Chapter 10 Raven #2
Jinx stares, his gaze taking me in, eyes searching mine with furrowed brows.
Can he see it? Can he see past the anger to the raw, terrifying need beneath?
If he can, I’m screwed. This isn’t a fight I can win with my fists.
This is uncharted, vulnerable territory, and every instinct screams at me to run.
He reaches for my face, his fingers aimed for my jaw, and I know, with a certainty that terrifies me, that he wants to kiss me.
I can feel the intention like a physical pull, deep in my bones.
I see it—the hunger in his eyes that’s been simmering for an eternity now, banked but never gone.
And beneath it, something worse—a raw, bewildered longing that mirrors the ache in my own chest.
“You don’t get to do whatever you want.” I hiss the words, yanking back before his skin can meet mine. If he touches me, I’m lost. I’ve been dangling by a thread; his touch would be the shears.
The loss wounds him. A flinch, then he’s reaching for me again, reckless, careless of the danger I pose, of the shields I’m desperately trying to raise.
“Fuck, Raven. Take it then.” His voice is ragged, stripped bare.
He grabs my hands—I could break his grip, I should—and presses my palms against the rough heat of his face.
His skin is fever-warm, his stubble scraping my palms. The intimacy of it steals my breath.
“Put me out of my misery. I can’t stay away without wondering what you’re doing. I can’t get near you without wanting—”
He chokes on the words, pinching his eyes shut as if in pain, and in that fractured moment, his misery is a perfect reflection of my own.
“I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. Every day doesn’t make it any easier. Fuck, it makes it worse.” Gritting his jaw, he growls out his frustrations, and it makes my stomach swoop and fill with a foreign sensation. Butterflies.
“It…” Heart thundering, I catch myself getting lost in those pained eyes. “It wasn’t supposed to mean anything. It was just…”
I can’t even make myself say it. The lie tastes wrong, making me swallow hard. He grunts and scowls, wanting nothing to do with it.
“Yet, nothing has been the same since.” Feeling the heat of his words against my lips, he doesn’t wait. He kisses me. Not like it’s only been ten days, but like it’s been a lifetime.
I get it now. This longing that my sister feels for Judge. This relief that floods her once he comes back.
Instead of pushing him away, I’m gripping him so he can’t leave.
“It really hurt to see Rosie touch you.” The confession leaves me raw, and biting his bottom lip doesn’t make me feel any better, not even when he hisses. “I hate that it hurt as much as it did.”
His hands drag down the length of my body before he’s cupping my thighs and lifting me off the ground. Hunting down a wall, he presses me against it. As soon as he’s against me, I realize just how badly I wanted this.
How badly I want him.
“They don’t exist anymore.” His tongue is hot and demanding, moving from my mouth to my throat. “There’s just you, Raven. You’ve done something to me. Really fucked me up. Made me rely on my hand about every night now.”
Oh God. Him, too? The only good thing about Pen being with Judge is the space I’ve been given. All that time spent yearning, now turned into a fiery need between my thighs as the longing becomes more intense.
Does he struggle to reach the same pleasure from that night, or is that just me?
Tilting my head back, the groan that fills the air isn’t from me. It’s from him. Like a wounded animal, he nips and sucks, demanding more and more. Maybe not wounded. Deprived. That sounds more fitting from him.
So, we’ve both been suffering in the same ways, huh?
I don’t have the strength to keep denying this. Each spot his mouth touches leaves a burning trail, and the direction he’s heading isn’t enough to scare me off. Rather, it’s making me want more.
“Take me somewhere with a little privacy before you eat my face off.” Muttering the words, I turn away before he can see how easily my skin warms. I don’t even want to imagine what the others will say if we’re caught in such a position.
Jinx doesn’t complain. He forces me to cling to him as he turns without being told twice.
My room is closer. He doesn’t waste time going straight for it. Getting the door open and shut behind us, he’s all but throwing me onto the bed before pressing his weight on top of me.
He grinds his hips forward and groans against my throat.
“I haven’t touched one of them since that night. Not Rosie, not any of them.” His hips roll again, and my body burns hotter. “All I’ve wanted is you.”
Pulling back, it’s the flush of his cheeks and the hunger filling his eyes that show how serious he is. This is a side of him I’m not sure I’ve ever seen.
I have to bite my bottom lip to contain the start of a smile. I can’t have him knowing just how much his confession means now, can I?
“Seems more like to me, none of them have been interested.” Humming the words, we both know I’m full of it. If anyone has shown disinterest, it’s been him. I’ve witnessed more than he’ll ever have to explain. Before, I didn’t understand why, but now… Now I do.
He pulls back and yanks off his shirt. Throwing it to the side, he reveals how flushed he really is. Despite having a hard time understanding how he’s in such a state, there’s no denying he wants me.
I’ve never been wanted before. I… I like it.
Moving like he’s afraid I’m going to change my mind, he pulls off my shirt and pauses long enough to drink in my top half. After a few passing seconds, he blinks and reaches for my pants.
Once more, I don’t worry about him seeing the damage on my skin. Hell, he doesn’t give me enough time to fret as he’s too busy cursing about my boots being in the way.
This is messy, and he’s clawing with impatience. Once my boots are thudding against the ground and my pants are following after, he’s panting by the time he’s staring at my underwear. Another boring pair, but in his eyes, an obstacle in his way.
I can’t trap the sound that leaves me when he grips the thin strip and tears it. “Hey!—”
“Fuck, Raven. You’re soaked, you know that?” He shoves my thighs apart, exposing me completely. “This whole time, after everything, your pussy is glistening. What did it for you? Making me suffer? You’ve always liked that, huh?”
Heat explodes on my cheeks at his words, and I can’t even find the words at his frustration. He’s mad that I’m turned on? Isn’t that the point of this?
Watching as he pulls back, a wave of worry crashes over me. He’s not upset enough to the point of changing his mind, is he? But no, he’s simply repositioning himself so he’s basically face deep into my pussy.
Having sex at night was easier. During the afternoon, I can see everything with ease. I can see the hunger radiating behind his stare, the gloss on his lips as his mouth waters. Hell, he even licks his lips like he’s about to enjoy a feast.
“I can not tell you how many times I thought about doing this, Raven. How many times I imagined the taste of your cunt. God, I just want to—”
His following words are muffled thanks to my hand. “Do you hear yourself right now?”
My body is tingling more and more with each word that leaves his lips, and I can’t tell if I like it or not.
He answers by licking my fingers, going as far as prodding his tongue between the cracks of them. I watch, fascinated, until he’s sucking my ring finger into his mouth.
My pussy clenches, fluttering at the heat of his mouth. This man is just… he’s a lot. Too much.
For a second, I get lost in the view. Then, I remember there’s a place I’d much rather have his tongue on.
When he releases my hand, I’m burning up. I claw at my bra, tearing it over my head, but the cool air does nothing. The fever is internal.
“Keep your legs open.”
The order sparks a reflex to defy him, but the rebellion dies as his fingers find me. They press into my pussy, deep and sure, down to the knuckle in one devastating thrust. My gasp is stolen before it can form, replaced by the searing press of his mouth against my inner thigh.
“You don’t—” The protest lodges, useless, in my throat. His tongue laps a slow, torturous path along the trail of scars. He kisses, he licks, he nibbles, mapping a territory of nerve endings I never knew existed. My toes curl tight into the sheets.
Dazed, I look down as his teeth graze a new spot. My ruined skin, with its faded lines I’ve traced with shame a thousand times, disappears. All I see are the marks he’s making. Pink, blooming, his.
“You’re fucking gorgeous, you know that?” The words vibrate against my skin as his hand slides to cup the back of one of my knees, spreading me wide. He holds me open, utterly exposed, and there is no shadow left to hide in.
Then his mouth is on me.
Not near me. On me. His tongue finds the heart of me with a precision that destroys any self-conscious thoughts. It’s a flat, firm stroke over my clit that makes my spine arch off the bed, a silent scream locked in my lungs.
He doesn’t tease. He devours. His fingers, still buried inside me, curl upward, finding a place so deep and perfect my own fingers could never touch it. He rubs that secret, inner wall in a slow, pressing circle while his tongue lashes my clit in a rhythm that shows nothing but talent.
The dual sensation is an avalanche. The slow, internal pressure of his fingers, filling and rubbing a need I didn’t have a name for, and the relentless, wet friction of his mouth.
He sucks my clit into the heat of his mouth, and the world whites out at the edges.
A broken sound tears from me. He coaxes it again with the pull of his lips, the thrust of his fingers, and I’m fracturing, coming apart on his tongue.
“J-Jinx…” Choking on his name, he’s the one to groan.
“Yeah, I fucking missed that. Keep saying that.” Nipping at my thigh again, he hooks me just right. “I want to hear you moan it when I make you come.”
Too caught up in the pleasure to scold him, I give him exactly what he wants as I hit my limit.
Moaning his name, my walls clench down on his fingers before my body arches, my climax washing down over me in a rough wave.
Finally, I’m met with such satisfaction. Feeling so good, my emotions swell, almost bringing tears to my eyes. Thankfully, I’m able to blink them away.
Lifting, he kisses my knee. He’s smiling, the curve reaching his eyes. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen one of these smiles in a while. Not since he purposely tried to annoy me for all of those countless nights.
Without realizing it, I find myself reaching out. Against my tongue, I can feel the words. Don’t leave.
He grabs my hand and kisses my knuckles. Instead of licking me like before, the contact is simple and soft.
“Let me go grab something to sleep in.” Humming the words, he moves to stand. Turning away, I think he tries to hide his arousal. Kind of hard to do when it’s right there.
“Jinx—”
“I’ll be back. Put some clothes back on. I won’t be able to think right if I find you naked and waiting.” He sends me a wink before leaving, hardly telling me what’s going to happen from now on.
He’ll be back. Sure, he didn’t get anything in return, but he’ll be back.
And after starting an argument with myself for far too long after I’ve tugged on a new pair of underwear and a comfortable outfit, he does return. His hair is damp, and he smells fresh as can be when he joins me on my bed.
A bed that’s meant for one person.
“I’m a cuddler,” he warns after already wrapping an arm around me. “Hope you don’t mind.”
I don’t.
“You’re taking up most of the bed.” Grumbling under my breath, he solves the issue by pressing me to his chest. “Ass.”
His front vibrates before one of his hands slides down to cup me from behind. He squeezes my ass and smiles when I groan. “Anywhere else?”
Damn him. He’s enjoying himself, isn’t he? From his smile alone, it’s very telling.
“Every day has been terrible.” Murmuring the words into my hair, he sighs. “Let’s just stay like this for a while. We can relax and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist. It’s just you and me.”
“Sounds like a nightmare…” Closing my eyes, I realize how nice his suggestion sounds.
His chest rumbles again with a laugh. Instead of picking a fight, he pulls me in tighter.
Without spelling it out, he has no intention of letting me go again.