Murder_ A Sinful Secrets Romance - Ella James Page 0,140

my slightly raised knee.

When I reach the spot where I think his tattoo is, I bite. He chuckles as he arches his back. “Piglet…”

His voice cracks, and my body throbs.

“Mmmmm?”

I feel his left arm move and…God, he’s got his fist around his dick.

I kiss down his nape and nibble on the upper ridge of his shoulder. The muscle there is thick, and he tastes salty. I suck his skin into my mouth and find his nipple with my fingers.

I’m rewarded with a moan. “You better quit that, Piggy.” His voice is a delicious rasp I feel between my own legs.

“Or what, Bear?” I breathe my words against his skin.

He whirls around so fast I have no chance of escaping his snare. With his arms around my shoulders and his mouth on mine, he rasps, “Or I’ll huff…and I’ll puff…and I’ll blow your house down.”

I laugh into his blue eyes, and Barrett gives a wolfish grin.

I’m the one who blows him, as it were. Before I finish, he lifts me up onto the tub’s side, spreads my legs, and huffs and puffs until my hands are running through his hair and my legs are locked around his shoulders.

“You think that’s all?” I rasp, lowering my feet back into the warm water.

He gives me a handsome, almost shy smile, and shakes his head.

“Lay down.”

He does, and I ride him.

We come clutching each other and as Barrett sits up with me still on his lap, I’m struggling to keep my eyes open.

He nuzzles my cheek with his scratchy one.

“C’mon,” he murmurs, and grabs a towel from beside the tub, scooping me up in his arms before he gets out of the tub, wrapping me up first and balancing me against his wide chest as he tucks a towel around his waist. With a small half-smile—the shy, sweet one that seems to wreck my heart a little more each time I see it—he takes me to my bed and we lie down together.

I push my fingers through his wet hair and Barrett, curled around me, kisses my forehead. He’s rubbing my shoulder with his warm palm when I feel his body twitch. For once, he’s out before I am. I pull him closer to me, joyous at the miracle of our two bodies folded so sweetly together.

When, after a little while, my heart’s still soaring too high to sink into sleep, I gently disentangle from him and slip off the bed.

FIVE

BARRETT

I’m going for my toothbrush when I see—

Is that a ring?

I lift it off the toothbrush handle, set it in my palm, and hold it up near my face. My eyes are still blurry, but it looks like… I chuckle, despite my raw throat. That’s a fucking mood ring: just like hers, but a thick band.

I grin down at it. All the tightness in my chest: the cold, tight, empty feeling— That shit dissolves as I look at the ring in my palm. I set it down and wash my hands and try it on before I brush my teeth.

It’s too tight on my middle finger, but it fits the one beside my pinky, on my right hand. I watch amused as it turns from brownish green, before I brush my teeth, to sea green when I’m finished. I take it off so I can clean the sink up, put away the cloth I stuffed into my mouth, and use a spare hand towel to soap off my neck and chest. I don’t think they’re really dirty, but I want to be sure before I get back into bed with her.

I put the ring back on and smirk at myself in the mirror. Pretty princess. Breck used to call me that when I called him our special snowflake. Breck would like her, I think, as I run a hand back through my hair. He was so outgoing. He always liked the quiet, sweet ones. Gwen’s not quiet—she’s more talkative, which is a good foil to me—but she’s sweet as hell.

I give the ring one more glance—dark blue now—before I turn out the bathroom light and step quietly into her room. It smells so fucking good in here. Like fruit and sex and…vanilla. I look up at the ceiling, at the twinkle lights, then I let my gaze find Gwen. Her narrow shoulders, her small body curled into a little “c.” She isn’t skinny, but compared to me, she’s tiny. So small and soft—and warm.

I climb into bed. She’s facing me, so I position myself