Page 66 of Painkiller (Sin Records #3)

“Not one that I can live with. I can’t leave this place. Did you know before it was my Dad and Nichols, it was my grandfather’s?” She shakes her head. “I never wanted to be Graham, but this place is as important to me as it is to him. Now, what about you, Halfpint? What are you going to do?”

Her mouth twists into a comical smirk. “Well, I’m curious how he knew about my other ventures in dance.”

My head falls back, a deep laugh spilling from me. “Don’t think too hard about that. Trust me.”

“I’m also…really excited! Not being able to dance the last few weeks has given me time to think.

I don’t love ballet. Not the way I should.

But I do miss dancing.” Her head falls back against the elevator, then twists in my direction with a teasing glimmer in her eyes.

I suppress a sigh, knowing what she’s about to say.

“The most fun I’ve had dancing in years was at The 1st Circle. ”

“Of course it was.”

“I love modern dance. Hip-hop, contemporary…all of it. And I love creating the dance. I think…I think Maddox just offered me an opportunity I didn’t know I needed, so yeah, I’m going to do it.”

I turn, one hand gripping her hip, the other slapping the wall next to her head.

“Then it’s a good thing I made the decision I did.

Eight weeks without your face would be hell.

Now, we’ll be on tour together.” My mouth slants over hers, and I stroke my tongue over her lips.

Her hands wind around me, gripping me close as we lose ourselves in each other.

When we pull away, we’re panting and breathless. “Move in with me.”

She laughs, shaking her head. “No.”

I want to argue, but the elevator doors slide open, interrupting us. Instead, I peck her nose with a quick kiss and make it my personal mission to get that yes before the night is over.

***

It’s going on ten when we enter my apartment. Casey begged for Noah for the night, and I wanted uninterrupted time with Poppy. It was a no-brainer to accept her offer.

When the door closes behind us, I’m on her, stripping her of her coat, tossing it somewhere across the room. Tugging at the hem of her dress, until it vanishes as well. I devour her hungry moans as I tweak her peaked nipple.

My need for her is relentless and insatiable.

The burning desire to be near her, next to her, inside her never recedes until I’m buried so deep that I don’t know where I begin and she ends.

Just like my heart. She owns it. Every cracked, imperfect piece belongs to her.

It’s bruised and battered, but it’s hers to hold or crush.

My lips trail over her skin as I mumble all the ways I want her. All the ways I need her. Her chest rises and falls as she pants and begs for me to keep going.

Her head thumps against the door as I flick my tongue across her nipple, then suck it deep into my mouth.

My eyes close, relishing the taste of her flesh, the feel of her soft skin against my tongue.

Wanting fingers travel lower, skimming her belly, dipping into the lace covering her heat, then inside her.

A minute passes before her sweet pleas spill past her luscious lips. “Jagger,” she whispers as her core flutters around my digits.

Knowing she’s close, I slow the pace, keeping her on the edge without letting her fall. “Move in with me.”

When she shakes her head, my hand leaves her body, and I toss her over my shoulder.

In seconds, she’s tossed onto my bed, and I’m crawling over her body.

Pebbles erupt over her scalding flesh as I lick and nibble every inch of her.

Her back arches. Soft moans turn to echoing pleas while I taunt and tease everywhere, yet never long enough to provide relief.

“Jagger, please. I need to come.”

“Give me what I want, Halfpint.” I flick her clit, then suck long enough for her to cry out. “These are the rules.”

“Y-you…Oh God, right there.” I chuckle, leaving her clit, to bite her mound. “Dammit,” she hisses. “You shouldn’t weaponize sex.”

I rest my chin on her pelvis, my eyes traveling to meet hers.

Lazily, I brush my fingers over her breast, circling her taut peaks, watching with fascination as they draw tighter still.

“I will weaponize whatever the fuck I need to get my way. Including sex.” I roll the hard bud between my fingers and watch her lashes flutter.

“And your orgasms are my hostage. Now. Give. Me. What. I. Want.”

“This is incredibly manipulative.”

“Don’t care, Halfpint. I want you. Every second of every day. Here with me. I want to fall asleep with my head between your legs and wake up inside you.” I thrust three fingers into her tight pussy to drive home my point.

Her head thrashes back and forth, still fighting what I know she wants as badly as I do. “Too fast, Jagger. Everything. Don’t want to mess it up.”

“It will make it better. Not worse.” My fingers curl, beckoning her climax to me.

“You and Noah—”

“Will be better with you. He loves you as much as I love you.”

She gasps. Convulsions tighten her muscles, drawing her spine toward the ceiling. Her core clamps down, pulsing around my fingers. Screams bounce off the walls, echoing around me. My name over and over.

Did she just come from me saying I love you?

I stare at her, slack-jawed. Her eyes are misty when they meet mine. I pull my fingers away and drag myself up her body. “What was that, Halfpint?”

“You said I love you,” she whispers.

My brows pitch low, confused as hell. Sweat-soaked strands cling to her face. I brush them aside, then stroke her cheek. “You know I love you, Poppy.”

“But you haven’t said it yet.”

A tear skates down her cheek, followed by another. “Is that…Is that what’s held you back? From moving in, I mean?”

“A little,” she admits.

“Why, Halfpint? I thought I’ve made myself pretty fucking clear how I felt.”

“But if you couldn’t say it, Jagger, then you weren’t really ready for it.”

I drop my forehead to hers. A soft, incredulous chuckle brushes across her lips.

“Jesus Christ, Poppy.” Another scoff breaks free.

“Just because I don’t say it doesn’t mean I don’t feel it.

I try to show you because love…Poppy, that word doesn’t begin to describe how I feel about you. There are no words to describe it.”

More emotion rolls down her face, and I marvel at the sight. She cries so seldom that this moment, making those beautiful tears fall, is breathtaking. “You’re not just a want or need, Poppy. You’ve become everything. It’s cliché and crazy, but without you, there is no me.”

“Yes.” My heart thumps against my chest. You’d think she was accepting a proposal with how hard it hammers. “Now, fuck me until I can’t walk.”

I stand, stripping off my clothes in seconds.

Her eyes blaze with desire, burning a path of need across my skin.

“You already can’t walk,” I tease, gripping her good ankle and pulling her to me.

She yelps when I flip her to her belly, leaving her legs hanging over the edge.

“So how about I fuck you until you can’t move? ”

“God, yes.”

I wrap up my dick and sink into her in a single thrust. Her needy cunt swallows me whole, wrapping around me like a fist. Taking her fingers in mine, I push them over her head and lean into her ear. “You’re mine, Poppy. Today. Tomorrow. Forever.”

I punish her dripping pussy, relentless and unyielding. When she screams as she pulsates around me, I flip her over and do it again. And again. I mark her, claim her, make sure she understands that I’m never letting her go.

Then I love her. Show her with my body how much she means to me. For hours, I take my time, unhurried, but just as powerfully, I let her feel what she means.

The sun is rising before we collapse, wrapped in each other. Her soft snores are my new favorite sound. A sound of peace. And for several minutes, I contemplate…life, deciding it’s time to remember what I have to be grateful for instead of the bad.

I’m thankful for the people that stumbled into my life over the years, no matter what shitty circumstances brought them to me.

An overbearing, perfect brother I could never live up to…who never expected me to. Who stayed by my side, even if from the shadows, no matter how hard I tried to push him away.

A sister that I never wanted. That might not be blood, but I’d move heaven and earth to make her smile. Her family that watched over me as much as they could. Because Henry and Liam have always been there if I needed them. And I should’ve asked them for help more.

People who didn’t have to care beyond what I could do for them. Maddox, Ryder, all of them…they didn’t have to get to know me once I set them up with Nichols. They didn’t have to remember my name, much less include me in their lives. Notice what’s going on in mine.

The little boy who looks at me like I walk on water.

I didn’t plan for him. Wasn’t asked if I wanted him.

The circumstances of his conception are ugly and something no one should ever go through, and I can’t say if it gave me him, I’d let it happen again.

But it doesn’t lessen the love I have. It doesn’t change the fact that he is the absolute best of me, and his innocence is something I plan to hold on to for as long as possible.

And the girl at my side. The forbidden attraction turned to something consuming, obsessive, and probably toxic as fuck.

But I will never let her go. She was meant to be mine.

Call it coincidence or fate, but collision after collision, she embedded herself under my skin, into my marrow, and carved a half-pint-sized hole into my heart.

I’m hers, and she will always be my favorite painkiller .