Page 52 of Severed Heart (The Ravenhood Legacy #2)
In an instant, I’m jerking her soaked body out of the tub and pulling her onto my waiting lap. Her back to my chest, she thrashes in my hold as I steady her and keep her in my steel grip.
“Let me go.”
“Such a weak protest, you don’t want that. You’re fighting a man who only wants to show you differently... did you fuck him?” I can hear the crack in my voice in the delivery.
“Did he make you come?” I ask, spreading her legs before hooking each one over my knees.
She doesn’t at all struggle when I palm her stomach and rest a beat, careful not to cross the fine line I’m walking.
When she remains mute, I lower my palm and slide a finger through her pussy, revulsed at the thought of someone else having just touched her.
My chest goes inferno as I force myself to forge on, unsure if I can forgive her, but in the next breath, I do. Knowing I’ll probably have to a thousand more times before this war is over.
“Did he come inside you?” I croak, my heart threatening to give out.
She remains mute, her body pliant as her silence slices into me.
“Did you let him use you to punish yourself for kissing me? For wanting me back?” I push another finger inside her as she starts to writhe in my hold. “Did you imagine it was me as he fucked you?”
“Non,” she snaps, as I widen my thighs to widen her own as she soaks me through my jeans and T-shirt.
“Did he make you feel anything ? Because I know I do . That’s what you’re fighting. It’s not me.”
She moans when I add another finger, and I feel her begin to shake in my arms as I glide them in and out. In and out.
“Nah, you’re not capable of that, right? You feel nothing. Just an empty shell, only meant for abuse, or whatever cock you decide on.”
It’s then she snaps, lashing out, clawing at the arms encasing her as I continue to fuck her with my fingers, opening her up, giving just enough pressure on her clit to get her agitated. Stilling her head with my own, I put my lips to her ear.
“What’s wrong, Delphine? You want the fucking conclusions drawn but just don’t want anyone to put a voice to it? It’s the decision you make, over and over, and you expect someone to view you differently? To see you differently. You want to be viewed as more, but act this way.”
Ripping her head from mine, she turns and looks me right in the eyes. “I will never love you.”
“You’re already starting to,” I declare confidently, even as that burn has its way with me.
“And you’re fighting it. Have been. That’s why you’re punishing us both.
Did you stage this or see it through? That’s where I’m stuck.
Guess what? You’ve done your worst, and my feelings haven’t changed.
There’s not a fucking thing on earth you could ever do to me to change them.
So your little show was all for nothing. ”
“I never should have trained you,” she snaps. “I never saw you as anything more. You’re lying to yourself.”
“Now on that, we agree, until it happened, it’s still happening.
See, we’re both hungry, but you’re the one starving .
Fuck how you need it and how much I’m desperate to give it to you.
” I press my fingers in and flick the tips over her G as she bucks her hips against me.
“And not just for my touch, but for what’s inside me. ”
Her head falls back on my shoulder when I begin to touch her like I want to, caressing her clit with tenderness as I slow my fingers and run them across her swollen flesh, my cock past full mast beneath her. “Should I feed that starving woman?”
“Please ... s-stop,” she begs, and I instantly do. I withdraw my hand, and she goes limp in my arms.
“I’m sorry,” I rasp out roughly, my heart speaking for me as the rest of me makes the decision that I can’t care what her answer is.
Lifting her to stand, I tip her chin up to bring her reinforced steel eyes to mine.
“I don’t deserve this. I’ve been nothing but good to you.
Please, Delphine,” my stretched, bleeding heart asks, begs her, “tell me. Did you fuck him?”
When she doesn’t answer, I gently push her away from me before stalking toward the bathroom door and stopping.
“I only lied about one thing tonight,” I say, glancing back at her as I bat the burning tear from my jaw.
“If you meant to hurt me, well played. I’m bleeding freely, and for you, I will continue to as much as you need me to.
I’ll take everything you have to throw at me.
Everything. I’ll eat their sins, I’ll bathe in their wrongs, I’ll pay for the way they hurt you.
I’ll take it all—for you. I’ll take it all just for the chance to be with you. ”
Even if I can forgive her, I can’t move forward with anything I want to give her tonight, the searing in my chest too raw. As I clear the door, she answers. It’s faint, but I hear her soft whisper. “Non.”
I keep idle, my back still to her as breaths start to come easier for the first time since I pulled up.
This woman will be the end of me. She already fucking is.
I’ve been patient because I’ve had no choice.
I turn to face her, my eyes roaming over her dripping body.
So goddamn beautiful and so dangerous. Need sieges me, but I go for words over actions.
“Tell me you’ll wait.”
“Non,” she says, clutching a towel to her chest.
“Give me something .”
“It would be a mistake.”
“I wholeheartedly disagree, but since you’re so good and apologetic about making those, make one with me, and I’ll prove you otherwise.”
“Tyler,” she whispers. The curl of my name on her tongue has me snatching the towel and tossing it before yanking her flush to me and staring down at her with everything I feel.
A second later, we’re locked in an explosive kiss, tongues dueling as she greedily kisses me back.
Palming her bare ass, I lift her from the floor, her feet dangling.
She cradles my head in her arms, fingers digging into my hair as she furiously sucks my tongue.
I feed just as greedily, not letting up as needy, urgent moans rumble her throat.
Only then do I deposit her on the carpet in front of her mattress.
Taking a step away, I fist my hands at my sides as the last of my control threatens to buckle.
“Get on the bed, spread your legs, leave your hands on your thighs, and don’t take your eyes off mine.”