2. 2 – Hatter
2 – Hatter
I keep my eyes on her as we run through the streets like children. Alyss laughs under her breath, her face turning back to check on me. Her cheeks are flushed, eyes bright with the cold air that pricks at us.
Stolen time.
That’s all this is. Precious minutes that I will have to pay back . I will pay for this night in ways that somebody like Alyss Lidell would never even consider.
But I don’t stop.
My hand tightens on hers. “How far?”
Her glance this time is coy. “One minute.”
Our breathing comes faster as she turns and leads me into an upscale brownstone apartment building. We head past a sharp-eyed concierge, sitting behind his desk in a gilded lobby. There’s marble everywhere, Alyss’s heels tapping against it as we head to the elevator. She hits the button for the top floor, scanning a key card she pulls from her purse to take us up to the penthouse.
She has money, then.
Not that it matters. None of it matters, nothing apart from losing myself inside her as soon as fucking possible.
We meet before the elevator doors have even closed. Alyss slams into me, my back hitting the mirrored glass behind us as our lips join. I walk her back across the small space until she’s the one pinned in, my hips pressing against her abdomen as she shifts beneath me. My cock is already aching for her, swelling and tight against my trousers in a way I haven’t felt since—
I slam the door on those thoughts and fucking quickly.
That way, only madness lies.
We don’t talk. I explore her mouth, tasting her, sweet and tart from the bourbon and anticipation, drinking in the noises I can pull from her with my lips. Wondering what other noises she’ll make when she’s spread open beneath me.
I wonder if Alyss feels as I do, if she senses the desperation that drives me as the elevator opens, directly into her apartment. Gripping her hips, I stop her from walking out, and she tips her head to look up at me as I press my fingers into them in silent question.
Her arms wrap around my neck as she takes my invite and jumps, those long legs tightening around my hips as I walk us out, my arms wrapped around her.
Still not close enough. “Where?”
I catch small glimpses as she directs me through her space. An expensive-looking steel coffee machine on the side. A dead plant trails from an otherwise empty shelf.
There are no photos. No memories. No pictures on the walls.
As if Alyss Lidell doesn’t truly exist at all.
In another life, I would want to learn more of her, this woman who managed to steal me for the night with only a glance. In the corner of my eye, I catch the floor-to-ceiling windows that offer a spectacular view of the city, and I change direction.
“What are you doing?” Her teeth drag against the skin of my neck, hot and damp as she chases the sting with her tongue.
“You have a beautiful view. It would be a shame to waste it.”
Lips lifting, she shimmies down my body. “I do love this view. It reminds me of—.”
Her words stutter. Stall.
“Freedom.” It slips from my mouth without thought.
Too much. Too much . But she only looks at me, the same heaviness in her eyes that I glimpsed earlier. “Yes.”
She stands before me, saying nothing as I run my eyes over her. I drink in every detail, storing it away to be brought out in the days, weeks, months that will follow tonight.
Alyss stays still, her gaze equally exploring as I step forward. Our eyes meet, her breath hitching as I reach for the buttons on her black shirt and begin to flick them open. She wriggles her shoulders, the shirt dropping down to sit in the crook of her elbows.
She’s not wearing a bra.
“Beautiful,” I say roughly. Her cheeks tinge again, but she doesn’t look away, doesn’t shy from me. Her bare breasts are small, perfectly formed, peaked pale pink nipples tightening under my look as I brush my fingers over them, and she shivers. I keep going, my fingers tracing over silvery scars that stretch over her ribs. She tenses beneath my touch. “Tell me about these.”
I find that I need to know.
I want to know all of these little stories, all of these parts that make up Alyss Lidell.
But there is not enough fucking time.
“I grew up in a gang.” Her hands close over mine, not ungentle but firm enough to know that I need to move on.
Nodding, my hands move to the buttons on her dark jeans. “Birth control?”
A half-smile. “Coil. And I get tested regularly.”
She hesitates then. “I don’t… this isn’t something I normally do.”
Just for a moment, she looks uncertain.
My pulse thuds. “That makes two of us, Alyss Lidell.”
Alyss inhales when I flick the button on her jeans open and drag them down her legs. My eyes skate over her bare skin, appreciating the strip of pale gold hair that covers her. Leaving the jeans halfway down, I kneel, leaning forward and pressing my lips against her.
Lower.
A low moan slips from her as my tongue slides up the crease of her pussy. I use one hand to spread her open, to look at her. My other hand cups her ass when she shifts. “Let me look at you. Please.”
Let me remember this.
She stills.
The only sound is her breathing, faster now, as I lave my tongue directly over her little swollen clit. Slowly. Savoring.
“ Hatter .” Her hands move to my hair. She runs her fingers through it as I lick her. I savor the taste of honey on my tongue, savor the little sighs and moans she makes as I keep running my tongue over her bud, flicking at it.
Alyss shudders beneath my touch, her grip on my hair tightening.
Pausing, I glance up at her as my tongue chases her taste on my lips. She watches the movement, her eyes dilated and cheeks flushed.
“I want you inside me.”
“Soon.” I reach for her jeans, peeling the denim carefully over her shoes.
She raises her heel-clad foot. “Let me take these off.”
But my hand wraps around her ankle, stopping her.
“No. Leave them on.” I study the shining black heels for a moment. “I want to see you in them.”
I stay on my knees, hands clasping her thighs as she looks down at me. I’m still fully clothed, Alyss bared to me aside from the heels, and her lip curls up into a smile. “This doesn’t feel entirely fair, you know.”
“It will.” I want to feel her skin against mine, but that will come later. She moves back at my urging, turning to face the window.
Smoothing my hands over her lower back, the cheeks of her ass, I nudge her legs apart. “Spread. Hands on the window, Alyss Lidell.”
Her breathing speeds at that, but she follows the direction. I drag her hips toward me until she’s leaning forward, her bare body pressing against the glass as she shivers beneath my touch. “What are you doing?”
“Looking at you.” Her exposed pussy glistens as I greedily run my eyes over it. “Plump and pink and begging for a cock.”
She stiffens, arches, as I trace my finger up her slit, gathering the wetness and slipping it between my lips, tasting her. “Delicious.”
“I’m ready.” She shakes beneath me as I slide a finger, two, into her. “Enough.”
Never.
The word hovers on my tongue but I pull it back. She’s right. We’re on a countdown, and I… I forgot , for a second. Enchanted with her, with the taste of her, with the way her body flexes for me in the dim glow of the city lights beneath us, I fucking forgot.
But I want to feel her come apart under my mouth.
“You’re dangerous, Alyss Lidell,” I murmur. Before she can respond, I bury my face in her cunt, licking and twisting and fucking her with my tongue until she’s shaking and moaning beneath me.
Her release is sweet on my tongue, and I drink it down until she rips herself away. Her legs tremble as I steady her and get to my feet. Blue gray eyes, turbulent and heated, fix on me. “Your turn. Clothes off. And a bed.”
Pushing my braces off my shoulders, I almost rip my shirt in my desperation as I follow her through the dark space. Her pale skin gleams as she strides into the bedroom, my feet inches behind her as I kick off my trousers, my underwear.
We tumble down onto the bed, not bothering to pull the bedding back in a tangle of limbs and heat. Her mouth is everywhere – my neck, my throat, licking over my nipples and chasing the path of brown hair down until she slides her hand down to clasp my cock.
It leaps beneath her touch, my groan filling the darkness as she seals her pink lips around my head. Hot suction tightens my entire body as I push my hands into her hair, holding it back to see, to watch as Alyss uses her hands and mouth to drive me out of my fucking mind with want for her.
My release threatens too quickly. Pulling away, I roll us across the large space of her bed until she’s looking up at me, mouth parted. My cock presses against her entrance, but I wait.
Her face turns away. “Don’t… don’t look at me like that, Hatter.”
I pause, my hand nudging her cheek back. “Like what?”
She swallows, her throat bobbing. “Like this matters.”
In response, I lower my head, my lips sinking into hers. And she kisses me back, her arms wrapping around my neck as I push inside her, swallowing her gasp, every sound she makes as my body flexes against hers.
Heaven. She feels like heaven – unattainable nirvana. I can’t look away as my hips pick up speed, thrusting into her. Alyss arches beneath me, her throat bared, vulnerable and beautiful.
I don’t want her to hold back. Want to know everything, every secret swimming in those eyes as she sinks her teeth into my shoulder, her hands gripping me as I pick up the pace. Her velvet headboard slams against the wall as I grab her hands and shove them over her head, my mouth leaning down to seal over a taut nipple and suck.
She bucks beneath me, but I don’t let go. I soak in the breathy cries from her lips, the twisting of her body beneath mine as I fuck her like I can brand myself into her, leave something behind of myself, a reminder for when I am gone.
I want her to never be able to fuck another man again without thinking of me.
And the unfairness of it all makes me angry, makes me move faster, her thighs stretching wide as I push down into her, my body against hers as I sink my own teeth into her neck, sucking at the skin there.
There is nowhere for her to go.
Nowhere for her to hide, as I pin her beneath me, her body accepting every thrust even as it tightens, her pussy gripping me like a fucking vice as my balls tighten.
I tear my mouth from her skin, eyes running over the mark I’ve left behind with primal satisfaction as I move my mouth to her ear and she shudders.
“Come on my cock. Now.”
Her scream is choked as she convulses, pinned in place, unable to move with my weight on top of her, every inch of us connected.
I keep fucking her, hips flexing even as her pussy clenches around me, sweet and hot and tightening until my vision wavers. I follow her over that knife edge with a roar in my throat and possession in my grip on her wrists.
Endless.
My release is endless, as if I’m giving her everything.
When our bones turn limp. I stay where I am. On top of her, listening to her breathing, low and harsh, the thump of her heartbeat against mine.
She doesn’t smile, and neither do I. We watch each other, as if time is paused, waiting for the other. There’s a crease between her eyebrows that I want to smooth out, want to force away.
“Don’t,” I murmur when she opens her mouth.
“Don’t what?”
I bury my face in her neck, in the damp skin waiting for me that smells faintly of cherries. “Don’t tell me that this doesn’t matter.”
We both know she would be lying.
She sighs, a slow release of breath, and I roll us over, settling her body on top of mine as my hands stroke down her back. “Five minutes.”
“Five?”
“Mmhmm. Once was not nearly enough with you, Alyss Lidell.”
I’m not ready to leave her yet, even though I should already be gone. Instead, I wait, my hands traveling across her skin, our lips lazily exploring before I nudge her onto her belly and pull her hips up.
And I make the hours count.
When I finally let her eyes close, my arms wrapped tightly around her, I wait for her breathing to slow before I slide out from beneath warm skin and temptation.
I try my fucking hardest not to look back as I quickly dress, yanking my trousers up and leaving my braces hanging off my ruined shirt. Don’t look back, in case I push back into that bed, into her arms and her body.
If I stayed, I might even try to push myself into her heart.
Don’t look back.
But I can’t stop myself, as I head to the doorway.
Brow furrowed, she mumbles something, tugging the pillow closer and wrapping herself around it. Her bare back gleams in the darkness, the sheet wrapped haphazardly around her body.
Taking a mental snapshot, I slip out of her apartment, the elevator door closing in front of me with a finality that makes my chest… hurt.
Goodbye, Alyss Lidell.