to watch me jerk off, brown eyes? Because I can tell you that I’ve been doing it every night since I met you. I’d wrap my hand around my cock and think of you. Course it wasn’t nearly as satisfying as having your pussy sucking on my dick. Or your mouth. But I guess now I don’t have to dream about that any longer.”
She stiffened in his arms.
Pushing too far too fast, asshole.
“Not yet. When you’re ready.” Maybe Duke was right. He needed to slow things down. Fuck, he hated when he was right.
She drew back to look up at him. “What makes you think I’m not ready?”
His breath caught in his chest as she stared up at him. Then he reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear. “There’s a lot going on, brown eyes.”
“I know that.”
“Don’t want to fuck you until you’re certain you’re mine.”
“I believe we’ve already had this conversation.”
There went her snooty voice. Christ, it had to be wrong that he got such a kick out of it. But a few weeks ago, he knew she’d never have spoken to him like that. She’d been too scared to be herself.
He fucking loved that she felt secure enough to let him see her.
He ran his thumb over her lower lip. “Open.”
When she parted her mouth, he slipped his thumb inside. “Suck.”
His eyes nearly rolled back in his head as she started to suck. Yes. Shit. This might have been a bad idea.
With his other hand, he reached up and wrapped it around the back of her neck. “I want you, Betsy. Not gonna lie. Want you in my bed. Want you in my house. In my life. Permanently. But I also want you to be damn sure that’s what you want. Not that you’re with me because you think you have no other choices.”
“I don’t think that.”
“I know you don’t think that. Now. And as much as I’d find it damn near impossible to walk away from you, I’d do it. Because I won’t have you trapped. Not by anyone. Not by me.”
“I’m not trapped, Ink.”
“Just listen to me.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to be with me?” Panic filled her face.
“Jesus, baby, no.” He drew her close to his chest. “This is what I get for letting Duke in my head.”
“What do you mean?”
He sighed. “Duke pointed out how fucking vulnerable you are and how I have to be careful not to take advantage. Personally, I want to take you to my home, tie you to my bed and not let you leave until there’s a ring on your finger and no way that any other man could satisfy you. But apparently, that’s not acceptable behavior.”
He said the last part in a high voice.
“Are you trying to imitate Duke?”
“Sometimes having him as the voice of reason is fucking annoying.”
“What?”
“Duke isn’t just a friend, he’s also my brother. Not blood brothers. But after his family died in a car accident, he came to live with my family.”
“Oh no, poor Duke.”
“Yeah. He got dropped off to spend the night, said goodbye to them and then never saw them again.” He grabbed hold of her hand, tugging her over to the sofa and sitting her next to him. “He aged overnight. And he became a pain in my ass. Always on at me to do the right thing.”
“Ink!”
He grinned at her, to show her he didn’t really mean it. Sort of. “He needed a lot from my mom and dad. I was an only child, until Duke came along.”
“That must have been hard for you.”
“Harder for him.”
“Yes, but you went overnight from having both your parents’ attention to having to share.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never been good at sharing. Could have handled it better. But I always felt like a fuck-up next to him. I was an all-around fuck-up to be honest.”
“I’m sure that wasn’t true.”
“Never had good grades. Got into lots of trouble. Most of it he pulled me out of. I had to get out of his shadow, so I joined the armed services as soon as I was out of school. What a stupid idea that was. I was never good with authority.”
She winced. “Yeah, they’re kind of big on people following orders.”
“Apparently. I was a bit of a fuck-up there too. So much so, that even when I had a bad feeling about something, no one listened to me.”
“That wasn’t your fault,” she whispered to him.
“I know that. Most of the time. Thing is, Duke’s