23. Mallory
MALLORY
Itried not to think too hard about Maddox spending the night with me. It wasn’t like he said he’d sleep in my bed. Did I want him in my bed?
I probably shouldn’t, but I did.
I wasn’t lying when I told him I didn’t want to be alone, and having him here, just in the house, made me feel a thousand times safer.
Maddox leaned against the kitchen counter, the position making his shoulders look broader, more imposing.
“So,” I said, opening the fridge, trying to be normal. “Weirdly, I could really go for pizza.”
That earned the smallest huff of a laugh from him.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. If he were staying the night, I should probably feed him.
“I could eat.”
“Don’t laugh, but I have leftover pizza.”
His brow lifted, surprise flickering across his features.
“Morbid, I know,” I added, setting the box on the counter.
He shrugged. “Fuck it. I can always eat pizza as long as it doesn’t have pineapples on it.”
“No fruit. I promise,” I assured, flipping the box open. “But technically, this one wasn’t ordered by a psychopath.” Just a murderer. They weren’t the same things, were they? Well, they weren’t in my book.
I set two slices on a plate and slid one across the counter toward him, keeping the other for me. I had more of an appetite than I thought I would, finishing my first slice just as he went in for a second.
“Hold on,” I said, setting my pizza down.
“What?” His eyes glanced at me.
I slid around the counter, stepping in front of him.
“You’ve got—” I lifted onto my toes before he could move away, my hand lifting as I brushed the pad of my thumb across his bottom lip, catching the pizza sauce.
The motion slowed halfway through when I realized how close we were.
His breath ghosted across my face, and his pupils dilated, swallowing the green.
Maddox went still as my thumb dragged lightly across his lip, the touch lingering longer than necessary. The soft give of his mouth beneath my touch sent heat curling low in my stomach.
I hadn’t meant to touch him or get this close. My eyes lifted, finding his gaze already fixed on my face with an intensity that stole my breath. The green in his eyes had darkened.
Electricity crackled between us like a live wire. Without breaking eye contact, I lifted my thumb and slipped it into my mouth, sucking the sauce from it slowly, mirroring the moment by my locker when he’d sucked the blood from my finger.
His reaction was visceral. His hands shot out, gripping my wrists hard enough that I felt the press of each finger. Pulling my hand away from my mouth, he held my wrists captive between us, and my breath hitched in my throat.
What am I doing tangling myself with Maddox?
He stared at me, his chest rising and falling too fast. My heart pounded too quickly. I was dying to know what he was thinking about, why he hesitated, if he had someone else on his mind.
Then he swore under his breath, and I stopped thinking entirely as he yanked me against him. His mouth crashed into mine. Hard. Demanding. Angry. The kiss was nothing like the teasing heat from the cellar, nothing like the careful exploration we’d started down there in the dark.
This was deeper. Hungrier. Desperate in a way that made my knees weak.
My brain went completely blank, every thought scattering like leaves in the wind.
I gasped against his mouth, surprise and want and need all tangled together, and he took the opportunity immediately.
His tongue swept in, claiming and kissing me harder as his hands slid from my wrists to my waist. Fingers dug into the soft fabric of my sweater, finding the curve of my hips beneath and holding on as if I might disappear.
“Maddox—” My sigh dissolved into a breath when he lifted me easily. One smooth motion, his hands gripping my thighs as he hoisted me up and set me on the counter. My legs wrapped around him, pulling him closer and trapping him between my thighs.
He stepped in deeper, eliminating any space as his hands braced on either side of me, palms flattening against the counter and caging me in while our mouths found each other again.
Every kiss sent sparks racing down my spine.
His hand slid into my hair, fingers weaving in the strands, tilting my head back at the angle he wanted.
His mouth left mine, trailing along my jaw in hot, open-mouthed kisses, making me shiver. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing, Hales?” he muttered against my skin, the words vibrating through me.
“I think I have a pretty good idea,” I managed, breathless, my fingers finding the front of his shirt and fisting the fabric. “You might have skilled fingers and unforgettable lips, but I’m not clueless.” To prove my point, I cupped his erection standing straight up in his sweatpants.
Who was this girl?
Surely, she wasn’t me.
He hissed, his teeth scraping lightly against my throat, right over my pulse point, and I made a noise I’d never heard myself make before.
“You don’t really want this, Hales.” The confession came out huskily as my fingers moved over him.
“You’ll regret it in the morning.” His tongue darted over my skin, and my core went molten.
I bit my lip, stifling a moan. “Let me be the one to decide when I’ve had too much, and right now, I really want you to kiss me again, Maddox.” My fingers stroked over him, and he grew harder if possible.
Whatever control he’d been holding on to snapped. He complied, kissing me again, deeper this time, consuming, as if he’d finally given up fighting and pretending there was any version of this where we walked away unscathed.
Perhaps things were moving fast between us, or maybe not fast enough. I had no clue. I was letting my body take me to places not yet explored, consequences be damned. But wasn’t that what my teenage years were for? To make mistakes. To learn from them.
Something told me Maddox would be an excellent yet heartbreaking teacher.
Fuck, he feels good.
So damn good.
His hands went to my shirt, and with one quick motion, it was over my head, tossed somewhere behind me.
His fingers traced the lines of my bra before going to the back and releasing the clasp, all while his eyes were on me. It wasn’t until the bra fell to the floor that his gaze deliberately dragged down my face, my neck, to my perky breasts. My nipples pebbled under his stare.
He dipped his head, capturing one in his mouth, and I gasped as his tongue stroked over the bud, enticing a whole new set of embers sparking within me.
I traced over his washboard abs with my nails, following the path of ink permanently penned into his skin. His muscles drew taut as I navigated my hands under his shirt. I could touch the hard lines of his body for days. There wasn’t an inch of his body that didn’t tell of his discipline.
Somewhere between breaths, his mouth leaving me dizzy, and lost clothes, including his shirt, Maddox lifted me off the counter.
Hands gripped my thighs, taking my weight like it was nothing as he carried me down the hall toward the stairs.
His mouth found mine again halfway up. By the time we reached my bedroom, I was breathless and completely undone.
He kicked the door shut behind us and set me down carefully, my feet touching the rug. Maddox’s hands came up to cup my face, thumbs stroking along my cheekbones with surprising gentleness. “Tell me to stop,” he murmured. “Tell me this is a bad idea.”
It is.
God, it is.
But when I opened my mouth, what came out wasn’t a protest. “I can’t. I don’t want you to stop.”
He backed me to the bed, my legs hitting the side of the mattress. “I knew you were trouble, Hales.”
I shimmied out of my leggings as he hooked a finger in my panties, yanking them off me to follow my pants onto the floor in a pile.
He spread my legs, fingers roaming lightly up the inside of my thigh in sweet torturous delight, but I had no idea the torture was only beginning.
Using two fingers, he slowly worked them over my sensitive bud, the ache inside building.
My hands went to his shoulders for stability, my legs going liquid underneath me. If he kept moving his fingers like that, there was a good chance they’d give out. “I need…”
He kissed the flat of my stomach and then the inside of my thigh. “What do you need, Hales?”
I wasn’t entirely sure, but I knew I didn’t want him to stop. “I need more.” My hips rocked into his fingers.
“Fuck, Hales,” he groaned, lifting me and laying me on the bed.
My legs were so damn grateful. When he hooked his thumbs in the waistband of his sweats, I took in the sight of him as he removed them.
In just his tight-ass boxer briefs that did absolutely nothing to conceal his want for me, he climbed onto the bed, not giving me a second to catch my breath before he had my body soaring.
With his eyes locked on mine, he brought his fingers to his mouth and sucked on them, tasting the most intimate part of me before sliding two inside me, finding no resistance. I was already so wet.
A moan escaped my lips, and my back bowed off the bed, fingers curling deep into the blankets.
I swore I saw stars as his fingers stroked my inner walls, moving in and out in languid movements as if he could keep me in a state of desire for hours.
No way was I going to last that long. Already, I was so damn close to tumbling over the edge.
I matched his thrusting fingers, and if he kept—
Fireworks of tremors wracked through my core, my nails digging deeper into the mattress as I sank my teeth into my mouth.
He pulled down on my bottom lip. “Don’t hold out on me, Hales.”
The cry of pleasure I’d been suppressing broke free. His lips curled against mine.