risk a glance at his black cargo pants, where his erection presses against the fabric. That gives me enough courage to slip into the bathroom. I turn the sterling silver faucet all the way to hot and let the water scald me. I shave and scrub and lotion every inch of my body, until I feel like I’ve shed an entire layer of myself. Maybe mermaids are like snakes. Maybe they shed their skin to heal.
Steam fills the bathroom when I finally open the door and step out. The red and black bustier he chose for me pushes my breasts high. The matching panties dip low, barely covering my sex. I feel exposed and… fashionable. And sexy.
Maybe it’s as simple as clothes that make a woman feel beautiful.
Except, no. It’s the way he’s looking at me. Elijah must have found a separate bathroom and a separate wardrobe, because he’s shaved and showered. He sits back on an armchair, his legs spread wide as if he’s the king of all he surveys. In this Parisian suite, perhaps he is.
Our coupling in the forest was wild.
Our sex in the farmhouse was intimate.
Will this one feel safe and comforting, as luxurious as our surroundings? His hands roam my hips and thighs with blatant ownership. Then his hands curve around my ass. He touches me in my most private place, the place between my butt cheeks.
“Have you ever been taken here?” he asks, his voice low and hypnotic.
“No,” I whisper.
He strokes me there, a casual brush of fingers. It’s more sensitive than I would have thought. Connected by a straight line to my pussy. I clench around nothing, wanting his touch in a different place. “Tell me what you like, sweetheart. Besides getting fucked on your hands and knees in the mud. I know you liked that.”
My cheeks must be on fire, but I can’t deny that I’m wet. I feel the dampness, and it embarrasses me, even as I hope he finds it, hope he knows how much I can’t resist. “I don’t really know. Is that dumb? I haven’t really… that much.”
Amusement lances through his green eyes. “Haven’t really what? Had sex? Fucked? Been eaten out? Do you like it when a guy goes down on you, Holly?”
I shake my head, unable to meet his eyes. “It’s awkward.”
There were a few attempts in college, and after I graduated, one boyfriend who worked at the coffee shop where I wrote. Which meant I had to find a new coffee shop once we broke up. The whole thing had always seemed like more trouble than it was worth—something I did to please the men in my life, but not something I enjoyed on my own.
A low laugh. “Fuck awkward.”
He lifts me suddenly, pushing me forward until I’m on all fours, my knees on the warm cushion where he’d been lounging, my hands on the broad back of the chair. From this position I can see through the half window, through the breezy white curtains to the Eiffel Tower. It’s lit up for the night, glowing like a beacon in the center of the city.
That’s the position I’m in when he licks me from behind, when he bites my butt cheek. There’s nothing awkward about the way he makes me moan. And that’s the position I’m in when he fucks me, his cock in my pussy, his thumb in my asshole, riding me hard enough to make me grunt like an animal, fucking me until I scream his name to the starless night sky.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Elijah
She comes hard enough that she almost passes out, and I carry her limp body to the bed. She curls around the pillow and falls asleep right away.
I stand at the edge of the bed, watching her, waiting. For what?
The urge to lie with her in my arms pulls at me. My hands flex as I imagine tangling them in her hair or holding her breasts. I don’t only want her when we’re having sex. I want to consume her every second of the day.
It’s dangerous, this wanting.
Those iron bars in the church—they’re still here, lined up around me like soldiers, keeping me from true freedom. Walking out of that basement did nothing to release me. I’ll never be good enough for Holly—never soft enough, never kind enough.
So I turn around and leave the suite, where my brother waits downstairs, sitting in an armchair like the one where I fucked Holly. I wonder if I looked the way he does now—so