Page 39 of Prettiest Little Thief (Band of Thieves #1)

We had stayed an extra day in Romania to sightsee with Evie so she didn’t feel like her long flight was wasted. And when we arrived back home, the sudden feeling that time was closing in on us became overwhelming. The thought of me leaving indefinitely sent my belly into a jumbled mess of knots.

I swallowed back the rising tide of tears that wanted to creep up as I stared at the matte black wedding band I stole from Davit’s. Now, I wasn’t so sure I should give it to Lucas.

With my back against the bed, I twisted the ring between my pointer finger and thumb, the burning in my eyes intensifying.

Lucas stalked into the room, and I dropped my hand to my side, pushing the ring into my pocket. My weak smile wasn’t convincing enough, because Lucas caught my eye and his face fell.

“What’s wrong?” he asked and took a seat beside me on the floor, forearms resting on his knees.

Once Sarah was released from her horrible marriage, everything would be over. I would be free to go about my life. To finish college and finally get my nursing degree. Even so, the tightness in my chest didn’t ease. Was that what I still wanted?

I fisted my hands, digging my nails into my palms. My head tilted down, gaze on my lap to keep from looking at the man who had suddenly taken up space in my life—my heart—for the past month and a half.

“What’s going on inside your head, little thief?” Lucas’s voice was low, soothing.

“I don’t know.” I sniffled.

Lucas shifted closer. The heat of his thigh when it brushed mine seeped into me through the barrier of clothing. His fingers gripped my chin, lifting my face, his stormy eyes inspecting me, and my chin trembled.

It was no use under the force of his scrutiny.

I crumbled.

Tears cascaded down my cheeks as my sobs pulled me under.

Lucas wrapped an arm around me and pulled me into his lap. Instinctively, I allowed myself to curl into him and hold on for dear life. “Talk to me, Monroe.”

“I was just overthinking.” I hiccupped and wiped a few tears from my cheeks.

“About us?”

The tears came faster, my crying became harder. Emotions I had never thought in a million years would overcome me were now overpowering my logical thinking. Because now, my heart was involved. I nodded, resting my cheek on his chest. The evidence of my despair soaked through his T-shirt.

“I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to be honest. No matter what the answer is. Okay?”

Again, I nodded.

Lucas placed a kiss on my forehead, his embrace becoming tighter. I soaked in every ounce of it. “Do you want to leave once our deal is complete?”

“Not even a little bit,” I confessed.

The sound of Lucas’s heart thudded against my ear, and I could swear it sped up. “Thank fuck. Because I wasn’t going to let you leave anyway.”

A laugh climbed up my throat, breaking through the fog of anguish. My shoulders shook, and I stared up at Lucas through wet lashes. Before I could blink, his lips were on mine. Elation filled me, and my fears of losing yet another person I cared for fled.

Lucas wanted me to stay.

He wanted me.

Our kisses deepened, and I fisted his golden hair as Lucas brought us both to lay on the bed. Passion ignited, darting through my body, and I slid my hand beneath his shirt, feeling the chiseled muscles that rippled under his flesh.

He pulled his mouth from mine momentarily. A heavy breath expelled from him. “Monroe, if you don’t stop touching me, I’m going to fuck you.”

A slow smirk tipped at my lips. “Maybe I don’t want you to stop.” My voice was husky with need.

He growled, gripping my hips and tugging me on top of him in one quick motion. We were groin to groin. His erection pressed into my most sensitive part through fabric. My hair draped around us as I leaned forward and kissed him with abandon. Tongues clashing, teeth biting.

My breasts grew heavy, nipples puckering as desire rolled into me. I swiveled my hips, my core rubbing against his length as wetness gathered in my panties.

Lucas devoured every soft mewl that escaped me, his fingers digging into my waist, causing a searing desire to ravage me.

I gripped the front of his shirt, wanting to rip it from his fit form. To view all of him.

Lucas reached over his head and jerked his shirt up, lifting the both of us with his movements as I straddled him and pulled my mouth from his. A giggle of joy broke the surface as he tore the shirt from his body and tossed it to the floor, before settling back onto the bed.

My eyes settled on the inked flesh of his chest, a light dusting of hair from his navel running down to the hidden parts beneath his jeans. The sexy v on display had me weak in the knees.

Was I drooling? I might have been drooling.

Lucas reached for my shirt next, pushing the edges up my stomach. Fingertips grazed my belly, my ribs, and goosebumps shot outward from the simple touch. The stunning connection between us rose to higher levels the moment Lucas’s thumbs caressed the swells of my breasts.

With quick movements, I shed my own top and unclasped my bra, allowing it to slide down my arms before tossing it aside. A smooth grin grew on Lucas’s face, his azure eyes glistening with mischief and lust. And maybe something more.

Lucas continued his exploration with his hands, running down the sides of my stomach and down to my waist again.

With speed, he tossed me off of him, my back hitting the mattress and causing me to bounce.

I shrieked, and he climbed over my body, our chests melding together.

A crash of excitement and rush of intoxicating arousal flooded my veins.

A kiss on my lips and then lower. My neck. Collarbone. Chest.

The heat of his tongue flicked over my nipple, a hand cupping my other breast. The pad of his thumb rubbed across my erect peak, compelling my flesh to pucker even tighter.

I wiggled in anticipation beneath his large body, and he nipped my tit, dragging his teeth across my skin. A shiver powered through me, and I gripped Lucas’s hair, tugging on the strands.

“Need something, little thief?” he asked. I could hear the smile in his voice.

Wicked man.

“I need you,” I panted.

“Tell me exactly what you need me for.”

I bit my bottom lip. Swollen. So deliciously swollen from his kiss. My belly burned with nerves.

“Say it. I want to hear that pretty mouth tell me how much you want me to fuck you.” Lucas glided his tongue across his bottom lip.

My hips raised with frustration. “I want you to fuck me,” I mumbled.

His teeth clamped onto my globe, drawing a half moan half scream from me. When he released my tender flesh, his gaze watched me intently. As if my confession wasn’t enough.

“How?” Lucas tilted his head to the side. “Do you want it soft and sensual?” He placed a kiss on my sternum.

I pulled his hair hard, forcing him to stare at me.

“Oh, my wife wants to be railed like I own her.” A devious expression came to life.

I could only nod in response. To admit that aloud… I just couldn’t.

Lucas sat back on his haunches and popped open the button of my jeans before peeling them down my legs.

Left only in a sheer pair of black panties, he groaned his approval before picking up one of my legs and placing kisses along the inside of my calf.

Nips and nibbles worked their way up to my inner thigh .

My stomach dipped, and my breaths became heavier, my chest heaving as I watched Lucas trail his way up my body. Icy eyes locked onto my face. He settled himself between my thighs, running his nose along the thin material of my sex.

“You smell so damn good.” With that, he yanked my panties to the side and dipped his tongue into my folds. A grumble left him the moment a gasp left me.

Lucas spread me wider, delving deep into my slit. I circled my hips, attempting to gain more friction as my body climbed higher and higher with every sweep of his tongue across my clit.

The moment he slipped his fingers into me, I was a goner. I cried out his name, every part of me a shaking, quivering mess. Stars burst in my vision, sparks of electricity that swam through my veins finally escaping the pent-up energy that was between us.

Lucas didn’t stop until my climax waned and I went limp against the mattress. He slipped his fingers from me as he pulled back, reaching for his pants. The impressive bulge in his jeans, clearly visible, made me squirm.

I held my breath as he disrobed and dropped his jeans to the floor and then his boxers.

My eyes widened at his delicious length, where precum had gathered at the tip.

Not thinking too much about it, I sat up, getting to my hands and knees, and crawled to the edge of the bed.

With my gaze locked on the glorious appendage, Lucas grabbed himself, giving several quick strokes before I leaned in to assist, licking the droplet from the head.

Lucas threaded his fingers into my hair as I opened my mouth to take him all. Tears sprang to my eyes as he hit the back of my throat with brutal thrusts. But the moans that came from him… good god, I could hear the beastly groans of ecstasy and never tire of the sound of him enjoying my body.

Then, he stopped. Pulled away completely.

I stared up at him through lowered lashes, and he swept his thumb across my bottom lip.

“In time, I’ll make you swallow every last drop of my cum, but right now, I want to be inside of you.

Please tell me you’re on birth control, because there’s no way I’m fucking my wife with anything between us. ”

My heart pounded in my chest at the way he had said wife. So demanding. There was so much yearning and possession in that singular word.

“I’m on birth control. No babies.” I sat back and bit sharply at his lips. A growl rumbled through him.

Lucas crawled over me, forcing me back and causing me to fall onto my back again. Using his knees, he nudged my thighs farther apart and notched the head of his cock at my entrance. Just the tip, and my sex stretched in the most delightful way. I kicked my head back as he slid deeper into me.

A gasp left me from the force of our connection.

“I’ve dreamed of this moment the second I saw you walking toward my car.” Lucas slammed into me. A ragged breath stuck in my throat, and I wrapped my legs around his hips as he began a maddening pace.

“You were such an arrogant jerk,” I replied, breathlessly.

He chuckled before owning my mouth with his.

Lucas’s large form covered mine, our panting breaths mingling, sweat starting to dot my skin.

My hips met each punishing thrust, rubbing against the hidden spot inside me.

Each retreat and forceful motion forward nearly caused my eyes to roll back into my head.

The pure pleasure of being completely taken by this man—my husband—was slithering through me.

A snake ready to sink its fangs into my flesh and muscle, spreading its venom into my veins and then pumping into every organ with every beat of my raging heart.

To be so consumed by Lucas when primal desire and hunger was being satiated, there was nothing else that mattered. No other man could feed my starved body. No. Lucas Knight was the only man I craved.

The utter perfection of our joining prompted my center to spasm and quiver with the need to unfurl again. Lucas had power over me. And if I wasn’t so lost in the moment of sexual desire, it would terrify me.

He held the key to the chains that bound me.

The only one that would release me from the prison I made for myself.

He practically owned me, and I had willingly gone along with it.

Because there was always something that sparked inside me when Lucas was around.

Grumpy or not, his laugh, his touch induced an acute awareness that overflowed in the pit of my stomach.

It brought forth a euphoric haze, so much more than anything I had ever felt with anyone.

That recognition, the one that my soul felt when we were close, was the reason I had so readily given myself to Lucas.

A buzz of light and life and… something else I couldn’t quite explain.

Like I was awake for the first time in years.

He brought me to the surface of the water, pulling me from the depths of darkness, and allowed me to finally breathe again.

I fell over the edge with Lucas’s name on my lips, my chest rising and falling sporadically from the overwhelming pleasure rolling through my body.

“That’s right, little thief, keep coming for me.” Lucas withdrew suddenly and flipped me onto my belly, sliding back into my wet heat. The fullness of him sent a shudder through me, and I squeezed my eyes shut.

Without slowing his pace, Lucas asked, “What’s wrong, Monroe? Too much for you?” He leaned forward and ran his tongue along my neck, ending with a quick nip to my flesh.

“I can’t…” I shook my head. The overstimulation from repeated orgasms was too much.

“You can and you will,” Lucas reassured me. The sound of our bodies coming together was loud throughout the room as he continued rocking into me. My thighs were slick with my arousal, and there was no doubt that the entirety of his length was covered in my essence.

“Lucas,” I whimpered. He grabbed my hips, pulling my ass up into the air.

I gripped the sheets in a death grip as I felt the coil inside my core start to wind tightly.

My legs quivered, and a burst of ecstasy thundered through me.

A supernova, exploding so intensely, if Lucas hadn’t still been holding my hips, I would have collapsed.

Lucas stiffened, his thrusts became feverish and uneven, then he bellowed as he came, pumping into me a few more times before stilling and then withdrawing. He released my hips, and I slumped onto the mattress, fatigue swarming me.

Lucas placed kisses along my spine, and a grin pulled at my lips at the sweetness of it. This moody, devastating man just worshiped me like no other had before him. And I knew that no man would ever be able to match up.

He swept my dampened hair from my neck and pressed several soft kisses to my skin. “Fuck, even your sweat is intoxicating,” he groaned before falling onto his side next to me.

A soft giggle came from me as I turned my head to face him, resting my cheek against the comforter. Lucas propped his head onto a fist as he peered down at me and ran his fingertips along my bare flesh. I shivered, and his gaze locked in on the small movement.

In that moment, with Lucas staring at me, inspecting me, I became starkly aware of how screwed I was. I realized then; I would never be the same again. And Lucas Knight could shatter my world if he ever decided to leave me.