Page 17

Penn

I ’m fucking lost in a blur of sensation, my thoughts stripped away as quickly as Mila’s clothing. Her fingers dig into my shoulders, holding me like she’s afraid I’ll disappear if she lets go, and goddamn if I don’t feel the same.

This shouldn’t be happening. I shouldn’t be craving her, desperate to have her beneath me when just minutes ago, we were tearing each other apart. But logic isn’t driving me right now—emotion is, a reckless storm of anger, fear, and an unbearable longing I never saw coming.

I never stood a chance against this.

I drag Mila’s sweater off, carelessly throwing it to the tiled floor.

My eyes roam all over her, noting her skin is flushed and luminous beneath my palms. She’s trembling—not from fear, but urgency—and when I slide my hands upward, grazing the delicate curve of her waist, I feel her sharp inhale.

My heart slams so violently in my chest, I wonder if she can feel it.

If she knows she’s undoing me piece by piece.

My mouth claims hers again in a rough kiss, tongues tangling, the taste of her intoxicating. Mila arches against my chest, her body warm and pliant as I guide her off the countertop and down to the kitchen floor. Neither of us pauses. Stopping would mean thinking, and I can’t afford to think.

Thinking would make me realize just how dangerously vulnerable she makes me feel. How fragile this carefully constructed life of mine has become, shattered by a woman who both frustrates and captivates me.

We crash onto the kitchen rug, a mess of limbs and desperation.

I pin her beneath me, my cock hard against her thigh as I devour her throat, her collarbone, and finally, her breasts, heaving beneath my mouth.

Her fingers tug at my hair, sharp and insistent, keeping me right there, in the moment.

My hands explore every curve, every inch of her body, like a man possessed.

She says my name—a plea or a warning, I’m not sure—and it hits me deep. My mind spins wildly as I trail kisses lower, tasting her skin, every gasp she makes dragging me further away from reason.

Mila shifts beneath me, her thighs parting, inviting me closer, and I can feel her heartbeat racing beneath my lips.

She’s beautiful, stunningly so. I knew it before, but now, bathed in morning sunlight filtering through the kitchen windows, she’s exquisite.

Her dark hair fans across the rug, eyes stormy and filled with need, lips parted as if she’s still trying to make sense of this too.

Don’t overthink it. Just feel.

I strip away the last barriers between us, clothes scattered like abandoned defenses. There’s nothing left to hide behind. I pause at the sight of her laid bare before me—full breasts, silky skin and that sweet spot right between her legs that has my mouth watering.

And suddenly, it’s terrifyingly clear—I don’t just want her. I need her.

My mouth blazes a trail over her collarbone, across a peaked nipple, along her rib cage, which causes her to giggle and fuck me to hell, I actually smile.

I continue my descent until I reach the junction between her thighs and force her legs apart.

Mila’s body quivers, a soft gasp escaping as my mouth claims her with a ferocity that seems untamable.

“Penn,” she gasps as I tease and taste every inch of her pussy, letting my tongue circle her clit. Her hips undulate, seeking more friction, and her movements becoming erratic. Those delicate fingers dig into my hair, pull hard, and the pain only makes me lash at her harder.

“Penn,” she whispers again, and I lift my head to look up her body. She stares at me, hair wild and eyes locked onto mine, as if afraid I might stop this madness.

I wait for her to say something but instead, she shocks me by putting her hand on top of my head and pushing me back down to feast. Her little display of control is hot as fuck and I lose myself between her legs, nipping and sucking and circling, until Mila writhes and begs, and then she explodes.

Her legs clamp onto the sides of my head as her back arches off the kitchen floor and her cry of pleasure is about the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard.

I surge up her body, plant a forearm on the floor and hover above her. This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

I have no right.

We shouldn’t be doing this.

Just fucking stop, Penn.

Mila stares back at me with bleary eyes and I can’t help myself…

I let my fingers gently skim over her cheek, jaw, down her throat.

It shows a tenderness I didn’t know I had in me.

There have been other women in my life, but I’ve never touched one with such reverence. Is it because we’re bonded already?

The thought of such a notion is unsettling but not enough to diminish my hard-on or desire to fuck her.

“One last time… tell me to stop,” I growl.

Those blue eyes blink… once, twice… so slowly, as if she’s trying to figure out what I just said through the fog of lust. I get no words from her, but I do get action.

Mila spreads her legs wide, wraps them around my hips and grinds against me. It’s a bold move from a bold woman, and I’m not strong enough to ignore it.

I take her mouth again, groaning as she reaches a hand between us. Delicate fingers wrap around my cock and guide me to her. So very wet, and hot, and by her silent command, I press against her. Swivel my hips, slide in a tiny bit, out… back in farther.

“More,” Mila demands, a whispered order into my mouth, and I obey, driving deep.

So fucking deep… all the way, and she shudders beneath me, a gasp of pure, unfiltered pleasure escaping her lips. My jaw clenches, eyes closing briefly as I fight for control. Every sensation is magnified—the silky warmth of her skin, her soft moans, the way her nails bite gently into my back.

“I knew it would feel this way.”

My eyes fly open, my head lifts and I look down at Mila in surprise. She’s lost though, her eyes glazed, staring at nothing. Teeth bite down into her lower lip as she writhes underneath me.

I knew it would feel this way.

Meaning… she’s fantasized about this? About me inside her? The knowledge is too much to bear. At least that’s what my balls are telling me with how they’re tingling with a need to release. Christ… a wave of supercharged lust and desire hits me like a tsunami and my hips jerk in reflex.

Mila groans, I pull out and slam back in hard.

“Yes,” she urges, and that’s all I need to fully lose control.

We move together, a clash of frantic need and desperation. She’s wild and trembling, hips rising to meet mine, matching me beat for beat. I’m consumed by her—the taste, the scent, the way she feels wrapped around me.

Somewhere in the dim recesses of what little sanity I have left, I understand that this isn’t about pleasure alone.

It’s about escape, about drowning out the chaos and pain and uncertainty that’s haunted us for far too long. With every thrust, every gasp and whispered plea, we’re fighting back against the unfairness of what’s happened to us.

I lean down, kissing her deeply, pouring into that kiss everything I can’t say out loud—how fucking beautiful she is, how stunned I am she’s even here, that she’s chosen me in this reckless moment. I’ve never felt so exposed, and yet I can’t seem to stop myself from falling deeper into her.

My body tightens, the pressure coiling impossibly high, threatening to shatter me.

Mila cries out my name, her entire body arching beneath me, and it’s my undoing.

I capture her mouth again, swallowing her moans as the climax crashes over us in waves of white-hot sensation, erasing every thought, every fear, every regret.

For a few precious seconds, the world disappears entirely.

Then reality slowly returns—my harsh breathing, her chest rising and falling rapidly against mine, the gentle tremors still running through her body.

Slowly, carefully, I balance myself on my forearms so as not to crush her, the hard tile bruising my knees even through the rug beneath us. Mila stares back at me, wide-eyed and looking just as stunned as I’m feeling. Silence settles over us, heavy with the aftermath.

We both know what just happened changed everything—and maybe solved nothing.

But I refuse to let regret in. I’m fucking tired of living under that weight.

“Are you okay?” I ask, knowing it’s too late to change our actions.

She nods, a smile playing at her lips. “Wrecked, but okay. You?”

Fucking great because that orgasm was intense and I don’t know that it’s ever felt that good.

I nod, a grim thought permeating through the haze of bliss. “We, um… didn’t use protection.”

Mila blinks at me, no comprehension in her expression.

“No condoms,” I mutter, shaking my head. “I didn’t even think about it.”

“Neither did I,” she muses, and she doesn’t sound regretful or scared about it. “I was just too caught up in everything.”

“I’m sorry.”

Mila’s hand comes out to rest on my chest. “Why are you sorry? That was on both of us. But if it helps, I’m on birth control. I’ve always practiced safe sex.”

I force my grimace to remain on the inside as I don’t like to think of her having sex with other men. “Same. Always safe sex.”

“Then we’re good,” she says simply. “Next time, we have nothing to worry about.”

Next time?

Yes, next time.

And that time is right now. I push up off Mila, hauling her up with me and sweep her into my arms. Next time will be on a bed.