she’s trying to hold together.
“I haven’t stopped thinking about you since the first second I fucking saw you,” I admit. “You came in with your walls up and your fists ready, all that fire and scars and the shit you don’t let anyone see. And I was fucked from the start.”
She takes a deep breath, the first one since I started talking.
“I tried to fight it, Sky. Told myself you were nothing more than a distraction. A body to take the edge off, something to help me forget the shit I carry around. But after that, you looked at me, saw through all of it, saw through me. For the first time in my fucked-up life, I didn’t want to run.”
My chest rises, breath coming hard.
“I’ve never had someone give a shit whether I stayed or left.” I swallow hard. “I fucked it up, yeah. But not because you don’t mean anything. It’s because you mean too much. I don’t know how to hold something that matters without breaking it. I don’t know how to be the guy who gets to keep you.”
I shift closer, close enough to feel the heat coming off her skin.
“But, fuck, Sky, I want to be. For you, I’d try.”
I reach for her now. My hands find her waist, fingers curling into the fabric of her hoodie like I need something to hold on to.
She watches me, chest rising fast.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “For this morning. For everything.”
She blinks fast, and then she whispers, “I thought I meant nothing to you.”
My heart fucking caves.
“No,” I breathe. “Fuck, no.”
She exhales, shaky and slow. Her hands come up, fingers brushing my chest, hesitant at first, finally curling into the fabric like she needs something to anchor her.
I can’t take it anymore.
I grab her face and kiss her.
It’s not soft.
I pour every jagged, fucking piece of myself into it. Every goddamn thing I’ve buried since the first time she looked at me and didn’t see a fuck-up.
She melts into me. Fingers tugging my shirt. Her breath stutters against my lips, and I tighten my hold on her waist, dragging her into me until nothing fucking exists except her mouth, her body, the way she fits against me like she’s always belonged there.
The kiss turns hungry.
Messy.
Tongues tangling.
My hand fists in her hair. I tip her head back and kiss her deeper, rougher.
She moans into my mouth, and it tears something fucking open inside me.
I break from her lips just long enough to rasp, “You don’t know what you fucking do to me.”
She looks up at me, breath catching. “Show me.”
Fuck. That word detonates inside my chest.
I walk her backwards until she’s pressed up against a car. Her gasp cuts off against my mouth when I kiss her again, harder this time. My hands are everywhere. Her neck. Her waist. Her ass.
I grab it, lift her. Her legs wrap around me, and I sit her on the hood of the car, cock pressed tight to her heat through our clothes.
I trail my lips down her throat, tasting her skin, biting hard enough to make her tremble.
“I need you,” I growl into her skin. “Right fucking now.”
“Then take me,” she whispers, voice shaking. “I’m yours.”
She’s already tugging at my shirt, fingers frantic, breath shaky.
I yank it over my head and toss it behind me.
Her eyes drop to my chest. She pauses. Takes me in. Her lips part, and I swear I feel her gaze in my fucking bones.
I reach for her hoodie, pulling it up and over her head in one motion, her shirt going with it. She’s left in a pale pink bra that barely covers her, and fuck, she’s beautiful. Flushed skin. Wide eyes.
I don’t give her time to second-guess it.
“Tell me you want this,” I rasp against her skin, voice ragged, cock already straining in my jeans.
Her hands frame my jaw, pulling my face back to hers.
“I’ve only ever wanted this.”
I groan, and crash my mouth onto hers, harder now, hungrier, tongues fighting.
She moans into me, and I swallow it, grinding against her until the heat of her burns through both layers of denim.
I need her more than I need fucking air.
My hands slide down her sides, gripping her hips, pulling her against me. I break the kiss long enough to drag her jeans down her thighs, kneeling to strip them off completely. My eyes travel up her legs, slow, worshipping.
She’s trembling. Breath coming in short, shaky bursts.
I toss her jeans aside, lean in, forehead pressed to hers.
Her hands rest against my bare chest, fingers twitching, eyes wide and glassy.
“I’m gonna make you feel everything I don’t know how to fucking say,” I murmur. “Every fucking thought. Every ache and second I spent today thinking about you.”
Her lips fall open on a shaky breath.
That’s when I sink to my knees between her legs.
My hands grip her thighs and I kiss a line up the inside of one.
She gasps again, one hand curling on the hood of the car, the other tangling in my hair.
I kiss higher.
Breathe her in.
She’s already soaked through the thin cotton of her underwear, and it makes me fucking feral.
I pull her panties down slowly, watching her squirm. Watching the way her chest rises and falls, the way her lashes flutter. And when she’s finally bare, I groan again.
“Fuck, Skylar…”
I grip her thighs, opening her up wider.
And I taste her.
My tongue flicks over her clit once.
She jolts, hips arching, a sharp gasp tearing from her throat.
I do it again.
Slower this time, until I’m sucking her into my mouth and holding her there, groaning against her. She’s trembling under my hands, thighs quaking as I keep her open, exposed, fucking adored.
Her fingers tighten in my hair, nails biting into my scalp, dragging me closer.
“Fuck… Zane—”
I look up at her from between her thighs.
“That’s it. Say my fucking name again.”
She whimpers, head dropping back, chest heaving. I dive in, tongue circling her clit, before flattening and dragging down through her soaked folds. I fuck her with my mouth, let her ride every filthy stroke.
She’s a fucking mess above me, hips grinding, breath stuttering, hands desperate.
I hold her down and keep going, relentless, my mouth wet, rough, and hungry.
Her thighs try to close but I pin them apart, groaning as she bucks beneath me.
“Zane… I’m… shit… don’t stop—” Her voice breaks. Her whole body bows. I feel it coming, the way she shakes, the way her thighs lock, the way her hips jerk up into my mouth.
I keep sucking.
Keep licking and fucking worshipping her with my tongue until she comes hard with a strangled cry, thighs clamping around my head, body shaking as she’s falling apart in my hands.
I kiss her inner thigh before dragging my mouth away, wiping my chin on the back of my hand as I rise to my feet.
She’s gorgeous. Sprawled out, ready for me to take, her chest still rising in fast little jerks.
I stare down at her and unbutton my jeans, voice low and hungry.
“I’m not done with you yet.”