“Oh GOD! I’m gonna come!” she cried out as her hot, slick inner walls gripped my dick and her body started to shake.

  “FUCK!” I shouted as my release burst from me, filling her. Coating her insides. “Oakley,” I gasped as she continued to ride the ecstasy, taking every damn drop of my cum deep.

  My gaze went to the mark I’d left on her neck, and a monster inside me roared to life, pleased with the bruise it would make. I kissed her back and stayed buried in her while we came down from our climaxes.

  I was sure I’d never come that much or that hard in my life.

  It took every damn ounce of willpower I could muster to pull free from her and move back so that my body wasn’t covering hers. The need to wrap my arms around her and turn her so I could look at her face, see those eyes, was dangerously close to winning. I had to get some distance.

  Tearing my eyes off her spent, naked body, I walked over to get the blanket I’d put on her earlier. I had to get her covered up. When I turned back to her, she had rolled over and was sitting there, watching me with the look of a very satisfied woman. A breathtaking, stunning female, who I had just shot my load into while having the best sex of my life.

  “You look like you regret it,” she said, her smile fading.

  I did. I regretted it—the fact that I had waited nine years to have her, that I hadn’t been the one to take her virginity, that she had been with other men. I had a world of regrets.

  “I do.”

  “Oh.” The soft word was barely a sound, and the pain in it twisted something in my chest.

  I wrapped the blanket around her. “But one time won’t be enough. We aren’t done here.”

  Those blue pools widened as hope sprang into them. Damn me. Damn this. Damn it all.

  It was going to be impossible to be detached with her. I wouldn’t be able to say things to hurt her. Not anymore. She had a piece of me again. Fuck, who was I kidding? She’d always had a piece of me. She just had a bigger one now.

  Hearing the lock slide in the door, I spun around as it opened, and King walked inside. I bent down to grab my sweats and started pulling them on as he took in the scene. I glared at him as I stepped in front of his view of Oakley wrapped in a blanket, looking thoroughly fucked.

  “Dammit. Thatcher won. I was sure you’d hold off for twenty-four hours,” King said, shaking his head.

  “What do you want?” I barked, not liking that my friends had wagered how long it would take me to fuck Oakley while we stayed in here.

  When King had offered to stay with her, I had refused to let anyone else in here with her but me. They’d both enjoyed making comments about it.

  “Came to see if y’all needed anything, but it seems like”—he glanced at the uneaten grilled cheeses—“you have it under control.”

  “We’re good. You can go.”

  His amused grin wasn’t helping my rising temper. “You don’t want an update?”

  Not with Oakley’s naked body wrapped in a blanket in front of him.

  “Turn around,” I ordered him.

  He smirked as he did as I’d asked.

  I went to pick up the sweat suit I’d torn off Oakley, then walked toward the bathroom. I nodded my head for her to get up and get inside there. Away from King’s eyes. She held the blanket around her—thank fuck—as she got up and came to take the sweat suit from me. I held open the curtain for her, and she paused, then went up onto her tiptoes and placed a quick kiss on my lips before walking inside the bathroom.

  I let the fabric fall, closing her off in there as my heart thudded against my chest. It was a warning. One I needed to heed. Stay away from her. Don’t touch her again. No more kisses or sweet things.

  “Stop with the tortured shit,” King said, snapping my attention back to him.

  I scowled in his direction. “Update,” I barked.

  He looked past me to the curtain and grinned. “You first.”

  “King, don’t push me,” I warned.

  He rolled his eyes. “Fine. Don’t share with your friend.”

  “King, you’re aware this isn’t a real door. I can hear you,” Oakley called out.

  His chuckle didn’t ease me. I wanted him to talk and leave.

  “Sorry, sweets. But I lost a bet and owe Thatcher five hundred. Y’all can at least gimme some details.”

  I pointed at the door. “Leave. Send Thatcher in here to tell me what the fuck is happening,” I snarled.

  “You two really made a bet?” Oakley’s voice came from behind me.

  I turned to see her head peeking out from the curtain. Her hair still had the just fucked look. I wanted her out of his eyesight. He didn’t need to ever know how incredible a pleasured Oakley looked. Ever.

  He held up his hands. “I can’t talk. Seems you turned our Jekyll into Hyde.”

  “Get dressed, Oakley,” I told her.

  She tensed, and her eyes narrowed. It should piss me off, but it just made me hard. I wanted to fuck her while I was angry. While she was angry. Make her scream my name again. DAMMIT! I had to control myself.

  “Are you asking or telling?” she snapped.

  “Please,” I added.

  Her face instantly softened, and God help me, I was screwed.

  “Hughes is headed this way with Gage. You need to keep your ass in here for obvious reasons. Gage might know now that you were doing a job before, but he won’t get over the you wanting his woman thing. According to the boss, Gage is psycho when it comes to her,” he informed me.

  “Yeah, trust me, I’ve seen the psycho,” I replied.

  It was hard to forget. He’d put a gun to my head and threatened to blow my brains out if I didn’t let him in her apartment. That had all ended up to be a fucking shit show.

  “Thatcher is going with Hughes and Gage to the location where the signal came from. It’s a warehouse about forty minutes from here. Secluded with security. They are gonna need you to break in and shut down the system before they get there. We will call when it’s time for you to do that.”

  “Okay,” I replied with a relieved nod.

  This was going to end soon. Blaise Hughes with Gage Presley and Thatcher were a dangerous combination.

  “I’m staying at the main house, keeping things protected. Sebastian is here. He arrived an hour ago. Wells and Storm arrived too. Everyone is accounted for.”

  That was too many fucking names I didn’t want to think about right now. I just nodded.

  King leaned in close to me. “Sebastian is being a bit of a prick about you being the one to stay in here with her,” he whispered.

  My entire body tensed. Jealousy burned in my blood, and I felt that monster slowly stretching inside of me. He wasn’t getting near her.

  King gave me a wink. “Easy, man. Looks like you’re the one she wants in here, and you’re the one who can work that super computer.” He slapped me on the back, then headed for the door.

  I stood there, my anger simmering as I thought about Sebastian believing he had some claim on Oakley. He had nothing. She hadn’t wanted him. They’d been done for several years.

  I turned back around to see she was out of the bathroom, watching me silently. Her hair had been brushed out, and she was dressed again. Yet she was still just as heart-stopping beautiful, and I wanted her naked and under me. The urge to remind myself that she didn’t belong to someone else was there. Pounding in my temples.

  “Who was the girl?” she asked me, breaking the silence.

  It took me a minute to understand what she was saying. When her lips had started moving, my complete attention had gone to how they were perfectly shaped, like a heart. I shook my head to clear it, and my gaze snapped back up to meet hers.

  “What?” I asked.

  She wrapped her arms around her waist and seemed to be withdrawing from me. That was different than the woman who had strutted up to me and kissed me less than ten minutes ago.

  “The girl. The one King was talking about. Who is she?”

  The possessiveness in her tone wasn’t lost on me this time, and I wanted to laugh. Was she serious? She was standing there, jealous over some woman I never dated and who was in love with a crazy-ass son of a bitch, while I was dealing with the fact that two of her ex-boyfriends were at the house, one of them wanting to get in here to be with her.

  “Does that amuse you?” she asked, and I realized I was smiling. Shit.

  “Shiloh. She was a job. I had to protect her by befriending her. She was a former girlfriend of Gage Presley. One of the boss’s personal army he keeps close. She was nice. We became real friends.”

  “She baked cookies and cupcakes with Sarah. I remember her telling me about her. But then, one day, she was just gone. Sarah was sad about it,” Oakley said, still looking unhappy about this.

  I nodded. “Yeah. Shiloh lost her memory in a car accident and forgot her past with Gage. He didn’t. She ended up falling in love with him again. Job over. End of story.” At least, that was all I was telling her.

  “But you liked her,” she said.

  I let out a laugh. “Yeah. I guess I did. But I don’t anymore.”

  She nodded tightly and walked over to the table without another glance at me. Was she angry?

  “Oakley, what is wrong?” I asked, already knowing I should let it go.

  She picked up her water and shrugged, but didn’t look back at me.

  Dammit! This was ridiculous. Shiloh was almost two years ago. We hadn’t even kissed. What did it matter anyway?

  “Oakley,” I said, annoyed, “you can’t be upset over some female from my past who was nothing more than a friend. There are two men in that house who you were in a relationship with. One who proposed to you. And let’s not forget that we are here because the man you are dating put a fucking bomb in your car to get to me.”

  She put the water back down before turning around to look at me. Was it always going to be like this? When I saw her face, those eyes, was I going to feel like I’d been kicked in the chest? Would that never go away?

  “I never loved them,” she said, her eyes shining with unshed tears that I didn’t understand, and I wished like hell I could make them stop.

  “I didn’t love Shiloh either,” I replied, feeling helpless.

  “And you never loved me,” she said with a slight shrug of her shoulders.

  I studied her for a moment just to be sure she was serious. That she meant what she was saying. The wetness brimming in her eyes gave me my answer.

  “You believe that?” I asked her, feeling like it was impossible for her to think that.

  She nodded just as a tear broke free and rolled down her face. She quickly wiped it away and sniffled, straightening her shoulders. She didn’t want me to see her cry, and that got to me even more.

  “Oakley, I’m pretty damn sure I fell in love with you the night I walked into the fucking burger joint and saw you with Wells. You were too damn young, but you were the prettiest human I had ever laid my eyes on. Then, I got to know you. I loved you more. There is a lot of twisted shit between us, but don’t think that I didn’t love you. Because I did.”

  She lifted her arm and swiped away the tears with the sleeve of her sweatshirt. “Really?” she asked with a raspy voice.

  The vulnerability was killing me. That guy who had loved her wanted to go hold her and reassure her that no one had ever compared to her. The part of me she had claimed, no one was able to touch it. Shit that I wasn’t about to say to her because those things couldn’t be said. The water wasn’t under the bridge. It had taken the bridge out. We had Sarah to think about.

  “I swear,” I said, making myself not move from this spot. I didn’t trust myself if I did.

  She sniffled some more and gave me a small, teary smile. “I’m sorry.” She laughed softly. “I went all female on you. I didn’t mean to get emotional. I think with”—she glanced over at the bed—“all that happened, I am still trying to find where we stand or where I stand with you.”

  I stuffed my hands in my pockets, fisting them to keep from reaching out to her. “We are us. We … can’t be more than what we are, but we can be friends. There is no need to keep the hate and enemy thing going. I’m not sure I can go back to that now anyway,” I told her.

  I could see the disappointment in her eyes, and I wished I could tell her something different. But this was for the best. For all of us.

  Twenty-Seven

  Oakley

  Hearing him say he loved me was bittersweet. For nine years, I had thought he had lied the day he told me he loved me. Knowing that he hadn’t lied and that he had still loved me—even though he had wanted Sylvia sexually, not me. It just hadn’t been enough.

  I would never be enough for Wilder.

  Shaking that emotion off and getting ahold of myself were important though. I hadn’t meant to go all crazy, possessive girlfriend just because we’d had sex, but this day had been difficult.

  “It’s late,” Wilder said, coming up behind me where I stood at the sink, washing the dishes we had used.

  His hand slid around my waist and underneath my shirt, causing goose bumps to break out over my skin. When his lips brushed over a tender spot on my neck, I shivered.

  “I left a mark,” he whispered. “I want to fuck you again.”

  His rigid erection pressed against my back, and my eyes fluttered closed. This man made me desperate so easily. I arched my back, and he ran his hands up until they covered my breasts. When he squeezed them, I gasped.

  “I want to fuck you hard. With you bent over the counter,” he growled, then licked the spot he had bitten earlier.

  Could I do this? Just take what he was giving and not ever expect more? This had a clock on it, and it was ticking. I knew it would end. I wanted him. That would never change. It was just facing that, soon, he wouldn’t want to touch me. All I would have were the memories.

  “Okay,” I replied.

  If this was all I would be getting, then I wanted to get everything I could. Take every moment I could with me. Tuck them away. Hold on to them when times were dark. When I had no one. When my heart hurt so bad that I couldn’t breathe.

  Wilder growled as he pulled my sweatshirt off over my head. His hands slid down my lifted arms until he was cupping my breasts.

  “You feel like silk,” he murmured against my ear before moving his hands to the waist of my sweats and shoving them until they puddled at my feet.

  He began kissing my back and leaving a trail as he went down to his knees. His lips brushed over my butt and down the back of my leg until he took my right calf and lifted it out of the sweats. He did the same with the left, then moved the clothing away. I shivered as he ran his hands back up my legs, then pulled them open.

  I gripped the edge of the sink as his warm breath met my wet heat.

  “You smell fucking incredible,” he said just before his tongue slid over me.

  My knees buckled, and he grabbed my hips, steadying me as he continued with the maddening pleasure.

  “Wilder,” I said in a strangled whisper, not sure how long I could continue standing here while he did this.

  “Just let me taste some more, baby. I’ve thought about this pussy for fucking years. Let me enjoy it,” he said, then bit down on the flesh of my inner thigh.

  I cried out—not from the pain, but from the words. If I was going to survive this, he couldn’t say those things to me.

  “Should have been mine to take. You should have kept it for me. Not been so impatient. I would have given you all you needed. Taken care of this hot little cunt.” His voice took a dark edge.

  I gasped and leaned forward as his tongue slipped inside of me. Thinking straight while this was happening was almost impossible, but I had heard him. I always heard him when he spoke. And I didn’t understand what he was saying. I had waited for him. Longer than I should have. He had been divorced from Sylvia by the time I lost my virginity.

  “I did,” I panted. “I was yours. Long after you weren’t mine.”

  His fingers bit into my flesh, and I winced. “Don’t say shit like that, not right now. Not when my mouth is on your pussy. You didn’t save it for me. Let that lie go. All truth now.”

  I stiffened and opened my mouth to argue when he flicked my clit with his tongue. My knees gave out again, and his deep chuckle vibrated against my center.

  “That’s honesty. That’s what I need. Pure lust. Need. Raw desire. You’re gorgeous, but you know that,” he said, sliding a finger inside of me. “So damn beautiful that it makes a man weak with want. To own you. To touch you. To fuck you. That’s the truth. That’s what we have.”

  How was it possible that I was insulted, hurt, and on the verge of an orgasm, all at the same time? Closing my eyes tightly, I tried to focus. I had to say something. There was my pride to think of here. He was accusing me of being a liar. But about what? Did it matter what I had done sexually after he slept with Sylvia? He had chosen her.

  That was the ice water I needed to bring me out of this. I shook my head and closed my legs, taking a deep breath before spinning around to see Wilder on his knees, looking up at me.

  “I can’t. I can’t do this with you saying things like that. I never lied to you. Not once.”

  Wilder slowly stood up, his mouth wet with my arousal, and his tongue came out and slid over his bottom lip. I shivered, watching him. Good Lord, why did he have to have this effect on me?

  “Is that so? You want to stand there, naked, with my mouth on your cunt and tell me you saved yourself for me?” He shook his head as a shadow passed over his heavy-lidded eyes. “I was giving you time to be sure I was what you wanted, and you wanted fucked so bad that when I wouldn’t do it, you went off to college and gave it to some fucker who didn’t deserve it.”

  What? Shock and confusion at his words silenced me. Was I hearing him correctly?