Poison & Wine - Melissa Toppen Page 0,50

more than I can bear. And when he slides into me seconds later, I damn near come apart right on the spot.

This is what I’ve been missing. This is what I’ve been craving. The passion. The pure carnal need. The pleasure. I had thought maybe I had imagined what we used to have. Mis-remembering things the way I wanted to and that was why no one else would ever come close to making me feel what Jace does. But that simply isn’t true. Because here I am, feeling everything even more intensely than I’d remembered it.

Jace pounds into me, relentless, unforgiving. Neither of us trying to be gentle. I bite his shoulder. He pulls my hair. The wood friction burns my back, yet I only buck harder. Like a wild animal that’s been kept in captivity for far too long and is finally free again.

I don’t think. I block it all out. All thoughts. All emotions. I rid myself of everything and focus on the physical feeling.

His strong arms holding me in place. His incredible lips as they trace down my neck. His hard chest as it presses into mine. His thick erection as it fills me to the brink, hitting me in the exact spot to send my already building orgasm over the edge.

I cry out, my voice echoing off the four walls around us as pleasure tears through me, burning a path from my head down to the very tips of my toes. I feel it everywhere.

Only it doesn’t stop there. Just as the first wave passes, another begins to build. I once again tangle my fingers in Jace’s hair and hold on as tight as I can as another earth bending orgasm erupts inside of me, and this one is enough to take Jace right over the edge with me.

And together we fall.

Chapter Seventeen

OAKLEY

* * *

It’s been two days since I slept with Jace. Two days since I slipped on my nightgown and ran out of the garage apartment like someone had lit it on fire.

In the moment it was everything. But as I came down from the most intense high I think I’ve ever experienced, reality started to sink back in and regret was the first thing I felt.

As if sleeping with him wasn’t bad enough, I did so without protection. How I could ever be so careless I’m not sure I’ll ever understand. And while yes, I am protected from pregnancy after getting an IUD shortly after Ellie was born, it’s not the pregnancy aspect I’m worried about.

I have no idea who he’s been with over the last four years. Not to mention how many diseases can be spread through the use of needles. And let’s be real, how many drug addicts make sure they’re following safe practices before injecting themselves with heroin?

I’ve had a sick knot in the pit of my stomach ever since then, and while a part of me thinks maybe I’m just being paranoid, the other part of me is really concerned about where my poor choices could lead me.

It’s not fair to him. He asked me to stop him. Hell, he practically begged me to. And what did I do? Certainly not what he asked of me.

Instead, I acted like a reckless teenager with no thought about the consequences of my actions.

“You okay?” Keira pulls me from my thoughts as I work to strap Ellie into her car seat. “You seem quiet today.”

“I’m fine. Just got a lot on my mind.” I kiss my daughter’s forehead before standing upright, closing the car door seconds later.

“A lot on your mind?” She studies me for a long moment. “Wouldn’t have anything to do with the guy you have living in your garage, would it?”

“Unfortunately,” I mutter, shuffling my feet.

“What happened?” She leans against the driver’s door, her keys dangling from her fingers.

Because Keira worked late tonight, she offered to swing by and pick up Ellie on her way home so that I didn’t have to bring Ellie over. I’m thankful too, because given how late it’s getting, I would have been pushing it to get to work on time.

“Wait,” she continues before I have a chance to answer. “You slept with him, didn’t you?”

I have no idea how she hit the nail so squarely on the head.

“What?” I balk like it’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.

“Oh my god. You did. Didn’t you?”

“Keira.” I blow out a breath.

She bites her bottom lip, likely to silence herself from saying the first thing