***
The next week, things took a turn for worst. Declan resorted to a new tactic to break my stony resolve. Having gotten bored of waiting for my attitude to wane naturally, he decided that if I was going to ignore him anyways, he was going to do his damnedest to really piss me off…and, apparently, soothe his own curiosity in the process.
“Do you ever think about her?” His body was turned to greet me fully as I climbed into the car. It was like he was an eager dog waiting for my attention. All he was missing was a tail wagging against the leather upholstery under our rears.
I shrugged. It didn’t matter who he was talking about. My answer would have been a shrug even if he’d asked me if I worshipped the devil or was a transvestite. I didn’t look at him. I hadn’t been able to since the sex scene.
“Your daughter. Do you ever think about her?” There wasn’t even the slightest bit of confrontation in his words, and that almost made me angrier.
My hand flew to the door handle, but it was locked and the car had already picked up a good bit of speed. I swear anything slower than fifteen miles per hour, and I would have risked the jump.
I could feel his gaze calling me to look at him, but I stayed strong in my resolve and my eyes stayed where they were, glued to my interlocking hands in my lap.
He didn’t say another word. He didn’t do anything but stare at me while I summoned up every bit of strength I possessed, to suppress the trembling that begged to take hold of me. He wasn’t playing fair.
The next day, he came back swinging.
“Did you name her?”
I’d pinched my leg so hard it left a bruise for a week.
The fact that I had never once answered one of his questions didn’t seem to discourage him, and the following day, he threw two at my silence. I blocked him out, counting in my head.
On the third day, he didn’t say anything, oddly distracted, and I thought that maybe he was giving up. On the ride home he proved to me I couldn’t have been more wrong. If anything, the brief reprieve had been an attempt to lure me into a false sense of security. I was ashamed at how well it worked and how ruffled I was when the purposeful steel of his irises drilled into me.
“Why didn’t you want to see her?”
The coppery aftertaste of blood filled my mouth as I bit the inside of my cheek.
“What could it have hurt to see her just once?” He’d grown used to my shrugs and silence, not even anticipating a reply anymore. He didn’t even wait for me.
Raindrops raced one another down the panes of tinted glass as the car endured the steady stop-and-go flow of traffic that clogged our route home.
“You don’t even know what color hair she has. What if you were standing right beside her at the grocery store or the zoo and you never even knew it.” His voice was building in wonder, like his mind cluttered with possibilities and his intention had nothing to do with me anymore, but instead all the curious wonderments our predicament presented.
My blood pumped thick and hot through my veins as my vision sharpened, only blurring at the edges with the red hue of rage.
“She, literally, is half of you – DNA-wise. She was inside of you and –.”
“Stop!” My screech wasn’t for Declan. The command was for our driver who was quick to swerve to the curb still two or three blocks from Cam’s house.
I was out the door in an instant, making no effort to cover myself from the cool, pelting rain. We had already passed the gated walls of the neighborhood, but it wouldn’t have mattered to me if we were in the worst neighborhood in South Central. I just wanted away from stupid Declan Davies, and all his ridiculously nosy questions. It was none of his damn business, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to sit in his car a second longer while he pretended it was.
“It’s no wonder you’re always running away when you’re so damn good at it.” There was bite in his words as he chased me across a supremely kept lawn. I’d seen that guy from those famous spy movies tossing a football around with his kids out here a few times.
We might have changed venues, but my performance was sticking to the script. I ignored him, and carried on in the most direct route to Cam’s front door.
I was making good time, and more than a little impressed with my power walking skills.
My foot hit the obscenely green grass of Cam’s yard, and the slick coating of water between my flip flop and foot got the best of me as the world suddenly shifted off kilter. I sprawled on the ground in a puddle of shredded grass and mud. The water soaked through my thin shirt almost instantly, as I struggled to recapture the breath that had just been knocked out of me.
Declan stood over me chuckling, and the embarrassment of the moment was too much. The edge of the cliff he’d been pushing me towards for weeks finally collapsed in a roaring avalanche, and I spiraled into the abyss, lost to my anger.
“I hate you!” The gusto of the declaration even took me by surprise, but I held onto the rage as I wrenched to my feet, pulling clumps of grass out of my hair with forceful movements. I was thankful I hadn’t worn mascara; otherwise I would have been sporting some serious war paint.
The white cotton of his shirt stretched translucently across the broad expanse of his chest. Damn him. His perfect physique pitched my anger into another stratosphere. I was too angry to even look at him a second longer, and I turned my mud stained back on him, and walked away in the same direction I’d been headed before the humiliating interruption.
“At least I can say I know what your family felt like now, watching you walk away.”
I was on him before he could even blink, shoving him as hard as I could. Declan stared down at his chest with shock where my hands had just made handprints with their violence. I couldn’t say I blamed him, though my surprise didn’t come from the fact that he’d finally driven me to assault. He deserved that. My astonishment lay elsewhere.
I was good at walking away. I’d perfected it. I never ever looked back…But somehow Declan had made me come back. No one else had ever had that power over me. For whatever, other horrible emotions he’d inflicted on me, I’d cared enough to come back…And that was a first.
My eyes tried to stab him with the sharp point of a glare.
“I hate you so much.”
“Why? Because I don’t accept your bullshit, copout excuses?” He didn’t back down. I didn’t know why I had expected him to.
“Yeah, well my bullshit, copout excuses are none of your business!”
Even if someone were staring out their window, they wouldn’t have been able to see us. I could barely see Declan through the punishing onslaught of the storm, and he was standing barely three feet away.
“You invite all this attention into your life and then decide it’s too much for you? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. Newsflash – you kind of made it everyone’s business when you agreed to let your name be printed in that book.”
“You think you’ve got it all figured out, don’t you?”
A cruel sneer twisted his pretty mouth as he drew closer to me, daring me to retreat.
“Baby, you’re not nearly as complicated as you like to think you are.”
“You don’t know anything.” Each word was filled with quietness that showed every speck of the deadly calm beneath them. The screaming rain continued to rage, but I didn’t care if he’d heard me or not.
He was standing so close we were almost touching, and I could have read his lips, if only I’d given him the chance to speak.
My volume tripled. “I didn’t agree to let Cam use my real name in the book…I made him do it! I told him from the beginning, if he was going to write the story, then it was going to have my name on it. He didn’t even want to. I made him.”
Our equally heavy breaths intermingled in the small space that still separated us. An errant raindrop traced down his face, from the corner of his eye to rest above his upper lip, so much like a tear, yet different. There was so much satisfaction in wiping that arrogant look off h
is face, but I knew any victory was going to be short lived. It would only take a second for him to regroup, and I couldn’t let that happen. I’d already said too much.
So I kissed him, slamming my body into his, so hard he lost his footing and we hit the soggy ground with a thud. His lips worked hungrily against mine like he was starving just for me, and I took full pleasure in their devious intentions.
I kissed him because if I hadn’t, more questions would have soon followed. I pressed myself against his hard body, because I couldn’t not for a single second longer. A girl only had so much willpower, and there were only so many opportunities to fully experience a body like his. And oh, what a body it was. Once I was done denying myself, my hands grasped for every part of him I could touch, tracing each inch of smooth skin that had teased me.
He rolled us over aggressively and his need burned into me, setting me on fire where my skin prickled with contradicting Goosebumps.
“You’re so fucking sexy.” He took the words right out of my mouth, lingering above me and temporarily guarding me from the rain. My panties might have disintegrated right then and there, lulled by his husky accent.
I tried to use the heels of my feet that were buried in his backside to bring his body back to mine, but he resisted, staring at me a moment longer before wrenching himself off the ground. My libido was like a roaring lion that had finally escaped her cage, eviscerating my pride as I considered wrapping myself around him like a monkey to keep him from leaving me in this torturous state of unfulfilled desire. He dragged me right along behind him though, saving me from any rash actions that would surely haunt me later.
“Cam’s is right there,” I told him quickly, catching onto his plan to get us out of the storm.
He didn’t say anything (not that I could hear at least). I dragged my feet, losing both flip flops, but I counted it as a victory when it got him to falter at least momentarily.
His eyes were so dark they were nearly black with want, but they still managed to convey an ounce of skepticism. “You really want to do this in your ex-boyfriend’s house?”
“Good point.” I had no more complaints as we made haste towards Declan’s house down the street.
His keys clanked loudly to the floor just inside the door, but we were too busy with each other to put them in their proper place (wherever that might have been). We were lucky the door was a hard surface that Declan could push me against, or else it probably wouldn’t have gotten closed.
Lips seared down my throat, but the cold air battled for dominance and my teeth chattered.
“Clothes off,” I managed to get out.
His attention left my skin, pulling back slightly as he stared at me with awe.
“You’re bloody fantastic.”
“I’m freezing,” I corrected, pushing him away so I could begin peeling away the soaked clothes plastered to my body.
Down to my underwear, I didn’t get a chance to get a good look at his exposed state before he was on me again. Lust brought us together, but an unforeseeable magnetism held me there. He was warm where I was cold, and hard where I was soft. The contrasting sensations pooled in the pit of my stomach, and I was helpless to my body writhing against him.
Without the conscious decision to do so, my legs raised easily to encase his hips, and I whimpered at the intimate friction of only being separated by a few, measly pieces of fabric. All it would take was few tugs of the useless clothes and he would be inside of me.
“Oh, God,” I moaned as my body bucked between him and the hard wood door behind me.
His tongue should be illegal. It was far more dangerous than any drug that had ever tempted me.
“Hold on,” his lips murmured, never surrendering their devouring pace against mine.
I didn’t know or care what he meant until his arms ensnared me, lifting me easily away from the door. With his attention on carrying me, I spread kisses along his jaw, going back twice to find the small birthmark decorating the skin just to the right of his chin. I flicked my tongue against it.
He shuddered, and three steps up were as far as we got. The stairway would have to do for the moment.
“That’s cheating,” he told me in a raspy voice, but I wasn’t about to start paying attention to him at that point in the game. He was just rough enough, settling our bodies across the carpeted stairs. I reached out for him, desperate to have him against me, but he resisted with a devious, little smirk that made me want to slap him and kiss him all at the same time.
“Tisk, tisk,” he murmured, dodging me needy hands again.
A small cry of frustration escaped me, but he ignored it, perfectly content to let his lustful eyes feast on every inch of my body beneath him. It was like he was about to enjoy a beautiful meal and he wanted to take every second to savor it, even down to the presentation.
“I didn’t think anything could possibly be sexier than those ridiculous duck shorts, but you nearly naked, writhing with desire is…” His eyes rolled back like he’d just taken the most delicious sip of wine, “bloody unbelievable.”
I almost growled as I grabbed for him again, but this time, instead of deflecting my attempt, he captured them. My hands felt small, dainty almost, cocooned in his larger grasp. He raised our interlocking fingers above my head, restraining them there. I was helpless, exposed to him.
Sex had never been like that for me before with Cam. I was always the one that was in control. The power was mine, and I liked it that way. The thought of handing over the reins to my partner was revolting and almost scary to me…But as my body tingled from head to toe, driven nearly to the edge by just the thought of the Adonis torturing me, I realized I would have let Declan Davies do whatever he wanted to me…and more.
When his fingertip finally made contact with my inner thigh, my breath hitched, nearly choking me. Up and down he teased me, stopping each time at the edge of my panties until I was panting his name, my head thrown back against the step above me. And just when I was sure I could go no higher, he slipped a single digit inside fabric. I almost came unglued.
“If you don’t fuck me right now, I swear to God I really will hate you.” The words that I wanted to come out as serious and demanding, leaving him with no choice but to fulfill my wishes, betrayed me with their husky overtone, a clear indication as to just how much control he had over me at the moment.
I didn’t see control when our eyes locked, though. He was just as close to coming undone as I was, and I planned to take full advantage of it. I sought the substantial length I’d felt pressed into me earlier, and as I found my prize underneath his soft boxers, he hissed like I’d burned him. A wild thrust into my massaging hand told me that pain was the last thing I was inflicting on him.
“Don’t stop,” he croaked as I swirled my tongue around his pale nipple, letting my hand return the favor of the irrational fervor he’d granted me. Whether he was talking about my mouth or what I was doing with my hand was irrelevant, because I had no intention of discontinuing either.
From our position, his hands sought what skin he could reach, and I nicked his collarbone with my teeth as a rough thumb dragged across my nipple underneath the lace of my bra. He yanked me back, and for a second I thought I’d accidentally hurt him, but the look in his eyes was glazed with lust not anger.
“I thought you didn’t want me stop?” I asked innocently, fluttering my eyelashes at him.
“If you don’t stop then I’m not going to be able to, and I think we’re both looking for a different ending.” I followed his pointed look down to the bulging erection between us. I was almost mesmerized by the sizable member for a moment. It looked painful. I made a move to get a closer look when strong arms stopped me.
“Holy Dooley, are you trying to kill me, sheila?” He moaned, looking like it pained him to redirect me onto my back and away from the part of him most craving my attention. “What have you done to me? Just the sight of that naughty little mouth of yours anywhere near my doodle nearly made me explod
e.”
Distracted by his newly convenient position situated between my legs, I tried to draw him closer to me but he didn’t give in to my desperate demands.
“What’s your problem?” I pleaded, and to my horror I was nearing the point of tears. I needed him inside of me at that moment more than I had needed anything in a very long time. He created this monster, now he had to satisfy her.
He pursed his lips at my outburst, but I swear that evil mouth of his was just on the verge of smirk.
“It might help to take these off first,” he belittled me, but I didn’t give two shits, because at that moment he set out in slowly trailing my forgotten purple underwear down my legs, until they were free to wrap around him.
He paused, the tip of his ‘doodle’, as he’d called it, just outside of my weeping entrance. Was he trying to kill me? I didn’t know how much more teasing I could take. I might have to kill him when it was all over with. I certainly couldn’t exact my revenge until he made me scream out in the ecstasy of release.
“Are you on the pill?” His voice waivered as my hands tried to coerce his hips to push into me, kneading and caressing his firm backside.
I nodded, not trusting my voice to come out without sounding possessed or threatening. Eventually I was sure I’d be glad one of us was thinking clearly, but at that moment, I wasn’t so sure I wouldn’t have lied just to achieve my single-minded goal. God, that was fucked up.
“Declan,” it was a plea. His whole body shuddered at the sound, but he only entered me with the tip before gaining control of himself. I wiggled recklessly against the carpet trying to find relief from the small bit he offered me.
Gray eyes prodded into mine as if he was searching for something (obviously not permission. I’d given that in tenfold). It wasn’t like he was looking for an answer he thought I could provide though. Instead his steady gaze pursued me like you’d stare at your own reflection in a mirror to know something about yourself.
His lips parted just slightly, and I could tell he wanted to say something. It might have been something sweet, or something self-reflective, or maybe even something enlightening. Hell, it might have been the secret to life, but somehow, instinctively, I knew I didn’t want to hear it.
Someone I Used to Know Page 13
