by Lilly Atlas
Chapter Thirty
Acer sat on the cold, concrete steps leading from his apartment to the parking lot, his head in his hands. It was somewhere around midnight, and quiet as a tomb in the desert. His was the only apartment above the coffee shop—which had closed an hour ago—so he had privacy and peace.
Well, privacy anyway.
What he yearned to do was hop on his bike and ride out into the dark night until he left behind what just happened, but leaving Fia alone after he’d fucked up so royally would make him an even bigger bastard.
Christ, he’d really screwed this up. She trusted him, with her body, with her fears. And he’d attacked her like he was no better than Mike.
To top it all off, he hadn’t used a condom. Protection hadn’t even entered his consciousness. Damn, she’d been hot as hell and wetter than the water that had soaked them.
This was exactly why he didn’t trust anyone. This was why Fia never should have trusted him. It was only a matter of time before he broke that trust. Because in the end, it wasn’t just that he shouldn’t trust others. They shouldn’t trust him either. Hadn’t he destroyed Derek? Now he’d done the same to Fia.
The door creaked open above him and he tensed. Fia’s soft footsteps sounded on the hard stairs. She walked down, around him, until she stood one step below, her smooth stomach pressing against his flexed knees.
“Go back inside, Fia. You don’t want to be around me right now.” He couldn’t look at her. Couldn’t bear to view the hatred and blame in her eyes.
“Acer—”
“Don’t trust anyone, Fia. Not Lucky, not me, not anyone. No matter how well intentioned, people will fuck you over. Every single time. I think I just proved that.”
“Are you done yet?”
His head snapped up at the bite in her voice. Her hands were on her hips, and she frowned at him, but didn’t look like she hated him.
She cocked a hip and raised an eyebrow. “Can I speak now?”
He nodded. She could say whatever the hell she wanted. He deserved it.
“Did you lie to me in there?” She pointed toward the apartment.
“What?” He stared up at her, the words not registering.
“Did you lie to me about the scars? Do they turn you off?”
He gasped. “No. No! What the fuck, Fia? I’m not sitting out here because you have a few scars.”
“Well, then I only have one thing to say to you.” She frowned at him, hands still perched on her hips.
Here it comes.
A radiant smile broke out across her pretty face. “Thank you, Acer.”
What? He blinked at her like an owl.
“You forgot, and I forgot, and it was so freakin’ fantastic. That’s why I cried. I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t hurt. I was relieved, and it felt so incredible.”
He shook his head, his thoughts racing. “Forgot what?”
She pushed his knees apart and stepped between his legs. The jeans covering his firm thighs were cold and damp since he hadn’t bothered to towel off. “Forgot to treat me like I was damaged. Forgot that I am damaged.”
“Fia, I crushed you against the wall. I didn’t give you an out. Christ, I held you so tight you’ll probably have bruises tomorrow.” He put his hands on her feminine hips. He had no right to touch her, but he couldn’t stop himself from needing her softness under his fingertips.
She leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss. Just like that, he was hard again. What was it about this woman that made his legendary control blow right out the window?
“And I inhaled you like I was starving, and held you against me because I couldn’t get you close enough, and I think I may have clawed at your back trying to keep you close. So, you may have a few marks of your own.” She smirked, the look so full of self-pride, he couldn’t help but smile back. “Acer, you’ve seen me in freak out mode enough over the past few weeks to know when I’m afraid. I have no doubt in my mind, not a single one, that if I’d wanted you to stop, you would have.”
He shook his head and gave her a gentle squeeze. He loved the way her soft flesh molded in his hands, like warm clay. “I told you not to trust me.”
She kissed him again, longer this time, hotter. “Well, you’re just going to have to find a way to deal with the fact that I do. Sorry.”
He chuckled. Her voice was full of sass. Old Fia sass.
“I didn’t use a condom.”
“I know. It’s okay. I have an IUD and I was tested for everything under the sun right after…you know, and again before I came here. I’m clean. As long as you are, we’re good.”
“I’m clean. I swear it.” He stared at her stomach. Anger, sadness, fear, frustration, tenderness and an unfamiliar warm feeling all swirled through him in one barrage of emotion. For someone unused to shoving all emotion aside, it was overwhelming. He couldn’t begin to sort through and process it all right now.
The one feeling he knew exactly how to manage was the anger. He had an intense and morbid need to memorize the scars on her body, to use the image of her marred skin to fuel his fury. Maybe he’d gift Mike a similar treatment before ending the fucker’s life. “Can I see it?”
She tensed in his arms, but nodded.
The night was quiet, no one around for miles. They may have been outdoors, but they were isolated, behind the building on his steps. He nudged the too-large T-shirt up her torso until it rested just below her breasts. Damn, that lacy thong was sexy. She was a master at her craft.
The scars on the right side of her ribs rested just about eye level given their position on the steps. Illuminated by the security light adjacent to his front door, the marks were clearly visible. The small circles and the skin around them were an angry red from the abuse she’d inflicted in the shower. He pressed a kiss over the ridged skin before resting his forehead on her stomach. The scent of her arousal, either from this intimacy, or from what they shared in the shower, was intoxicating.
“Acer,” she whispered as she slid her hands into his wet hair with a soothing touch.
He’d find Mike, and make the motherfucker pay, if it was his last act on this earth. The noble thing would be to want to justice for Fia, and he did, but he wanted to hurt Mike for himself too. He wanted, needed the satisfaction of seeing terror and pain in the man’s eyes. Yes, his sense of justice was warped, but he’d come to terms with that part of himself years ago. It’s just who he was.
“I’m so sorry he did this to you, but don’t say you hate the scars, baby. We all have things that have broken us and left their mark, both physically and mentally. Just shows what a survivor you are.” He kissed the burns again and trailed his lips across her stomach. He’d devour her whole if he could. The touch of her delicate and capable artist’s hands sifting through his hair was a heavenly combination of comfort and arousal.
“I’m only a survivor because of you, Acer. You got me out of there, you’ve helped me heal. I was drowning at my parent’s house, suffocating in my own fears and misery.”
After one more kiss he looked up at her. “Don’t put me on a pedestal, baby. I don’t belong there.”
She rolled her eyes, and, with her hands still in his hair, gave his head a little shake. “I’m not. Don’t worry, I know you’re full of flaws.” The admiration shining from her eyes defied her words.
He didn’t want hero worship from her. Nor did he want growing emotions. So what the hell did he want? This conversation was sliding into dangerous territory, so he steered it to safer ground.
“You know, that smart mouth is going to get you into trouble sometime, babe.” He nuzzled his nose against her stomach. The combination of the clean, fresh shower smell mixed with her pungent arousal. His shaft twitched in his pants.
She smiled. “I thought my smart mouth was one of the things you liked best about me.”
“Oh, it is.”
Her smile grew seductive. She stepped backward, down one step as she shrugged out of the borrowed hoodie. When she was free of the mat
erial, she laid it along the length of the step between them. “Let’s see if we can’t find another reason for you to like my mouth,” she said with a wink as she dropped to her knees on the sweatshirt.
The chilly night air did nothing to stomp out the fiery heat that suffused every inch of him. Whatever water still remained on his skin from the shower must have evaporated from the heat coming off his body. Though he’d thrown on a pair of jeans but hadn’t bothered to zip them and had forgone a shirt as well.
Fia maneuvered the open fly of his jeans so his now aching dick was free for her touch. She wrapped her small hand around him and gave a firm squeeze. He jolted at the harsh shock of pleasure. “Oh fuck! Fia!”
“Hmm?” she hummed as she lowered her head. She licked a circle around the crown of his dick and his eyes rolled back in his head. With a puff of air, she blew on the wet skin she’d just licked.
Acer gripped the edge of the step until the rough concrete abraded his fingertips. He should stop her. He needed to stop her. It wasn’t that he was worried someone would catch them out in the open on the steps, it was plenty private, but somehow, he felt like he should be the one pleasuring her, not the one on the receiving end. “Fia, wait.”
She rose up on her knees and rested her elbows on his spread thighs. “Acer, don’t be selfish.”
He snorted. “I’m trying not to be, baby. I’m trying really hard not to be.” He ran a thumb across a puckered nipple through the fabric of her shirt and enjoyed the shudder of desire that quivered through her.
“Then let me have my wicked way with you.”
He searched her gaze, not finding inflated hero worship, only desire. He nodded.
Fia winked. “Good. Now lean back and enjoy.”
“Only if you get yourself off too, babe.”
“What?” Her eyes widened.
“Finger yourself. While you suck me. I want to see you come again.” With a light pinch, he rolled her nipple between his fingers.
Her hands flew to his thighs as though to anchor herself against the pleasure. She blinked at him, pink tingeing her cheeks, but she nodded. Leaning on his thighs for support, she spread her knees wider. When she was in position, she moved one hand between her legs and gasped at the contact.
Acer shifted his hips so they were closer to the edge of the step, allowing him to lean back somewhat, and brace his elbows on the concrete one step above.
“Good boy.” Fia sent him a sassy grin as she lowered her head once again. This time, she opened her mouth wide and drew him deep into the warm, wet heat of her mouth. After she closed her lips around his length, she sucked, hard.
“Christ, Fi.”
“Hmm?” She made the same humming noise she had a moment ago, this time around his dick and the vibrations nearly did him in.
“That feels so fucking good.” Wars could be fought over a mouth like hers.
She drove him crazy, licking, sucking, occasionally throwing in a small hum until he could barely see, all the while rocking her pelvis on her little hand and hopefully getting as close as he was.
He lifted one arm off the step and sifted her silky hair through his fingers.
She pulled off him, replacing her talented mouth with her clever hand. “Go ahead,” she said around a gasp, still fingering herself.
“What?” He almost couldn’t process the words.
She nudged his hand with her head. “Go ahead.” Her eyes were unfocused, glazed with desire. “God, that feels good,” she said, increasing the speed of her fingers in her channel. “I trust you, Acer. Guide my head.”
Even though she was a fool to trust him, her words melted something long frozen inside him. He fisted her hair with a firm hold and guided her back down. This time, he controlled the pace, thrusting into her wide mouth. He was careful not to lose control, not to scare or hurt her, but she let him take over and kept up with him while he fucked her mouth, her fingers thrusting in her pussy in time with his cock.
It didn’t take along at all before his balls drew tight and the pressure built to near bursting. “I’m not gonna last, Fia. It’s now or never if you don’t want me to come down your throat.”
Little moans escaped her, the vocalizations squeezing the tip of his cock at the back of her throat and she trembled. Christ, she was coming. Her grip on his thigh tightened to near painful and sent him over the edge.
“Fuck, babe, that mouth.” He curled forward and shot down her throat, his hands tightening in her hair as he lost the ability to command his muscles. He came hard for the second time that night. He always came hard with Fia.
It was a high he’d never experienced with another woman, and it was more addicting than any drug.
A few moments later, she rested on her heels and winked, her expression sleepy and content. “I think it’s safe to say I’ve still got it.”
Acer threw back his head and laughed. Damn that felt good. Another experience he had with Fia more than anyone else. “Come on, smart-mouth, let’s go to bed.” He stood, drew her up from the step, and threw an arm around her shoulders.
“Don’t you think you should call it amazing mouth or something? Maybe gives-best-head-ever mouth? Or how about—”
Acer kissed said mouth until he couldn’t remember what she’d been teasing him about. “Smart-mouth. By the way, you’re sleeping in my bed tonight, and every night.”
“Okay,” she whispered, pressing a hand to her swollen lips.
Something significant had shifted tonight, both with Fia’s recovery and between them. If only her trust in him wouldn’t end with Fia walking away more broken than when she arrived. If only he wasn’t keeping important information about her family from her. If only his own ability to trust hadn’t been snuffed out.
Chapter Thirty-One
“Acer, knock it off. We’re in public.” Fia pushed Acer’s shoulders with a halfhearted effort. Really, she didn’t want him to stop; she never wanted him to stop.
But they were in public.
“Acer.” It came out as half moan, half whine. His mouth was on her neck, his hands on her breasts, under her shirt. One thumb brushed over a nipple and she groaned. In the four days since Lucky’s party, Acer hadn’t been able to keep his hands—or mouth—off her. He took advantage of every opportunity to kiss or touch her, and she loved it.
Gone was any tension or fear. With Acer at least. Around other men, she was still wary and a bit skittish, but with him, she felt free and whole again.
“Can’t stop, baby. Your tits are far too sexy for me to stop. Besides, we aren’t in public. We’re in the privacy of Striker and Lila’s kitchen while everyone else is outside stuffing their faces.”
“But I just came in to get a corkscrew. They’re going to know something’s up if I’m not back soon.”
“I’ve got a screw for you, baby.”
Laughter bubbled out despite her desire. “That just might be the worst line I’ve ever h—oh.” She gasped as Acer pinched a nipple and bit down on her shoulder at the same time. If she didn’t put a stop to this in the next ten seconds, she’d be begging him to fuck her on Lila’s granite countertops regardless of that fact that one of the other six people here could walk in at any time.
“Fia? You having trouble finding—whoops!” Lila threw an arm across her eyes, a shit-eating grin on her face. “So, whatcha guys doing?”
They both laughed, and Acer slid his hands from beneath her shirt. She swatted him away as he attempted to right her clothes in a most unproductive way.
“Sorry, Lila, we’re decent. You can uncover your eyes.” She looked ridiculous, standing in the entrance to her own kitchen with her eyes concealed.
“You sure? Cuz I can wait if you two want to finish up.” She barely got the sentence out around her laughter.
“Oh, well in that case—”
“No!” Fia shoved Acer away and hopped off the counter. “We’re done.” She smiled sheepishly at Lila and started for the doors to the backyard.
“Ba
be?”
Fia turned.
A silver corkscrew dangled from Acer’s pinky, and a smirk played across his tempting mouth.
“Oh, right, thanks.”
Lila and Acer laughed as she snatched the corkscrew and dashed back outside.
Luckily, Lila kept her mouth shut, but the knowing grins around the picnic table told her they weren’t fooling anyone.
Striker shoved his chair back and stood. “We gotta roll, boys. Church is in forty-five minutes. You girls gonna be able to keep yourselves entertained for a few hours?”
“Oh, we sure are.” Marcie’s eyes sparkled with mischief.
Hook tugged on her ponytail, tipping her head back for a kiss. “I feel as though something is going on that we should know about, but don’t. And that usually implies trouble.”
She gave him an innocent smile. “Now, honey, do we ever cause you guys any trouble?”
Jester snorted. “I think you should just leave that one hanging out there.” He kissed the pregnant Emily who glowed with happiness, and followed Striker and Hook into the house.
“See you in a few hours, babe.” Acer’s mouth met hers. He wasn’t satisfied with a chaste peck. No, he tangled his tongue with hers and kissed her until a buzzing started in her ears and her panties grew damp.
Okay, damper. The little tryst in the kitchen had been the original culprit.
“Uh, yeah, bye.” Whew, the man melted her brain. She was falling, hard and fast, the knowledge of the hard, solid ground below her doing nothing to stop her from diving in head first.
He winked and left her with the other women whose expressions resembled those of hungry vultures.
Marcie was the first to break the silence “Sooo, seems like you two are getting along well.”