The Moth and the Flame (When Rivals Play #2) - B.B. Reid Page 0,131

carpet and mumbled, “Lucky girl.” Standing, I started for the door, but an arm around my waist pulled me back, and then the door I tried to escape through was slammed shut.

“She’s not as lucky as me,” Wren whispered, lips at my neck.

I barked out a laugh that was dry and humorless. “Spare me the whiplash, Wren, please.”

Spinning me around, he pushed me against the door and trapped my hands above my head in a punishing grip. “I’m just trying to protect you, Lou.”

“Did I ask you to protect me?”

“Did you hear me ask for permission?”

I glared at him, and he glared right back. “Let me go,” I said when he wouldn’t back down.

“I can’t,” he told me. “That’s the whole point. I can’t let you go. I can’t lose you.”

My mouth fell open as my anger turned to disbelief. “Don’t you know that I’ve been yours all this time?”

“I know…but I don’t—”

I cut him off before he could finish. “Don’t tell me that you don’t deserve me!” I held his face in my hands. “You’re not all that good, but you’re not all that bad. And we both know I’m no angel.”

I could see his desperate need to believe me in his eyes before he cast them down. “I wish it were that simple.”

“It can be…all you have to do is stop fighting,” I told him as my hands slid from his face down his neck and over his chest until finally reaching his waist where he knotted the towel. “Giving in felt so good…didn’t I feel good?”

“Lou.” He groaned, leaning his forehead on the door behind me. “Lou, don’t. We can’t.”

His protests fell on deaf ears.

How else could I show him that our friendship wasn’t a dead end or even a path that went on and on? It was a passage, and my heart was the open door that led to promising fields of green as far as the eye could see and light so bright that sometimes it was blinding.

Only Wren refused to step through because darkness was all he knew.

“We weren’t building a friendship,” I told him as I untied the knot keeping his towel up. “We were falling. Falling so deep we can never climb back up.” I fell to my knees right along with the towel, and I didn’t balk or second-guess this time around when I took him in my mouth. His hand gripped my hair tightly as I held his gaze and tried to swallow as much of him as I could. He was squeaky clean and fresh after his shower, and I wanted to dirty him back up. To taste his cock after he worked so hard getting me to come all over it. When his cum mixed with mine. As if hearing my thoughts, he pulled me up to my feet and kissed me until my legs shook.

I felt his hand at the hem of my dress pushing it up until it was bunched around my waist. My panties were ripped away, and I was snatched off my feet when he settled my legs in the crook of his arms. His cock locked in on me like a heat-seeking missile. Still, I couldn’t get him inside me fast enough. He slowly filled me, and his groan mixed with my gasp once he sank himself deeply.

“Wren,” I whimpered, not sure I could withstand the ache. He and I felt impossible.

“I told you.” He kissed me. “I warned you.” He nipped my jaw. “And now you want mercy?”

I shook my head, knowing it was the last thing I wanted and stared into his eyes. Feeling my resolve harden, I touched his cheek and whispered words I knew would send him over the edge. “I love you. That means I don’t want any of you if it’s not all of you. The good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful.”

He froze, blinked, and when understanding dawned, he pulled away only to plunge inside me fast and hard with a groan loud enough to shake the walls. He finally let go, letting me see how desperately he needed me, how much he craved me, and how broken he’d be if I ever walked away.

Never.

The rhythm he began as he drove me up the door was unforgiving. I grappled for something to hold onto, but there was only him. He wanted to give me slow and gentle, and I showed him it was the last thing I wanted. We’d shown enough patience, waited too long.