Page 20

Lauren

I gasped as Junior’s face pressed against my lower back. His hands gripped my thighs, fingers digging in. I’d told him to grovel, looking for an easy way out of this situation, expecting him to bolt, but instead, he’d fallen to the ground behind me.

I was half tempted to turn around just to see such a thing—I doubted Junior had ever supplicated himself for someone like this before—but it would put his face far too close to my pussy for my current state of mind.

No, it was better to stay flattened against the cement wall, the chilly surface cooling my feverish skin, anchoring my last shred of sanity.

And it had to be my last shred after the way I’d led him on a merry (more like horny) little chase to this back stairway.

What the hell was I thinking tonight? I was lucky my choices had ended with him on his knees behind me and not me cut up into pieces in a dumpster out back.

Okay, maybe my more hysterical brain cells had formed that last thought, but my decision-making thus far had been questionable at best. Still, all wasn’t lost. There was time to turn this bus around and start making smart choices, and that was exactly what I planned to do as soon as I gathered the willpower.

And by gathered the willpower, I meant muzzled my lust. I was so turned on right now that if I turned to leave, I’d probably end up humping his face instead.

It would be so easy; he was right there behind me.

“I’m sorry,” he said again, sounding like he actually meant it. “I’m so fucking sorry, Lauren, and I’ll do anything to make it up to you. Please, let me make it up to you.”

Oh, god. Why was the sound of a man debasing himself so fucking hot? It didn’t help that his voice had gone low and gravelly, his accent thickening, tone deliciously rough.

He rubbed his face against my dress and dragged his fingers down my thighs.

My knees trembled. I was too turned on for this, didn’t trust myself to be the strong, independent woman I knew I was.

There was a gorgeous man on the ground behind me, literally begging to make me feel good, and I could feel the feminism leaving my body as the urge to give in to him rose.

I must have been losing it. He had just confessed to ruining Kelly’s life and breaking nearly every bone in our principal’s body, and yet I was a split second away from rubbing my ass into him and telling him he could make it up to me by getting me off right here on this landing, where anyone could find us.

That thought sent my heart into a full gallop. I did like it when people watched...

“Please,” Junior repeated, his hands shifting direction, moving higher. “Please, Lo. I’ll do anything.”

His voice was raw, rough , like he might break if I told him no. I hadn’t felt this powerful in years, like I held his fate in my hands and all it would take was one word to either ruin or redeem him.

My breathing hitched as his hands slid beneath the hem of my dress, stroking up, up, all the way to my hips.

“Fuck,” he ground out. “Are you bare beneath this dress right now?”

“Yes,” I whispered into the concrete.

His forehead hit my low back, and he let out a pained sound. “That whole time you were sitting beside me with only this flimsy fabric covering you?”

I didn’t respond. The answer was obvious.

“Let me touch you, Lo,” he said, fingers sliding back down my waist. “Please let me touch you. I promise I’ll make you feel good.”

It felt like time slowed as I went to war with myself.

This man had nearly ruined my life, had probably stalked me, definitely hurt people on my behalf, and done god knew what else to others.

It would feel so good to say no. To ruin him like he had ruined me.

But I was too soft-hearted for it, too fair.

I couldn’t bring myself to hurt Junior right now, not after the way he’d groveled.

That couldn’t have been easy for a man like him, with so much pride and ego. And yet he’d done it.

For me.

Because I’d asked him to.

Praying I wasn’t about to make a huge mistake, I spread my legs. “Touch me.”

He groaned and sent both hands straight to my pussy.

One set of fingers landed on my clit while two more from the other slipped just inside my entrance, and oh, fuck , who had taught him how to do this?

Gone were the searching, experimental touches I remembered from my youth.

Junior was a man now, with a man’s desires and a man’s knowledge, and I didn’t know if he was just that good at what he was doing or if the taboo nature of this encounter was what was pushing me toward the edge so quickly.

He shifted the angle of his hand, and a burst of heady pleasure rushed through my core. Oh, god. Oh, fuck. I was already clenching around him. Junior Trocci had his fingers knuckle-deep inside me, and I was about three seconds away from coming all over them.

My thighs trembled. I squeezed my eyes closed as a shudder wracked my body. The fingers stimulating my clit moved faster, the ones inside me pumped deeper, and before I knew what was happening, I was gasping, shaking, coming with such intensity that the noises I made were borderline feral.

Oh, god, oh, god ? it felt good. Better than anything in recent memory, and I’d come a lot in that time.

I almost felt betrayed by my own body, that Junior was the one to trigger such a strong reaction.

It was unexpected, overwhelming , and it didn’t help that I’d never come so fast in my goddamn life.

My knees turned to liquid beneath me.

Junior guided me down into his lap with one hand, the fingers of his other one still buried in my pussy. “I want to feel every last quiver,” he said, doing something inside me that triggered a small aftershock of bliss.

I squirmed on him, grinding against his palm to drag the pleasure out. Holy shit.

“I still don’t forgive you,” I said, sounding far more breathy than I intended.

His lips dropped to my shoulder, and the bastard had the indecency to chuckle.

“Then I guess I’ll have to keep apologizing.

” The fingers inside me hooked forward, and his thumb went to my clit.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. His other hand lifted to my breasts, spread wide so he could rub both nipples simultaneously. “I’m sorry.”

I managed to hold still for all of two seconds before I arched into him, and... uh-oh . Why was I already spinning out again? Usually I needed a breather before I came a second time, but if Junior kept this up, I was going to—

The stairwell door flew open with a bang! I had just enough time to catch sight of two figures before Junior spun us away, pulling me close and blocking me from sight with his much larger body.

“Oh, uh...sorry?”

I recognized Ryan’s voice immediately.

“Guess she didn’t need rescuing after all,” Taylor chimed in, sounding smug.

“You good, Lauren?” Ryan asked.

“I’m good,” I told them.

“What about you, man-I ’ m-assuming - is -Junior ?” Taylor asked. “You don’t need rescuing, do you?”

“I’m good,” he bit out.

“See?” Taylor said. “They’re fine . Just having a good ole consensual fingerbang.”

Oh, for the love of god.

Junior’s breath warmed my neck. “Want me to get rid of them?”

“They’re my roommates,” I said.

“That’s not a no.”

I made a low, contemplative sound. “Maybe just Taylor.”

“Hey!” she said, her outrage echoing through the stairwell.

Junior huffed a breath. It wasn’t a laugh, but it was close.

“Sylvia called a meeting,” Ryan said. “We came to find you.”

“Be there in a few,” I told them.

“Okay,” they said. “But don’t take too long. She looked stressed out.”

“Yeah,” Taylor chimed in. “About as stressed as you looked before you landed on stranger danger’s fingers.”

“Ryan,” I groaned.

“I got her,” they said.

The sound of a brief scuffle broke out.

“Ouch.”

“Fuck.”

“Goddamn it.”

“I swear to Christ, Taylor.”

The groaning of hinges announced the door opening.

“I told you she could take care of herself,” Taylor said, her voice retreating.

“It’s not her I was worried about,” Ryan argued before the door clicked shut behind them, stifling Taylor’s rebuttal.

My shoulders shook as I laughed. Leave it to them to both ruin a moment and somehow make it even better.

“Your roommates, huh?” Junior said as we untangled ourselves from each other and stood.

“Yup,” I said. “Best friends and protectors a girl could ask for.”

I turned to him to say more, warn him not to fuck with me or he’d have them to answer to, but his mask was pushed on top of his head, giving me an unobstructed view of his face.

The words died on my tongue. Damn him for being so good-looking .

It softened me to him even as I tried to resist, made me think of serial killers like Bundy and the Ken Doll Killer, men who’d gotten away with their crimes for so long because “No one that good-looking could do such terrible things.” Not that Junior was as bad as them. Or at least I hoped he wasn’t.

His eyes snared mine as he lifted the fingers that had just been inside me and slipped them into his mouth.

I shivered at the look of hunger that swept over his face as he licked them clean.

He’d openly confessed to framing a young woman and attacking a man.

I should be pissed, terrified, but all I could think about was getting those fingers back inside my body as soon as possible.

“Here,” he said, undoing his shirt. “The front of your dress got dirty from the wall.”

I glanced down to see dark streaks smeared across the fabric over my breasts. “Tonight won’t be the first time I walk out of Velvet a little worse for wear.”

Junior’s expression darkened. “I want their names and addresses.”

“Ha ha,” I said.

His face remained stone-cold , and his stupid dry sense of humor made it impossible to tell if he was joking or truly the psycho I’d accused him of being.