Laikyn
“Hello, princess. I didn’t expect to see you back here so soon.”
“What? No. No, no.” I spun around, searching for an exit but finding only bars surrounding me. “I’m not supposed to be here.”
“But you came to me.” Diggy’s crooked-toothed smile sent a shiver up my spine. “I always knew you’d be back. You missed me, didn’t you? The way we used to talk for hours into the night.” He sneered as he moved closer. “You liked hearing all the dirty things I was going to do to you when that timer hit zero.”
“No,” I countered, my chest squeezing. I had to get out of here. “Rule saved me. He killed you.”
“Rule? Is that his name? The guy who put a bullet in my face?”
“Leave me alone,” I told Diggy, running my hands over the bars on the far side, searching for a way out.
“You came back, princess. You came back to see me.”
“No. No, I didn’t. I hate you.”
“Your mouth says so, but your body says otherwise.”
“No!” I stepped back when Diggy moved toward the door to the cell. “Leave me alone! I mean it!”
“Javier!” Diggy shouted, turning his attention to the top of the stairs. “She’s back. I told you she’d come back.”
My gaze swung toward the sliver of light that peeked from under the door. “No, I didn’t! I’m not back!”
“Javier told me we’d see you again because your mommy promised. And people don’t break promises to Javier. She owes us.” Diggy’s eyes were wide, imploring me to believe him. “She said if she didn’t come up with the money, we could have you.”
She didn’t say that. I wouldn’t believe it. My mother was a lot of things, but…
Diggy reached for the padlock, and I moved backward until my back hit the metal bars on the other side. I wrapped my hand around one bar and tried to jerk it free. It didn’t budge.
“We don’t have to worry about time anymore, princess.”
I searched for the countdown timer, but there wasn’t one. “No!”
The barred door squeaked open. There was nothing between me and Diggy. Nothing to stop him from doing those horrific things he’d promised.
“Remember this?” He lifted his hand, and a big metal pipe appeared. It was the one he used to clang against the other bars.
“I promised I’d fuck you with this when the time came.”
“No!” I grabbed the bars behind me and shook, trying to wrench them open.
“Now’s the time, princess.”
“No!” I shouted when he took a step toward me. “No! Leave me alone!”
I jerked back when a hand touched my shoulder. It wasn’t Diggy, but he was still approaching. I stared, my breaths choppy and shallow. His demonic grin seemed to be backlit by fire.
Another hand on my shoulder. This one rougher, more insistent. Shaking me gently but firmly.
“No!” I screamed, trying to kick my legs, but something was holding me down.
Right before my eyes, a hole bloomed in the center of Diggy’s forehead, but he didn’t fall to the ground. He wasn’t dead.
“I’m coming for you, princess.”
“No!”
A hand cupped my face, a thumb brushing over my lower lip, warm breath near my ear. Fingers glided along my cheek, a light flutter that brought more warmth. Light began to seep in, drowning out the darkness.
“I’m coming for you, princess,” Diggy said, but now he sounded like he was underwater. “I’m coming—”
I was on the verge of the dream world, one half of me in reality, the other lingering in the nightmare. It took a moment for my brain to register what was happening, where I was.
A house. A bed.
Not a cage in someone’s basement.
I wasn’t alone. A lamp was on, highlighting the man sitting on the bed by my hip.
“Jinx,” I whispered, realizing tears were streaming down my cheeks.
His eyes held a wealth of concern as he regarded me closely, his thumb brushing the tears away.
I lurched up and threw my arms around his neck, clutching him tightly, clinging to the security he provided simply by being here.
His warm hand glided up and down my back. He was so solid, so warm.
It took a few minutes, but my rapid heartbeat slowed to relatively normal, and I released him, lying back on the pillow.
“It was a nightmare,” I told him.
He nodded, his head tilting to the side. I could feel his worry. It was in the gentleness of his touch and the brightness of his blue eyes.
“I’m okay.” I wiped my hair back from my face as my breath shuddered. “I promise. I’m all right.” I swallowed, looking past him because looking him in the eye was difficult. “I have them all the time. Nightmares. I know I shouldn’t. It’s over, and I should be grateful.”
Jinx’s hand curled around my jaw, and he turned my head so I was forced to meet his gaze. His mouth opened, and I thought for a second that words were going to come out, but they didn’t. I could tell he was at a loss because he wanted to ease my fear with his voice.
“I don’t need you to talk,” I assured him. “You’re here. That’s all I need.”
I proved it by sitting up again and sliding my arms around his neck. Slower now that the panic had abated. I held on tightly, letting his strength and heat wash away the last vestiges of the dream. I’d felt him in my dream. His presence had been reassuring even though I hadn’t realized he was there.
“Don’t go,” I whispered. “Stay with me, please.”
He nodded as he peeled my arms from around his neck and settled me back on the bed. He joined me, sliding his arm under my head so I could press up against him. I held on, afraid to let go.
Jinx kissed my forehead, and that was all it took. That sweet gesture sent a wash of warmth under my skin, replacing the bone-chilling cold of fear with something else.
“Stay here with me, Jinx,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to his chest.
His arm tightened under my head, and he pulled me closer.
I pressed another kiss to his chest, but I didn’t stop there. I couldn’t. Since our make-out session earlier, I’d wanted to feel more of him. But he’d been so gentle and sweet that I’d ended up leaving him, insisting I was tired. I’d been shocked by my feelings for him, surprised that I’d wanted what he was offering more than I’d ever wanted anything else. And I wasn’t talking about sex. I was referring to the intimacy that came with slowing down for a moment and just breathing. He’d forced me to do that by not allowing me to seduce him, and it had scared me. The intensity of what I’d felt had scared me.
I kissed along his collarbone, then up his neck, along his jaw, shifting so that I was practically covering him as I sought his mouth.
“Make love to me, Jinx.” I breathed the words between us, hoping he would feel my need, my desperation. It was a hunger, but not the same as what I usually felt. I wasn’t merely seeking an orgasm.
I wanted to feel him. I wanted to be as close to him as I could possibly be.
And I couldn’t wait any longer.
* * *
Jinx
I was falling.
That was the only way to describe the feeling of being with Laikyn. Like stepping off a platform at thirty thousand feet and being battered by the wind while your insides were topsy-turvy and you plunged headfirst toward the ground.
Only there was no fear of death, only a sweet rush from the adrenaline and the knowledge that everything was right in the world. If only for that one precious moment.
Crawling in bed with her hadn’t been my intention when I’d shot out of my bed at the piercing shrill of her scream. The sound had sent chills down my spine and put my body on high alert. I hadn’t thought about the danger as I bolted out of my room and across the hall to find her flailing on the bed, clearly trapped in a nightmare. It had taken what felt like an eternity to wake her, and for the first time in my life, I’d hated myself for being unable to speak. I’d tried to say her name, but the sounds never came, so I’d touched her, gently shaking her in an attempt to pull her out of it.
The sight of her tears had nearly ripped me in half, but then she threw her arms around my neck, and she managed to put me back together with her touch alone.
But this…
“Please, Jinx,” she whispered against my mouth. “I want to feel you.”
Walking away from her wasn’t an option. I would not allow her to think I didn’t want her because I did. And the thought of making love to her … it was the same rush as launching out of an airplane.
When her lips sealed to mine, I welcomed the kiss, sliding my tongue against hers as I slipped my hand under her tank top, slowly peeling it from her body as I shifted closer, hoping to soothe her with the heat of my body. She wasn’t trembling anymore, but I knew from experience that the nightmares lingered longer than you wanted. She was using me as a distraction, and I was okay with that.
I broke the kiss so she could pull the tank top over her head, my gaze sliding lower, over the rounded curve of her smooth shoulder, the swell of her breast, the peak of her nipple. Before I knew what I was doing, I cupped her breast, gently rolling her nipple between my thumb and forefinger.
I met her gaze, seeking permission as I leaned in.
“Yes,” Laikyn whispered, her hand on the back of my head as she urged me closer.
I licked the pebbled tip, circling it until it was hard against my tongue.
“Oh, God, yes.” Laikyn’s fingertips pressed insistently against my scalp.
Laving her nipple, surrounded by her soft mewls, I felt as though I was outside my body, watching myself claim her. It was an incredible feeling. Addictive. I would need more; there was no doubt in my mind that I would never get enough of this woman.
Shifting, I worshipped her other breast the same way while pushing her shorts down, wanting them out of the way. Laikyn assisted, using her feet to kick them off and away.
Suckling her breast, my hand curled around her ankle and slid higher, over her calf, her knee. Her smooth skin tickled my palm, and I loved the way she shivered at the touch. I sucked more insistently as I cupped her sex, sliding my middle finger along the seam. She was wet and hot. My blood began pumping faster through my veins, my cock throbbing with the need to be inside her.
When I pressed the tip of my finger against her slick entrance, Laikyn’s back bowed, her chest thrusting upward. I gently bit her nipple as I pushed my finger inside her, the tight, hot clasp of her body making my head spin. I’d thought about being inside her again nearly every minute since the first time.
I fingered her as she rocked her hips, setting the pace. When she dug her nails into my scalp, I added another finger.
“Jinx … oh, yes … touch me.”
I continued to touch and lick, kissing my way up to her neck as Laikyn’s hips rocked more urgently, her body brushing mine as she attempted to get closer.
“Inside me,” Laikyn whispered, bracketing my hips with her knees. “I need you inside me, Jinx.”
It was the work of a moment to shove my shorts down. As soon as they were gone, Laikyn pulled me, urging me over her so her lithe little body was underneath me. I propped myself on my elbows, my hands cradling her head as our lips melded. I was aware of my weight, not wanting to crush her, but she didn’t seem to care. Her arms banded around me, holding me to her as she rubbed her slick pussy along the shaft of my cock.
With my mouth on hers, I aligned our bodies, guiding my cock to her soft, slick center. As soon as I pressed the head against her tight hole, Laikyn pulled back.
“Look at me, Jinx,” she whispered, her hands cupping my face. “Look at me while you enter me.”
Our eyes met and held as I sank in, inch by delectable inch, her body welcoming mine, stretching to accept me.
Her lips parted, and her eyes rolled back as she tilted her pelvis, taking me deeper.
“Yes, Jinx. I want all of you.”
A violent pleasure ripped through me, tightening my skin and making it difficult to breathe. But I never looked away, watching her beautiful face, memorizing every expression, every soft gasp, every delicious moan.
You are the most beautiful woman in the world.
Her eyes opened, skimming my face, and I briefly wondered if she could hear the words that echoed in my head, begging to be freed.
She caressed the side of my face with her palm, a reverence in her touch that surprised me. As I pushed in even deeper, her lips parted with a soft sigh, her hips rocking to meet my thrust. At that moment, when our bodies were joined, and she was looking into my eyes, I knew I loved her. I’d suspected it before now, but there was no denying it. I’d fallen hard.
I pulled out, pushed in again. Slow. Impossibly slow so that I could relish the slick glide of our flesh. It was a pleasure so intense it bordered on pain. Nothing should feel this good. I did it again and again, fucking into her with long, deep strokes while her body shuddered under mine.
“Oh … oh, Jinx…” She gasped and whimpered, her hands clutching my shoulders as the pleasure consumed us both. “I never want you to stop.”
I maintained a pace that sustained us for long minutes, and when I pressed my hips down, my pelvis rubbing her clit, Laikyn’s sighs turned into moans, her arms wreathing my neck, holding me to her. I took care not to crush her even as we were intimately joined, touching from chest to knee, my cock tunneling inside the slick depths of her pussy.
Laikyn’s mouth was next to my ear, her warm breath fanning my skin.
“This … I’ve never wanted this before you,” she whispered. “I think…”
When she didn’t finish the sentence, I slowed, lifting up, forcing her to meet my gaze. I wanted her to finish that sentence. I needed her to finish it.
Her smile was both sexy and sweet. “You want me to say it, don’t you?”
I nodded, rocking my hips, driving in deeper.
Laikyn gasped, her head tipping back. “Yes. Don’t stop doing that.”
I did it again and again, then paused until she met my gaze once more.
Her eyes glistened with what looked like tears, but then she pulled me down, her arms banding around my shoulders, her mouth once more at my ear.
“I’m falling for you, Jinx.”
I grunted, the sound ripped from my chest as I drove into her. Hard, deep.
“Oh, my God,” she cried out. “Yes. Jinx. Oh, yes.”
Driven by a hunger so primal, I wasn’t sure I would survive it, I fucked her. Those words triggered a beast deep inside me, releasing him from his cage, setting him free so he could claim the only woman who’d ever made him feel whole.
Locking my arm beneath her, I held Laikyn against me as I rammed my cock deeper into her tight sheath.
“Yes!” Laikyn’s arms tightened. “Jinx … yes … oh, fuck yes!”
Come for me, baby. Come for me.
Laikyn cried out, my name tumbling from her lips as her body trembled, her pussy milking my cock until I was helpless to stop the release that tore through me with a strength that rivaled anything Mother Nature could’ve come up with.
I groaned, the sound reverberating low in my throat as Laikyn held onto me.
“Nothing,” she whispered against my ear. “Nothing has ever felt like that.”
She was right. And I had a feeling that nothing ever would.
I probably should’ve gone to clean up or allowed her to, but I couldn’t let go of her. I didn’t want to. Not yet. Instead, I rolled to my side, then turned her so her back was to my chest. I spooned up behind her, one arm under her head, the other draped across her.
“Don’t leave me, Jinx,” she whispered, clutching my arm and holding onto me.
I wasn’t sure whether she meant tonight or ever, but it didn’t matter. For as long as I was drawing breath into my lungs, I would be hers if she would have me.
When she shivered, I dragged the sheet over us and held her until her breathing deepened and her body relaxed.
It wasn’t until I closed my eyes that I thought about Rule and what he was going to think when he found out that I’d fallen in love with the woman he’d married. The woman who was supposed to be temporary in our lives. We’d agreed, and for the first time since I’d pledged my life to Rule, I’d gone back on my word.
As I gave myself permission to sleep, I decided that he didn’t need to know. The same as he didn’t need to know that I’d been in love with him for nearly two decades. With Rule, denial was always the best path to take.