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“Oh, come on! You’ve never had a woman express visceral, possessive jealousy before?”
“No one that mattered enough for it to count.”
Another admission that shut them both up for a full minute. He cleared his throat and she swallowed, her eyes square on his as she sucked in a deep breath.
“Okay, well… since I have a claim of ownership over you for the next six days, you’ll do as I say.”
He speared his hands into her hair and gripped it tight. “As long as the ownership goes both ways, I don’t have a problem with that.”
She raised her head and he gave in to what they both wanted. When the kiss threatened to get out of hand, he raised his head.
“So, you were saying?” she asked, her voice so huskily sexy he wondered why he was continuing to fight the inevitable. Why he wasn’t tugging on another condom and fucking them both senseless.
“Ashley thrived on innuendo and assumptions. I made the mistake of thinking I knew her inside out. Especially what she was thinking. When it suited her, she made me think my assumptions were right. It took me a while to realize she got off on fucking with my mind. She was the original gaslighting queen.”
Leia frowned. “But you did realize and you don’t strike me as a guy who would leave something like that unresolved.”
His smile at the veiled question felt tight and uncomfortable. “I told you she had a certain… power over me. We connected on a level I thought I’d never connect with anyone.” Ashley hadn’t initially recoiled from the fact that he preferred an edgier, pain-rimmed side of sex, that his need for total control was strong enough to make most women run a mile. Even after he’d suspected her acquiescence was a careful act, she’d denied it, kept him dangling on her hook with lies and half-truths. “She made it so I didn’t see anything but what she wanted me to see.” And when he’d snapped, when he’d finally uncovered her true colors, he’d nearly done the unthinkable.
The memory threatened to turn his stomach.
Leia cupped his face. His breath shuddered out at the keen, perceptive look in her eyes. She didn’t have to vocalize her feelings for him to know she knew exactly what he was talking about.
“Sad but true fact that those closest to us have the greatest power to hurt us.”
His laughter scraped out, scalding and bitter. “Unless you cut them off.”
He watched the shadows flit through her eyes. “It’s not always that easy. Especially when they leave scars behind.” Before he could ask her to elaborate, she continued. “You don’t need to worry that I will be anything but unequivocal with you.”
His blood began to thrum in his veins. “Yeah?”
“Yes.”
“Vocalize. Tell me what you want.” He leaned down and brushed his lips over hers.
“I want you to f… fuck me,” she whispered.
He shook his head, slipping his hand down her silky, firm body. “Sorry, sweetheart. I can’t hear you. Speak up.”
“Fuck me.”
“Fuck me, what?” He slid his hand between her legs, felt her wet, slick heat and unleashed the need pounding through him.
“Fuck me, please, Noah. Please.”
“There it is. You’re drenching me. But I want more. I want you to flood me.”
“Please.” Her nails scoured groves in his back as he readied himself and positioned his aching cock at her entrance. “Please, please, please.”
“God, Leia, you make insanity look like pure heaven.”
20
Noah wrapped a towel around his waist and entered his bedroom suite aboard the plane.
He jerked to a stop at the sight of the empty bed. Leia had been fast asleep when he went to shower five minutes ago. Frowning, he started towards the living room, only to stop at the sound of his cellphone ringing.
Since only a handful of people had this number, he didn’t waste time with pleasantries when he grabbed it. “What the hell do you want, Damon?”