Page 59 of King of Pain (Damaged Hearts #1)

TRACK FIFTY · THREE

Take Me Home Tonight

Chance

I can't breathe.

I'm finally—fucking finally—tasting his kiss.

His lips are warm and soft and urgent, moving against mine like he’s been doing this in dreams for years. Maybe he has. I know I have. At the same time, I fucking hate that maybe he has done this before. With someone else.

I finally get my bearings, sliding one hand to the back of his head, gripping like I’ll lose him if I don’t hold tight. My tongue slides against his lower lip, begging for entry.

He opens for me.

The world stops.

And I melt with him.

We fall into a kiss so frenzied, so hungry, I can feel it erasing almost every minute we lost. Tongues moving in rhythm, tasting, learning. Dancing a dance we’ve been waiting to join, standing on the edge of the dance floor all these years.

He tastes better than I ever imagined. Like sex with sweet undertones. It makes my head swim.

Then he nips at my bottom lip, just enough to make me growl into his mouth.

He breaks the kiss, breathing hard, pressing his forehead to mine. We’re still holding on to the back of each other’s heads. It might be the only thing keeping us upright.

Then he whispers the words that flip my entire existence upside down.

“That, Chance Sullivan, was my first kiss. So no, no one else has ever had these lips.”

I pull back an inch, just enough to look at him.

He smiles softly, rain dripping off his eyelashes. “It was always supposed to be you. I've been saving it for you . I love you too, you big idiot.”

I close my eyes and rest my forehead against his again. I let the weight of that truth sink in for a moment.

When I open them again, I can’t stop the blinding grin that spreads across my face. “Thank fuck.”

He lets out a laugh, and it’s the best sound I’ve heard in years.

“Um,” he says, voice low and delicious, “can we do that again?”

I lean in, ready to steal another taste, when my eyes flicker past his shoulder.

Jason.

He’s walking toward us with his coat pulled over his head, rain streaking off the fabric. I pull back a step, and Ant frowns in confusion until he turns and sees.

Jason stops a few feet away, looking between the two of us.

“I never stood a chance, did I?” he says, voice even.

Ant gives him a sheepish smile. “I'm sorry.”

Jason looks down, nods once. “Don't be. I'm gonna get out of the rain. I paid for everything, and they’re bagging up your food to go. I’ll grab something else at the hotel.”

“Thank you, Jason. I’ll fill you in later.”

Jason waves it off. “Have a good night. I’ll text you tomorrow.”

He turns, jogging off toward a sleek black car waiting at the curb. The driver opens the door, and then he’s gone.

I turn back to Ant.

“We really need to get out of the rain. We should—”

“Take me home,” he interrupts.

I blink. “Oh. Okay. I walked here, though. We can go get my car—”

He grabs me by the front of my soaked shirt and yanks me close. “I said, take me home, sexy.”

My mouth opens. Nothing comes out.

He smirks. “Go inside and grab the food. I'm starving. I’ll be in my car.”

I don’t even answer. I just bolt toward the restaurant.

His laugh chases me through the rain.

I’m still dripping wet, clutching takeout bags as I swing open the car door and toss them in the back then settle into the passenger seat.

“Hey, this is a nice car—” I start to say, but I don’t even get the words out.

Ant’s on me.

He’s climbing over the console like a man possessed, straddling me in one smooth motion and grabbing the back of my head. And then he kisses me.

Fuck.

His lips claim mine and everything else disappears. I grunt in surprise, but my hands fly to his waist because they’ve been waiting for this moment since the day I left.

And now that I know what he tastes like?

I’m never going to be able to stop.

When he pulls back, both of us gasping, my vision tunnels in on him. On his blown pupils, the flush on his cheeks, the way he’s grinding down on my lap like he belongs there.

He fucking does belong there.

My cock is throbbing against my jeans, painfully hard, and he’s not doing a damn thing to help that.

“Oh, holy fuck,” I breathe.

He presses his forehead to mine, tethering his fingers through my wet hair and tugging just enough to make my vision scramble.

“Your hair,” he murmurs.

I just stare, completely captivated by this side of him.

“It’s so much longer,” he says, voice laced with lust. “So thick. It’s fucking hot. I want to pull it while I do unspeakable things to you.”

I groan—loudly. “Okay. That’s it.”

I slap my hands against his thighs, gripping them hard.

“Get your ass out of my lap and behind the wheel or I swear to God, Pacini, you're going to end up in the back seat—and I really don’t want that to be the first time I get your cock in my mouth.”

He launches into the driver’s seat like a man on fire.

And me? I’m sitting here. Soaked, destroyed and dazed.

Thoughts run wild through my mind as Ant finds a spot in the parking garage of my building, and we make our way to the elevators.

As soon as the elevator door closes, he’s on me, attacking my mouth again.

We tumble out of the elevator when it reaches my floor, and he continues ravaging my mouth as I steer us down the hall.

I barely register the click of the lock as I manage to open the door to my condo. We're just inside when Ant shoves it closed with his foot; his mouth still fused to mine. We’re both afraid to let go.

Wet shoes and socks come off. Hands fumble.

Our bodies knock against the wall, against each other, clumsy and frantic with need.

We’re both soaked, our shirts clinging to us like second skin.

He grabs the hem of mine and yanks it upward, breaking the kiss just long enough to tear it over my head and toss it somewhere behind him.

The second my shirt’s gone, he steps back, breathing hard.

And then he just… stares.

His eyes drag slowly over my chest, down my abs, lingering on the V that disappears into my soaked jeans. His tongue darts out to wet his bottom lip and I feel myself twitch in my jeans.

I smirk and flex—subtle, but not really.

“Fuck,” he mutters. “How are you even hotter?”

The words set fire to every nerve ending in my body.

I take a slow step forward, closing the space between us until we’re toe-to-toe.

His soaked black button-down clings to his chest and outlines the muscle beneath.

The top two buttons are already undone. My fingers find the third, and pop it open, revealing skin and—

Ink?

My brows pull tight. I open another button. Then another. When I see what’s hiding beneath, a possessive rumble grows in my chest.

No. Fucking. Way.

Wings. A pair of dove wings attached to a red heart. Right over his own beating organ. Inside the ink heart, in delicate script, is a name.

My name.

My chest heaves. “You… You—”

He reaches up and takes my hand, guiding it to the tattoo on his chest and pressing it there like he needs me to feel it. To know it’s real.

“I got it about a year after you left,” he says, voice raw and vulnerable. “When I finally accepted you probably weren’t coming back. I just needed you near my heart. At all times. Now there’s always something there to remind me.”

My knees threaten to give out. I feel a tear slide down my cheek and I don’t even try to hide it.

I grab the back of his head and slam my mouth to his, pushing him back until his shoulders hit the windows in my living room. The city of Phoenix blurs around us, floor-to-ceiling windows putting us on full display, but I don’t care. Let the world watch.

I kiss him like he’s oxygen. Like I’ve been gasping for air for three years—and only now remembered how to breathe. I bite his bottom lip, suck it between my teeth, and swallow his moan like medicine for my broken heart.

When I reluctantly pull back, both of us are panting.

“We’re going to talk about that tattoo later,” I rumble. “But right now, I need to get my mouth on you.”

His eyes darken, chest heaving.

“I know that was your first kiss,” I add, “but that doesn’t mean you haven’t done other things. Are—?”

“You’re going to be my first everything, baby,” he interrupts, leveling me completely.

“Say it again,” I beg, low and heated.

He snickers and pokes my chest. “You. Are. Going. To. Be.” He leans in, brushes his lips against mine, and whispers, “My first everything.”

“Say the last part too.”

He smiles, knowing he’s got me exactly where he wants me. “Baby.”

I groan, forehead dropping to his shoulder. “Ok. Brace yourself, Beautiful.”

He nods, eyes glittering with anticipation.

“Don’t feel bad if you don’t last—it’s your first time, and trust me, my mouth is a wild ride.”

“Chance?”

“Yeah?”

“Stop talking and suck my cock already.”

I drop to my knees faster than I’ve ever moved in my entire goddamn life.

Ant reaches for the button of his slacks.

I bat his hands away and look up at him, breath shallow. “No,” I murmur. “That’s mine to unwrap.”

I’ve waited years for this moment. Fantasized about it in too many ways to count.

I’ve seen glimpses—brief flashes of him in towels, the stretch of denim over that colossal dick as it clung for dear life to his thigh, the occasional low-slung waistband that nearly killed me.

But this? This is the full reveal. The unfiltered version of the man who has haunted my every waking thought.

I eye his growing bulge and pop open the button of his rain-soaked slacks slowly, savoring the moment. Sliding his zipper down, I savor the tension as the metal teeth part. I shove the wet material down his muscular thighs, and—

Holy hell.

A massive bulge strains against the black boxer briefs that are the only barrier between me and gay nirvana. My mouth waters in anticipation. Ant’s chest is rising and falling rapidly. I’m sure he’s barely hanging on himself.