RIOT HOUSE (Crooked Sinners #1) - Callie Hart Page 0,121
coward, and I’ve spent too many years convincing myself that I’m strong to let myself down now. “I do want you. I want all of you for myself. And...” Lord Almighty, this one’s going to make me feel like a stupid, naive little girl, but here goes nothing, “I want to be your girlfriend.”
Silence.
Roaring, deafening silence.
I can feel the smugness radiating off him, though, very real and very present. After a beat, he presses his hands more firmly into my back, pulling me up against him so that I feel the hardness of him between our bodies; his dick is erect, and from the way it pulses against my stomach, it wants some attention. “Do you have any idea what being my girlfriend would be like, Little E?” he growls.
Uh...words. I need words. Where did I put my ability to form coherent sentences? The same place I put my ability to think coherent thoughts, by the looks of things. “You’re probably...very possessive,” I manage.
“You have no idea. And?”
“And you probably like to hoard all of the power in a relationship.”
“I like being in control of any situation,” he admits. “But I am willing to share on occasion.”
“You probably like to fight?”
“Nothing wrong with healthy disagreement. Nothing wrong with calling someone on their shit if they’re misbehaving, either.”
“You’d probably want everything your way.”
“I’m capable of compromise.”
“Okay...”
“Keep going.”
“That’s all I can think of.”
There’s another faint brush of lips, against my own lips this time, the contact so gentle and teasing that I make a needy whimpering sound when he deprives me of his mouth. “Then let me fill in the rest,” he rumbles. “I’m arrogant. I like to fuck. I’m intense as hell sometimes. It’s all or nothing with me. That’s just who I am. I don’t do things in half measures. There are days that you’ll hate me more than you’ll love me. And you will love me, Elodie. It’s already too late for that. I’ll love you, and you’ll love me, and there won’t be any turning back for either of us. So let me ask you again. Do you have an idea of what it will be like now? And do you still want that, knowing that it might not always be perfect? That it might be hard sometimes?”
My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. I can’t fucking speak. He’s so raw, and fierce, and dominant in everything he says and does. The picture of the future with him that he’s just painted is terrifying and bewildering and so fucking exciting that I know I should be less sure about the answer I want to give. But I am certain. Damn it all to hell, this is the stupidest thing I’ll ever do in my life, but I say the words.
“Yes, Wren. I still want it.”
His hands tighten into fists behind me, clawing at my shirt. Suddenly, he’s pushing me backward, lifting me off my feet, and there’s a wall at my back. He snarls like a hungry wolf, crushing his mouth down on mine, and my mind becomes a void. His tongue probes my mouth, sweeping and tangling with mine, and it’s all I can do to remember to breathe. He’s everywhere. The smell of him floods my head, all citrus and fresh sea air, and bright cedar. I’m so fucking dizzy on him, and I don’t even register what I’m doing until he hisses into my ear.
“Careful, E. You’re almost down to the bone.”
Fuck. I’ve wrapped my arms around him, and I’m digging my fingernails into his back, through the thin material of his hoody. “Shit, sorry.”
“Don’t be. I like it. But if you’re gonna mark me as your property, at least take my fucking clothes off first.”
A wave of heat slams into me, burning in my chest, my stomach, and between my legs. I’m like an animal, possessed and wild as I scramble to take hold of his hoody. I have it off him in record time.
We undress each other in the dark, frantic and desperate, sharing breath and moaning each other’s names as we kiss, and touch, and knead at each other’s skin.
I don’t know where I am, literally, and I do not care. All that matters are Wren’s demanding hands on my body and the strained urgency in his voice as he gives me a command. “Down on your knees for me, Little E. I wanna find out how good that perfect mouth feels.”