by Chloe Walsh
My legs shook so violently,
I didn’t think I had the strength to stay upright.
But he didn’t let me fall.
His lips never left my pussy as he hitched one thigh over his shoulder and continued his delicious onslaught, holding me up with the sheer strength of his shoulders alone.
My body shook.
I trembled violently.
I couldn’t seem to contain myself.
I'd lost all control of everything inside me.
I'd given in.
Wholly and entirely.
Everything inside of my brain screamed at me to stop, but no words of protest escaped my lips.
No words at all.
Just breathless, panting moans of encouragement as I grabbed at his silky blonde locks and screamed in pleasure.
His hands; those tattooed, dangerous hands as they held me open for his mouth to lap and suck, violating my innocence, taking with them any chance of turning back now.
His tongue speared me, his teeth nipped, everything about the man was driving me closer to the brink of orgasm.
I was so turned on and equally disgusted with myself.
And he seemed to know it.
Every sob that tore from my throat, Hunter replaced with a moan of pleasure.
He quite literally fucked the guilt away until I was consumed wholly in him.
All I could feel was him.
Lightening had struck.
The world had ended.
And he was still here.
Making me feel so good.
So fucking good…
He seemed to revel in my pleasure and the more I moaned, the harder he seemed to work to make it more.
"I can't…" I cried up, bucking my hips against his face. "Oh, fuck…"
"You can," he growled as he drove me to the brink of insanity with his mouth. "Let yourself feel this…feel me."
My head fell backwards, slapping hard against the plaster of the wall, as shockwaves of pleasure jolted through my core.
Holding onto his hair, I felt my pussy spasm violently as I came hard.
On his face.
Helpless, I could do nothing but shudder uncontrollably as my orgasm tore through me.
This felt so good.
So right.
So fucking right.
But it was wrong.
So fucking wrong!
I was in the arms of a man and he wasn’t my husband.
Closing my eyes, I allowed myself to absorb the intensity of having him touch me, having him hold me.
Wanting me.
Loving me.
Oh god…
"You feel like mine," he whispered, brushing his lips to mine, as he carried me over to his bed. "Be mine."
I didn’t answer him.
I couldn’t.
Vulnerable and exposed, I dragged my dress over my head and tossed it on the floor, my bra quickly joining it.
My heart hammered in my chest, my blood bubbled in my veins, my air caught in my throat. He was seeing me. All of me.
"You're beautiful," he whispered, eyes trailing over my naked skin.
I watched as he pulled his shirt over his head, letting it fall to the floor, before dropping his hands to the waistband of his jeans, revealing his staggeringly beautiful body.
The intensity of his gaze had me paralyzed to the bed as he stared down at me through dark hooded lashes.
I couldn’t have moved if I wanted to.
I was hypnotized by this man, locked inside an inner battle of doing what was right and doing what I wanted.
The right thing for me would be to put my clothes back on and leave, but what I wanted was to take him inside of my body.
I knew I would never forgive myself if I walked away now.
He just looked at me, and in his eyes, I received everything I never knew I wanted but suddenly and desperately craved so much.
My heart was racing so hard in my chest, I found myself breathing faster, exhaling in short, puffy breaths.
I wasn’t a virgin, but Hunter made me feel like I'd never been touched before.
The way his eyes roamed over my skin made me feel like his were the first to see my bare flesh. I felt incredibly vulnerable in this moment.
When his clothes were on the floor, he returned to me, and I kissed him hungrily.
Pulling his body down to mine, I allowed myself to sink into the bottomless lagoon of pleasure that was Hunter Casarazzi.
"Hunter." His name tore from my lips like a reverberated prayer.
"I'm here," was his simple reply as he kissed my neck.
Two words that gave me more comfort than was rational.
One moment he was above me, and the next he was inside me, sliding into my warmth in one swift move.
Broken and torn, I clung to his broad shoulders, immersing myself in every vivid sensation and feeling that had no business in my heart.
A sharp, erotic hissing sound tore from his lips seconds before his hands clamped down hard on my waistline. He hitched my thigh around his waist as he rocked inside me.
The feel of his hips gyrating above me was too much, bringing with it friction to my throbbing clit that he miraculously seemed to know I needed.
It was too much.
He was too much.
My feelings.
Everything.
Crying out, I dug my fingernails into his hard, tattoo covered chest and stared into his icy blue eyes, reveling in the feel of his abdominal muscles contracting under my touch.
He felt so good under my touch.
He felt so good, period.
The heat of his skin, the hardness of his muscles, the knowledge that I was in the arms of a man who wouldn’t think twice about taking a life for the woman he loved… it was oddly empowering.
He filled me to the brim and I gasped at the pressure before whispering, "Oh god."
"Take me inside you, Hope." He pressed harder, pushed deeper, demanded more from me with every thrust of his hips. "Feel what it's like to be wanted."
I threw my head back and cried out loudly as the familiar swell of desire pooled inside of my body, causing my pussy to clench and my body to tremble.
"To be taken care of."
I did.
I could.
Oh god…
"I'm right for you, Hope," he growled as his movements turned urgent. "And I'm mother fucking willing."
He was.
He was.
Oh god, he was everything to me in this moment.
"The bad in me is exactly what that good girl inside of you needs," he added as he plunged himself inside me, each thrust as merciless as the rest. "Stop fucking denying me!"
"Oh god," I screamed, clutching for an anchor to hold me down as waves of ecstasy crashed through my body. "I'm coming," I cried out. "Oh god, I'm coming…"
He pressed a thumb to my clit and I went off like a firecracker, jerking and shuddering violently beneath him.
Hunter continued to pump into me until he too found his release and collapsed on top of me, a sweaty mass of primal man.
When the ripples of illicit pleasure eventually faded, reality crashed down on me, joined by the image of my husband's face, and I balked in shame.
Mortified and using every ounce of self-control left inside of my body, I shoved him away from me.
"Oh my god." Stumbling out of his bed, I held the covers tightly around my body as a sharp sob tore through my chest. "What have I done?"
"I'm sorry," Hunter panted, chest heaving and eyes dark as night. "I shouldn’t have done that"
"No," I whispered, batting his hand away when he reached for me. "You shouldn’t have."
"Actually, fuck that," he shot back. Jerking out of bed, he slipped on his boxers and hissed, "I should have done that a long time ago."
Tears pooled in my eyes when I noticed my dress and bra on his bedroom floor. "Oh, Jesus, no…" Shame and guilt crept into my body and I heaved loudly.
"It's okay, Hope." I felt Hu
nter's arms come around me, but I couldn’t accept the comfort he was offering me.
I didn’t deserve it.
"I need to go home," I gasped, shoving him roughly away from me. "Now!"
"Calm down," he choked out. "It's okay –"
"It's not okay," I sobbed brokenly as I quickly dressed. "I need to get away from you."
"Don’t do this," he croaked out hoarsely, running a hand through his thoroughly mussed hair. "Don’t treat me like I'm fucking expendable."
"I'm not!" I screamed, turning my face away as I clumsily toed on my heels. "I just need…space!"
I couldn’t look at him right now.
I couldn’t see.
"You're not? Then what the fuck do you call space?" He shook his head in disgust. "I'm not doing this with you again. I won't. I refuse to stand here and listen to you lie to yourself and make what happened out to be a mistake because it wasn’t a fucking mistake. You wanted it, Hope. You wanted me!"
"No." I shook my head, fiercely denying it. "I lost my head for a minute. But I don’t want you."
"You're lying," he shot back, tone heated and fierce. "You want me and it fucking terrifies you."
"Stop it." Turning on my heels, I hurried out of his bedroom. "Stop pushing me."
"I have to fucking push you," he shot back, following close behind me. "It's the only goddamn way I can get you to be honest!"
"I'm not lying to you," I hissed, stung by his words.
"Not to me, but you're most definitely lying to yourself," he countered angrily. "You've been lying to yourself. For months now!" He shook his head and exhaled a frustrated sigh. "And that's the worst fucking kind of lie."
"What do you want me to say?" I screamed, tears flowing freely now.
"Admit it," he demanded, closing the space between us. Cupping the back of my neck with his large hand, he drew me closer. "Admit you want me, Hope." His chest was heaving, his eyes wild, as he pressed his brow to mine. "Admit it!"
"I can't," I whispered, trembling violently.
Hunter growled in frustration. "Why not?"
A sob tore through me as I whispered, "He loves me."
"I love you!" he roared, backing away. "Me, Hope. Me. I fucking love you!"
This wasn’t happening.
This couldn’t be happening.
I was dreaming – I had to be.
"Jordan needs me," I strangled out. "He needs me, Hunter!"
"And I don’t?"
I shook my head. "No, you don’t!"
"So, what?" he demanded. "You don’t want me because I can cope? Because I'm strong? You get off on the broken in him? On his weakness? Then fine." Ripping off his shirt, he stalked towards me. "I can be broken, too."
Taking my hand, he placed it against the skin covering his hammering heart. "This here?" He stared at me meaningfully, his blue eyes piercing and full of heated emotion. "This stopped beating when I was eighteen years old and watched the life seep out of the girl I loved." He was shaking, trembling all over. "It kick-started in my chest twelve years later. When it found you."
"Why are you doing this?" I screamed, snatching my hand away.
I couldn’t handle this.
I couldn’t cope with the tsunami of feelings I had for this man that were threatening to drown me. "Why are you ruining everything?"
"That's right, Hope. I'm the fuck up. I'm the one ruining everything," he snarled. "I got attached. I fell in love with a married woman. I'm the bastard. I'm the horrible prick. It's all on me."
"You need to shush!" I hissed as I pressed my fingers to my swollen lips.
"Shush?" Hunter cocked a brow. "I tell you I'm in love with you, and tell me to shush?"
"Yes, shush!" Stumbling backwards, I blindly gathered my purse – and to my deepest shame, my panties – off the kitchen floor before rushing towards the door. "You need to shush and I need to go."
I needed to get out of this apartment before I made an even bigger mistake I couldn’t come back from.
Like what? my subconscious sneered. Falling back into bed with him?
"Us being friends was a stupid idea," I breathed, chest heaving. "It was never going to work." "
It pained me to say it, but I had to.
I had to stay away from him.
My marriage was on the line.
I couldn’t risk everything for him.
I couldn’t.
Even thinking about it was insanity on another level.
No, I needed to get my drunk ass as far away from temptation as possible.
"Hope, stop. You can't just run out of here like this –" Hunter called out, but I didn’t wait.
Instead, I hightailed it out of his apartment as fast as my legs could carry me.
What the hell had I done?
Why in god's name had I allowed that to happen?
And why the fuck was my heart screaming at me to stop running?
I managed to make it to the elevator before I was lifted off my feet and thrown over a pair of huge shoulders.
The scream that tore from my throat was one of shock, partially because Hunter was carrying me back to his apartment, but mostly because he could.
"You're not running out in the dark," he stated calmly, still carrying me. "And especially not in your condition, you little lightweight."
"I wanna go home," I mewled pitifully as I stared at his jean-clad ass. "And I'm hardly little. You know, you should really put me down before you hurt yourself."
"Hurt myself," Hunter chuckled as he stalked back into his apartment with me slung over his shoulder.
He walked over to the leather couch and gently sat me down.
"I know you don’t want to be around me right now," he said then, taking a sensible step back. "But I'm over the limit and can't drive, and there's no way in hell I'm letting you walk around the streets at night on your own. So just sit tight until your ride gets here."
I frowned in confusion. "My ride?"
"Yeah," Hunter confirmed. "I called your brother."
"My brother?" I wailed. "Which one?"
"Cam."
"Oh god," I whimpered, flopping back on the couch. "Shoot me now."
Chapter Fifty-Four
LUCKY
When I watched Hope run out of my apartment, I felt my mind go into overdrive as I thought through my options.
The selfish and most appealing of those options was to chase her down and beg her not to leave me. Declare to her that I was disgustingly in love with her, admit the fact that the thought of not seeing her face every day caused me physical pain, and beg her not to leave me. Tell her that I didn’t give a fuck about her moral obligations because I knew I could make her happier than her husband ever could, then drag her back to bed.
But I didn’t.
She couldn’t hear me right now.
She was too consumed in her guilt.
The least selfish was to let her go. Stand back and give her the time and space she needed to work this through on her own.
I didn’t do that either.
Because I wasn’t that masochistic.
I settled on option number three; the one in the middle.
It took every ounce of self-control I had to sit her on my couch and call her brother to come get her.
Every instinct inside of me roared at me to push – that I was this goddamn close to cracking the wall she'd thrown up around her heart.
Her mouth, her breasts, her clit, every fucking part of her was perfect for me.
And I was the one she turned to when shit hit the fan.
I was the one she took comfort from.
I knew I was the second man to ever be inside her, but I had treasured the moment like I was the first.
That had to mean something, right?
She didn’t play around, this girl. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, she'd given me something tonight that only one man before me had the honor of having.
And she called me by my real name.
No one did that.
Absolutely fucking no one, and when she did it, she reached inside and pulled on some part of me I had thought was dead and buried.
I thought I had done all the time I ever would behind bars in the state pen, but from the moment I met this woman, it felt like I had walked out of one prison and straight into another.
"Cam's going to be so pissed that you called."
I cocked a brow. "Oh really?"
"Really," Hope nodded, wide-eyed.
"I think I can handle myself, HC," I replied, sitting on the coffee table opposite her.
I knew it could go one of two ways when Cam got to my apartment.
He was either going to lose his shit on me for getting his sister drunk, or he was going to lose his shit on his sister for being alone in my apartment with me.
Either way, I was fully prepared to shut that shit down.
I liked Cam.
We were friends, but he had a horrible habit of treating Hope like a porcelain doll.
Hell, it wasn’t just him; his entire family were guilty of it.
They seemed to be under the illusion that she was on a pretty pedestal and had to behave a certain way.
I wanted to break that fucking pedestal the world seemed to hold her on. I wanted to rip those fucking chains that trailed around her ankles and show her what real life felt like.
I wanted her to know it was okay to screw up sometimes and not be perfect.
Like being with her tonight. She had been so fucking into it until that misguided conscience of hers reared its ugly head.
"Seriously." Hiccupping, she pulled herself into a sitting position on my couch and frowned. "He has a lot going on right now."
Oh? "Like what?"
"Like fatherhood," Hope drawled and then quickly slapped a hand across her mouth. "Omigod," she breathed, hand still covering her mouth, as she stared at me wide-eyed and innocent. "I wasn't supposed to say that."
My brows shot up in surprise. "Tillie's pregnant?"
Hope nodded eagerly. "None of the family know except for me." She paused and frowned before adding, "And now you."
"Well, my lips are sealed," I assured her. She was too fucking adorable. Goddamn. "I promise, I won't say a word."
"Promises mean nothing to me," she surprised by saying. "Not anymore."
Because of him, I wanted to ask, but held my tongue.
I didn’t need to ask the question anyway.
Of course, it was because of him.