Chapter 17 #2
“Then be too much. Be the unhinged and beautiful chaos that you are, Jade.” I held her close—enough to feel the heat of her body, to see the goosebumps rise on her skin. Close enough to hear my own downfall.
“You’re the one thing I can’t control. The one thing I can’t take, and fuck, Jade…I can’t make you do anything.” My grip on her tightened, the same way as my vocal cords. “And you have no fucking clue,” I confessed, my voice broken. “You have no idea what you’ve done to me.”
Jade breathed fast, clutching the collar of my shirt. “I’m hard to be around. And I’m picky. With food and other stuff.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle. “I’ll cook anything you want, baby. I’ll memorize all your preferences. I’ll get you all the whole milk, lavender goat cheese concoctions you desire.”
Jade giggled, her eyes filling with tears, just like mine. I wasn’t going to let her go. I was never going to let her go.
“I need time,” she whispered slowly, her saddened eyes meeting mine once more.
“Take it. We don’t have to rush.”
Our foreheads touched, the electric shock frying the last of my brain cells.
“I-I’m sensitive.” Her palm flattened against my chest—pressed into me like she was trying to see if my heartbeat matched hers.
“I know…how to be gentle.”
Thunder shook the skies somewhere behind her and the wind picked up, but I was going to say it. I was going to tell her.
“Jade, I’m…I’m in lov—”
Her fingers clasped over my lips, the fear in her eyes ripping my heart out. “No, no!” She shook her head quickly. “Don’t say it, don’t say the word because it won’t heal me, Alex, it won’t! I-I just feel so…broken.”
And her tears burst out of her, like she finally gave herself the permission. I wrapped her in my arms tighter, wanting to absorb all her pain.
“You can keep all the pieces in my hands. I’ll hold you. Give you all the space.” Jade sniffled against me, the scent of her hair smelling like home. Like something of mine. “I’m right here and I want to…I want to protect you, baby. From everything you’re scared of.”
Her body molded under my touch and she sat up, her dainty fingers grazing my cheek.
“Promise?”
Jade breathed fast, her gaze jumping from my eyes to my lips, to her lap. Our lap. I nodded slowly, giving her the only two words I could manage.
“I promise.”
The wind whipped at us from all directions, Jade’s untamed hair creating a secret barrier between us and the world.
“The thing is, Alex…” She bit her lip, choosing her words. “Sometimes I’m in so much pain that I can’t—I can’t drag you into it.”
“Tell me where, Jade,” I whispered in her ear, taking a lungful of her magical scent. “Tell me where it hurts and I’ll take it all away. I’ll kiss it better, baby. Just don’t pretend that you’re too broken for this. For…us.”
Slowly, Jade pulled back, a tiny smile shining in her wet eyes. “You’ll kiss it better?” she whispered curiously.
“Yes, fuck, Jade. I’ll lick all your wounds. I’ll kiss all your scars. Just let me. Just let me, Malyshka.”
“What does Malyshka really mean?” Her finger brushed my eyebrow, the tiny action burning my skin. My hand slid from her back, over her hip, finding her hand.
“Baby. It means baby.”
She breathed faster, her attention falling to our joined hands. “It hurts here.” She pointed to her wrist, right where my fingers rested. My lips zinged when I tasted her there.
Sweet. Tender.
Heaven.
“And—and here.” Jade’s finger pressed into her right shoulder, and I lunged for it immediately, a wish suddenly fulfilled.
Her shoulders were made for my kisses. I lingered, leaving delicate pecks on her skin.
Then butterfly smooches. And then hungry plunges into the immaculate curve of her shoulder.
She gasped, fueling my fire.
“And my heart. My heart hurts.”
I came up for air, catching the lust in her eyes. She placed my hand to her chest, giving me permission, and I moved closer, but still afraid to touch. Afraid to hurt. Afraid to wake up.
My lips dragged on her chest, the scent, the taste, the moment all clouding my vision.
Cold, giant drops of rain fell onto us, but there was no stopping this. There was no interrupting this. I nuzzled into her chest with my lips, whispering what she forbade me from saying out loud.
I love you. I love you.
You.
You.
You.
Tell her.
“And God.” Jade arched her back, rain glistening on her skin. “Here. It hurts here so much,” she whined, her finger brushing the soft skin on her neck. Right where her birthmark was.
I kissed.
I licked.
I nipped.
I loved.
“And…and here.”
It happened. Her index finger hovered over her lips, and my mind tumbled into a haze. I swiped my thumb on her perfect, plump, delicious bottom lip, barely able to catch my breath.
“Right here?” I asked quietly. “H-how much does it hurt?”
“The most. It hurts…the most,” she whispered, and closed her eyes. “Kiss me there.”
I heard her sweet plea and didn’t waste another second.
I kissed her. My lips touched the softest, sweetest, and most desirable pout on the entire fucking planet.
It rewired my brain chemistry—the way she tasted. It was nothing like I’d imagined, and at the same time, it was everything that I thought.
Slow and tender, Jade kissed me back, ghosting her fingers over my cheeks and pulling me closer. Her lips, her tongue, her eyes, her body, her soul—it all mixed into some sort of elixir that pumped life into me through her red cherry lips, still adorned with blood when I thought about them.
As if glued to her, I pressed Jade into me with ever-increasing force, and I took everything from her, selfishly filling myself up with this energy. This lust. This abyss. Her little whimper was only a precursor to the power she suddenly added to this long-awaited and desired kiss.
Waves crashed somewhere behind her, but the world disappeared when I drowned in her. There was only her, us, just here. Just like this.
Hot as fuck, wet, and desperate, our tongues intertwined, both of us lost for breath.
“Mmalex!” she mumbled between my lips, but I didn’t let her go. I fell back onto the sand and pinned her to me, allowing my hands to touch everywhere. Touch her.
I was fucking in love with the woman I kidnapped. I was in love with the woman who bit me, spat at me, taunted me, and worked hard every day to put me behind bars.
And fine. Fine. I’d go to prison. I’d go to prison if she was mine. Because nothing could rip me away from her.
Not the rain.
Not prison.
Not dea—
Except one man tried. My phone buzzed nonstop, but I ignored it, physically unable to pull away from Jade, who lay on top of me. The rain fell onto us, but our lips were forever bound.
“I think,” she muttered into me after the buzzing restarted a fourth time. “You should get that—mm!”
I turned with Jade in my arms, pressing her into the sand and hearing her angelic laugh. As if reading the signs of my body, she shifted underneath me, wrapping her legs around my waist.
Just her, only her, forever her. Fucking hell, I was delusional from this desperate and forbidden embrace.
The phone buzzed again. Fuck him.
High on this feeling, I stood up on my knees to find this damn phone and caught sight of Jade sprawled out beneath me, her wet, sticky dress covered in sand, and her, out of breath, biting her swollen, crimson lips.
I put the phone on speaker and collapsed back onto her, wrapping myself around her body and drinking in her tiny giggles.
"Alex, Jade," Andrei drawled out our names like a teacher calling out misbehaving students. "You know I can see you, right? Please disentangle and make your way over here."
Andrei was hellbent on preventing this. My lips still drowning in Jade’s neck, I raised my arm in the direction of the camera attached to the side of the house and gave him the finger.
"Very classy. You've made your opinion known. You’re supposed to be on your way, so please compose yourselves and fucking get over here," Andrei requested again.
"Mm-what?" Jade asked, pulling me into her once more.
I licked—up her neck and toward her lips. “Why are we—” she tried to catch her breath while she pushed me back, her gaze sliding down my torso, “supposed to be over there—is that a…piercing?!”
There was an inferno in her eyes. She pulled my shirt up and her jaw dropped as soon as she got a good look. “You have nipple piercings?!” she gasped, reaching for them.
I chuckled, the expression on her face making my dick harder. Her fingers hovered over one piercing, as if afraid.
“You can touch it,” I encouraged her, but instead she sat up, and as if this was a wet fucking dream, she stuck out her tongue and fucking licked. Oh God.
Her eyes were closed, rain pelted her face, but her tongue dragged up my chest and over my nipple. She ran the tip of her tongue right over the little barbell, almost knocking me off my knees.
“That’s so hot, but also, damn. I didn’t notice it yesterday.”
Jade was everything.
Easily lifting her up, I carried her in my arms up the stairs, her wide grin contagious. “We have dinner plans. Let’s get you in the hot shower.”
“We?” she asked, both amused and excited.
“Yes. We.”