Chapter 15 #2
I groan as he rolls his hips, pressing his pelvis against my clit in a way that makes me see stars behind my closed lids.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
This man…
I swallow and gasp, trying to get air into my lungs. “I didn’t realize getting kneed in the balls was such a turn on.”
He barks out a laugh as he drags his hips back and slams into me even harder.
Fuck.
My body tenses as it takes all of him, as it accepts his relentless rhythm, as it consumes the man I’ve tried desperately to avoid for the last couple of days because I knew how good this would be. To be with him like this again. Because I understood I was weak where he’s concerned.
And the last thing I can afford to be right now is weak.
* * *
GAGE
Bishop clenches down around my cock like a vise, her slick heat as scorching hot as the water cascading down on me, and I hiss out a breath to keep from blowing my load straight into her.
I’ve been so on edge when it comes to her for so long, I’m barely hanging on by a thread.
All it would take is one word from her, one admission that what happened the other night meant something and touched a part of her she wasn’t ready to see yet, and I could let it go.
But she isn’t ready for that.
What just happened in the ring proves it.
I draw my hips back and plunge in again, bottoming out so deep inside her I can’t tell where I end and she begins anymore.
She does it again, clamping her cunt so goddamn tightly on me that it’s almost like she’s trying to prove a point she couldn’t in the ring. Like she’s trying to show me just how strong and powerful she really is.
But there isn’t any need for that.
I already know.
I’ve already seen her in action.
It’s exactly what drew me to her in the first place.
Because she doesn’t cower to anything, doesn’t cave, doesn’t flinch or give an inch to anyone or anything.
She may be half her father’s size, but she’s every bit as strong as him, maybe even more so because she does it with such a stunning face that makes some people not take her seriously.
People who underestimate her pay for it, but that is not a mistake I will ever make. Not when we’re in the ring. Not when we’re like this. Never.
If I do, I’ll end up with her knee to the balls again.
Or worse.
“Do you want to hurt me, Hellcat?”
Her eyes flutter open and meet mine, and I withdraw only to slam into her again, drawing a throaty gasp from her parted lips. She nods, her nails biting into my chest. “Yes.”
That should act as a warning. A very real one. It means I’ve pushed too hard, gone too far in what I’ve asked of her. But I’m not afraid of being hurt—at least not physically.
A little pain is often necessary to complete the mission. And my mission isn’t complete where Bishop Clarke is concerned. Not by a longshot.
The brutal honesty from her is a good start, though. And instead of being offended by her admission, I grin, remembering the feeling of her knee driving between my legs. “How badly?”
She sucks in a sharp breath, her darkened eyes locked with mine. “Badly enough that you’ll never doubt that I can.”
“Oh, Hellcat.” I shake my head, rolling my hips as I thrust inside her, grinding her back against the tile. “You have no idea how badly you’ve hurt me the last few days, do you?”
Her body tenses for a second, as if she didn’t anticipate me saying that.
And she probably didn’t.
She probably doesn’t have any clue how torturous it’s been to be so close to her, yet feel like we’re miles apart. To not be able to touch her like this. To not be able to taste her or feel her lips moving against mine.
Bishop thinks this is all some game, but she has no idea that it’s over. She’s already won. All she has to do to claim her prize is admit she needs me and what I’m offering.
Help.
She needs to accept that she can’t do it all on her own. That she can’t carry the weight of protecting the Hawkes on her shoulders alone and expect it not to break her. There has to be some give, some release, some relinquishment of her need to control everything.
The longer she considers my question, the softer her gaze becomes, and I keep pumping into her, slowing my hips, taking the violent intensity of the first few minutes and allowing it to fade back.
But she doesn’t seem so ready to let it go.
Bishop squirms against the tile, waiting for me to move hard again. She clenches around me, trying to urge me to move with her feet at my lower back.
I chuckle lightly. “You know better than to try that, Hellcat. Where does it get you?”
She grits her teeth. “Frustrated.”
A feeling I am old friends with.
I hate that she feels this way. So much pent-up tension and aggravation overtaking every moment of her life.
The pang of pain that hits my chest makes me still my hips completely.
I bring one hand up to capture her cheek. “You really can’t let go, can you?”
Those beautiful lips of hers part with a retort.
Like she has so many other times, she wants to argue with me.
She wants to deny it’s a problem. All those years of being strong, of taking on the weight of the world around her on her own rather than admit it’s too much have made it impossible for her to do what I’m asking of her.
I see the exact second she realizes that I’m right.
I’m sure it isn’t anything dozens of other people haven’t said to her over the years, but standing here under the water in the shower at her cousin’s gym, where anyone might walk in on us while I have my cock buried deep inside her, has made it very clear to her that the only time she ever lets go of her death grip on control is with me.
That night and now.
But even at this moment, she tries to cling to the last vestiges of that control like a lifeline.
She needs it.
“I’ll tell you what, Hellcat.” I grin at her. “Next time, I’ll let you be on top.”
Her eyes flare, the heat there mirroring that of her cunt squeezing around my cock. It ripples along my length as she shifts, and she grinds down, drawing a low groan from deep in my chest.
Her nails bite into the skin there again, then she slides her hands up into my hair, tugging on it to move my head to the side.
Bishop dips her head to my ear. “You’re not ready for that.”
Good fucking God.
My balls draw up tight, the tingle of my impending release racing up my spine. “You’re playing with fire, woman.”
“No”— she shakes her head—“you are.”
When she flexes her cunt around me this time, she does so at an angle that causes the head of my cock to catch in that spot she loves so much. I roll my hips back, and it becomes a primal drive instead of the deliberate one it was before.
I slam into her again and again, plunging deep, drawing out harshly, each time demanding she take more and that she give it all up at the same time.
Her heels digging into my lower back, moving with me, forcing me to take her hard for both of us, and I drop my mouth to her collar bone, exposed in the wet tank top she still wears. The taste of her skin on my lips and tongue makes me downright feral, and I sink my teeth into the flesh there.
She gasps but doesn’t stop rolling her hips to meet mine, doesn’t stop the way her body clamps around mine, or how tightly she clutches me to her.
When I draw my head back and see my teeth marks on her dark skin, that’s the end of me.
My thrusts become as erratic as my breathing.
I grip her face in my hand, her hip in the other, and drag her mouth to mine, capturing her scream as her body finally tenses and she comes, just in time for my own orgasm to come roaring out of me.
I don’t bother trying to bite back my own scream.
Fuck.
When I warned her it would be fast and hard, I should’ve been warning myself, because even I wasn’t ready for it. All that tension between us exploding. That was what we started in the ring finishing here.
And now that I’ve finished inside her, my hips still and she sags, my body pressing her to the wall the only thing keeping her upright. Her feet slide from my back and I grip her ass, keeping her upright, but I refuse to release her face until her eyes flutter open and meet mine again.
A single tear clings to her lashes, and I kiss it away, nuzzling against her—face to face.
“Did I hurt you, Hellcat?”
She shakes her head. “No.”
“Have I ever? Even that night?”
Another tear slips free from her eyes, and I wonder when the last time she cried was.
Biting her trembling lip, she shakes her head again. “No. Never. The only thing that hurts is—” She swallows thickly. “Is how right you are. About everything.”
She collapses into my hold, burying her face against my chest as a tiny sob slips from her. Sliding my hand around the back of her neck, I clutch her to me, letting the hot water soothe away some of the pain she’s feeling now that the dam has broken.
Tugging her chin up, I meet her tear-soaked gaze with mine, hoping she can see how much I mean the words I’m going to say to her.
“You won’t run from me again. You won’t pretend that this is nothing.
I know you’re scared, but I’ll tell you right now, I’m not walking away. And you’re not going to either.”
She draws in a deep breath, her body trembling as she stares at me from under thick, dark lashes. A flicker of that tenacity darkens her eyes. “I can do whatever I want.”
I smile softly. “I know you can, Hellcat, but you don’t want to.
Not really. Not deep down. You just don’t trust yourself to fully open up to me, to show me all the things you try so hard to hide.
But I’m going to make sure that you do. I’m going to make sure that you see how fucking perfect you are, what an incredible, badass woman I’ve got my cock buried deep inside of right now.
Even if you’re overwhelmed. Even if you’re scared.
You are safe right here. You understand me? ”
The Bishop who walked into this gym earlier this morning would be fighting me. She would argue with me and say she isn’t overwhelmed, that she isn’t scared, because admitting those things would mean conceding she can’t do it all alone.
But this isn’t that same woman.
She nods—a tiny, almost imperceptible movement of her head—but it’s enough to know we’ve moved beyond the fighting stage, that she’s finally ready to let me see the other side of her. The one that lies under the tough-as-nails exterior.
Bishop Clarke is finally letting down her guard.