Apparently, this asshole didn’t get the clue. He looked between my hand and Izzy’s face, wary, before he shook my hand. “Trevor Nelson. Good to meet you.”
“You, too. Izzy tells me she loves the new job.”
Did my best to sound gracious.
Pretty sure it came out sounding like I was a hot second from tearing him limb from limb.
He looked at her. “We love having her there. She’s saved our asses in more ways than I can count.”
“She is pretty amazing.” Okay, maybe that time I came off as halfway sane and not some controlling prick, which was the last thing I wanted to be.
But fuck.
This was Izzy we were talking about.
Little Bird.
A flood of self-consciousness rippled across that pale flesh, heat rising. Lust tightened my guts because I would never, ever get enough.
“And I love workin’ there. I’ll forever be grateful for the opportunity.”
He glanced away before he looked back at her with a sly smile. “Think I’ll be forever grateful, too.”
Anger surged, and I was assaulted with another rush of jealousy. Teeth grinding at this prick who was outright flirting with my girl. I tucked her closer, and just then the song playing skipped, and the DJ changed beats, his voice coming on the air.
“Who is ready for Carolina George?”
A bunch of shouts went up around us, a wave of excitement sending a swell of energy moving through the crowd.
Everyone turned that way—Faith and Grace, Courtney, Cockroach, too.
Couldn’t forget about him.
All except for Izzy and me.
Slowly, she shifted around to face me. A coy grin danced on that delicious mouth.
She pressed her hand to the jackhammer wreaking havoc on my chest and lifted up onto her toes, those lips so close to mine. Driving me wild. “Are you jealous, Maxon Chambers?”
I grunted again, my dick all too eager, hips surging forward to meet with hers. “Yes,” I growled along her jaw.
No use in denying it.
An uproar lit around us, and I didn’t have to look away from my beacon to know the band had taken the stage.
“Hey, hey, Charleston. I’m Emily, and I’m pretty sure all you ladies know Richard here on guitar, Rhys on bass, and Leif on drums, and we are Carolina George!” The lead singer of the band shouted into the mic.
It almost caused a riot.
Izzy and I were lost in it. I let my arm slip around her waist, and I wedged my knee between her thighs. She groaned a tiny groan. My dick jumped. “You were doing it on purpose, weren’t you,” I rumbled over the bedlam that had struck up around us.
“Maybe you just needed a little reminder of what you’d been missin’.”
I spread my palm out over her hip. “None required. Living without you was enough. I won’t stand by and let some guy who just met you try to make his move.”
She tickled her fingers over my lips. “Awful possessive.”
I nipped at her fingertips. “Is that what you want? Me to let you go? I’ll fight for you, Izzy Lane, but if you really wanted to walk? If you really didn’t feel this burning between us? Then I would let you go. Only because I want you happy. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.”
“How am I supposed to be happy without you?” It was a breath.
A wisp.
A plea.
She tipped her chin up at me.
Our mouths collided.
Tongues and teeth and hands as we spun in the middle of the crowd.
Blissfully unaware of anything but us.
I tangled my hand in her hair, tongue taking all I could get.
Could feel the racing of our hearts, speeding faster, this feeling coming over us that demanded more.
So fucking much more.
I spun her through the crowd, edging her back and away. Needed to get her alone and fast.
Desire screamed. Wrapping us in these chains I never wanted to be freed from.
We stumbled out of the crowd and into the darkness of the hall. I pinned her against it. She gasped, arched, fingers digging into my shoulders. “Maxon.”
“Little Bird. You make me crazy. You know this, right? I lose all control, all rationale when it comes to you. Could kick that guy’s ass simply for looking at you. That’s so fucked up.”
She giggled. I swallowed it down, demanding more.
“Take me to your place. I need to feel you, my big, bad dragon.”
“Are you mocking me?” Could feel my grin beneath the press of her lips.
“Never,” she whispered, but she was grinning, too.
Happiness rushed through me, thicker than the jealousy.
I grabbed her by the hand and dragged her down the hall. We burst out the backdoor and into the drone of the night.
In a second flat, I had her against the wall again. The beat of the band vibrated through.
Thundered and pulsed.
With one hand, I thumbed into my Uber app while the other dug into her hip, my mouth consuming the sweetness of hers.
“Ride’s here,” I grunted through the kiss, not bothering to set her down as I carried her around the back and onto the sidewalk out front. Holding her with one arm, I opened the door.
The driver glanced back at us.
“Mack Chambers?” he asked for verification.
“That’s us,” I said, slipping into the back and dragging Izzy onto my lap.
The girl took it upon herself to straddle me.
I groaned as the car jerked into motion. “Shit, baby, you are in so much trouble for teasing me. You knew exactly what you were doing, didn’t you?” It was all a rumble between our frantic kisses, the girl starting to writhe, the heat from her pussy radiating against my dick.
“If you would paid attention for one second, you would have seen I was introducin’ him to Courtney. I told him to come to meet her. Faith suggested it. And you should have seen the electricity that struck up between them the second they saw each other. They’re gonna be good together, I can just feel it. Of course, you might have missed the sparks with the fire you were puffin’ from your nose.”
Oh, shit.
God, she left me out of control.
“I’m sorry,” I rumbled, really not sorry at all because I’d fight for this girl until my dying breath.
She was grinning more, her hands on my cheeks as she controlled the kiss.
“You think I wouldn’t feel the same if someone were going after you? You are my heart. The one I ache for. The one I need. The moon in my sky.” She murmured the last.
Nothing but seduction.
Our bodies ground, frantic, the intensity between us rising.
Unstoppable.
“No sex in the backseat of my car.” This from the driver, his voice spitting his irritation.
I squeezed both of Izzy’s ass cheeks, grinding her against me. “Clothes are on, man.”
At least for five more seconds.
He pulled up in front of my house, and I already had the door open, scooting out with Izzy still in my arms.
Door slamming shut, I carried her up the walk and onto the porch, fumbling to get the key into the lock at the front door. It banged open to the darkness, and I kicked it shut with my shoe, carried her down the hall and into my room.
She was giggling when I tossed her onto my bed, that sweet body bouncing, hair falling out all around her, tender smile on her face.
I stood over her. Overcome. Seemed impossible that this could now be my life.
“Izzy Baby,” I grated.
She climbed onto her knees and came to the edge of the bed, and she spread her hands under my shirt.
Flames.
She began to pull it up, that sweet gaze locked on me as she did, her mouth parting with need as she let her eyes rake over me.
Loved that, too. That she shook when she looked at me. A prisoner to this energy.
She tugged the fabric over my head. “You are so gorgeous,
Maxon Chambers. Do you have any idea what you’ve done to me? I’m so over settlin’. So over bein’ alone.”
I stroked my thumb over the angle of her cheek. “You’re not alone. Not anymore. Not ever again.”
I slipped just my fingertips along the line of her delicate throat, riding it down to brush the swell of her breasts exposed by her slinky green shirt.
“So fuckin’ pretty.”
She shivered, then I was gathering the silky fabric, dragging it up. She was bare underneath, perky tits pebbling up, rosy flesh begging for a bite.
I dipped in to lick my tongue over one.
She yelped and wound those fingers in my hair. “Maxon.”
“Yeah, baby?” I murmured, lips caressing over the flesh.
“I need you.”
“I’ve needed you my whole life,” I told her, though my voice was turning somber.
Filled with awe. With respect. With this girl who had always believed in me even when I didn’t come close to deserving it.
She prodded me to look up at her, a tender hand set on my face. “Who knows what love is if he hasn’t experienced grief?”
Familiarity pricked at my senses, and I frowned as I was rushed with a memory, the meaning of it just out of reach, and then she was pleading, “Take me, Maxon. Take me the way you’ve been dying to.” She leaned in and whispered at my ear. “There’s no one around to hear except for me. Let go, my dragon.”
I kissed her hard, our tongues claiming the other. Our breaths short and choppy.
Our hearts thundered, a rage that only increased with each lash of our tongues, nothing but a frenetic batter at our ribs.
Those delicate hands fluttered down my stomach. Every muscle twitched in anticipation, tightened in greed.
She flicked the button of my fly, and she shoved my jeans down over my hips, freeing my dick that was already painfully hard, pointing for the sky, dying to get inside of this girl.
I kicked them the rest of the way off, and then I was pushing her onto her back.
She heaved a needy breath.
Without slowing, I unfastened the clasp on her black pants and dragged down the zipper.
The sound of it echoed through the dense air.
Her belly trembled, and I adored the silvered marks on her stomach with my tongue as I dragged her pants and underwear free.
It left her completely bare, writhing on the bed.
She spread her knees, eagerly.
Her pussy was pink and pretty and throbbing for me.
She ran her hands up her quivering legs, and fuck, I just about passed out at the sight in front of me.
“Beautiful,” I groaned. “You are stunning, Little Bird.”
I ran my fingers through her perfect slit before I leaned down so I could get a good taste of it with my tongue.
Nothing but throbbing, hot woman, wild jasmine, and the sun.
A desperate breath jerked from her lungs, and she curled her hands in my hair. “Maxon.”
A needy growl raked up my throat. “Want to stay right here forever.”
I nipped at her folds, dragging my teeth over the flesh, licking into her cunt. Teasing her into a needy mess in the middle of my bed.
She squirmed, begging for me to get closer, all these sweet little pleas coming from that mouth. “Please, Maxon.”
Pulling back, I gazed up at her face, at the girl who’d been my everything. My greatest love. My greatest sacrifice.
Now, I was giving her everything.
“I’ve got you, baby. I’ve got you.”
I climbed onto the bed and hovered over her, staring down at her sweet face.
At my life.
At my reason.
I traced my fingertips down the sharp angle of her cheek. “I love you, so much, Izzy Baby. I hope you know that.”
She gazed back. “Every piece of me belongs to you.”
I couldn’t stand it any longer, and I pushed into the cove of her tight, sweet body.
Bliss.
Being in this girl was sheer, straight bliss.
I groaned, and her head rocked back. It forced her tits into my chest, every inch of us plastered against the other.
And still, I could never get close enough.
Our connection glowed between us.
White hot light.
I could see every muscle in her body trembling, mine quivering with its match.
“You are mine, Little Bird.”
She exhaled a sound, like she was preparing herself for me, like she knew she was going to need it.
That I needed this moment. To be a little reckless. To show her exactly what she did to me.
I started to pound into her, my cock slick with her as I pulled back and drove back in.
Mewls of pleasure slipped from her mouth with each stroke of my dick.
The pace was punishing, hard and demanding. She bucked up to me.
Hard.
Her body open.
Desperate in its own demand.
“Oh God, Maxon,” she was whimpering, beginning to shake more.
Heat blistered between us, our skin slick, our names pouring like praise from our tongues.
I gripped her by her bottom, my hands taking fistfuls of her sweet flesh, wanting more.
“Endless,” I whispered.
She went off.
Lightning.
Thunder.
The most brilliant kind of storm.
Cries bled from her mouth and her back arched, so goddam sexy, girl riding her orgasm.
My balls tightened and pleasure stalked my spine. My thrusts became erratic, desperate, my face buried in her neck.
Pleasure burst in every cell of my body.
In my heart.
In my spirit.
The girl possessing every inch of me. I poured into her, holding her tight, groaning through the kind of ecstasy that only Izzy had ever been able to bring to me.
Pure and right.
Everything. Everything.
“I love you,” I whispered into her hair.
She clutched me tighter. “Endless,” she returned.
I set my elbow on the bed next to her head so I could stroke my fingers across her face, not even shocked when the question rolled out. Like it was always meant to be. Or maybe I just should have uttered them a long damn time ago.
“Marry me.”
A soft sigh left her, and the green rim on those hazel eyes glowed. “Maxon,” she murmured.
“I’ll do it right later. A ring and all the words. But right now, tonight, I need to know you’re forever going to be mine.”
A smile trembled all over her mouth, emotion filling my room to overflowing.
I’d happily die getting crushed by that feeling.
“Yes. A million times over, I would say yes. Nothing could ever make me happier than bein’ your wife. Don’t you know that’s what I always wanted?”
A memory weaved between us.
The two of us had been out in our meadow, the girl wearing some ridiculous white dress she’d taken out of her mama’s closet that was fifteen sizes too big, a bough of wild jasmine flowers in her hands.
Our fake wedding out in the meadow.
Should have known then it was real.
She chewed at her lip, fighting the emotion. “You rememberin’ that day?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I meant it then, and I mean it now.”
I gathered her hand and pressed it to my mouth. “I’m going to take care of you, Izzy. Be the best husband I can be. The best dad I can be.”
Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes, and I kissed them away, and she wrapped her arms around me tight.
We sat there in the glow of it for the longest time.
Finally, she pulled back. “I need to get going.”
Reluctantly, I nodded, edged off of her, taking her sweet body with me as I stood. She yelped as I carried her into the bathroom, the girl giggling, the vibration of it moving through my being
.
I tucked it down.
Held it tight.
I took out a hand towel and cleaned her up a whole lot like the way as she’d done for me that first night.
Carefully.
Adoringly.
Except tonight, all the pain and questions had been erased.
Just the future stretched out in front of us.
We dressed, and hand-in-hand, we went out the front door, my attention scanning the area, making sure everything was in the clear.
“I hate that you worry,” she whispered, sensing my angst, and I pinned her against the door of her car, kissed her slow, and edged back to brush the hair back from her face. “It’s my job to worry about you.”
Tenderness filled her expression, and then reluctantly, she opened her car door. I helped her inside, and I dipped in to steal one more kiss.
“I’ll see you soon.”
“That is if you don’t come sneakin’ through my window in the middle of the night.” It was nothing but affection.
I laughed.
She knew me well.
I would definitely be coming through that window.
“Are you telling me you have a problem with that?” A smirk lifted at the corner of my mouth.
“Never,” she said.
I nudged her chin with my knuckle. “Drive safe.”
With a nod, she put her car in reverse, and I stepped back and shut her door.
I watched as she backed out. Meeting her gaze through the windshield, I held both of my hands over my heart.
Her head tipped to the side, and she blew me a kiss.
Then I chuckled as I went directly to hop into my rental truck so I could follow her home.
Did she actually think I was going to let her drive home alone at night with all the shit that had been going down?
Not on my watch.
The girl was my duty.
And my family was my life.
Twenty-Nine
Izzy
Night pressed down from above, hugging the car like a warm, summer embrace, and a peaceful silence hummed in the air.
Trees rose up on every side, and I wound through the backroad that led to my parents’ house, the spray of my headlights lighting the road. An unendin’ grin had taken up residence on my face, refusing to let go.
Wings fluttered soft and slow in my belly, flappin’ and flickin’ to touch my heart that was overflowing with love when I glanced in the rear-view mirror.
Pieces of Us: A Confessions of the Heart Stand-Alone Novel Page 29