Page 34

Odessa

D ex raised his hands from his pockets. My arm was shaking with anger and adrenaline. I might have briefly calmed myself down from almost being eaten by a monster, but that feeling was back and in full force as I stared into the eyes of the man I’d stupidly been falling for.

“Who the hell are you?” I asked again. “You come here with an accent first of all, when it’s hard as fuck to get in or out of this city. Then you act like this competition is beneath you. And now, you possess a power that you shouldn’t have access to!”

“You’re right,” he agreed, his hair falling over his mask, and I fought the urge to brush it back. He’d seen me naked, I realized. I let him see me like that. Not even my fiancé had seen me naked, but I’d let Dex— a man I’d only known for a handful of days. What was I thinking?

“I know I am. Now are you going to tell me what the fuck is going on or not?”

Dex sighed taking a step towards me. It moved the dagger, but I stood my ground with it raised between us.

My back was to the wall, pressed tight. He was standing so close to me that his breath fluttered over my face.

I could flick my wrist and slice his jugular, but something held me back.

I wanted to know why and how he could possess such power.

His blue eyes bounced between my own brown ones.

He licked his lips, and my traitorous eyes follow the motion.

“I took the masks off the mounted heads before we started the games.”

“I don’t understand. I thought—” The rules. The rules of the game were clear. He had to be lying.

“I know. They told us the only way to get the power was to kill another contestant, but it’s not true. You only have to place a mask on your face and the power will be absorbed into your body.”

“Why would they lie?” Nothing was making any sense. I glared at him and rose the dagger higher so that it was pointing straight at his Adam’s apple. The tip of the blade was flush against his skin, nicking it and sending a sliver of blood trailing down his neck.

He leaned forward surprising me.

“Don’t believe me?”

“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”

His hands gripped my hips then, pressing me flush against the tunnel wall. They felt demanding and rough but at the same time delicate, like he knew how twisted up inside I felt. That I could end him if I wanted to, but here he was touching me anyway. I couldn’t think straight.

“What do you want, Dex?” I asked sounding breathless, my thoughts spinning so much it made me dizzy. I knew I could stop him at any point, but I didn’t want to. I should have, gods I should.

He sighed bringing one of his hands up to my neck. If he squeezed hard enough, he could crush my windpipe. We were at a standstill, glaring at each other with so much want it physically pained me

“I want you to kiss me like you don’t plan to shove that knife right through my heart. Just this once. Then you can go ahead and stab me if you want but just let me taste those lips of yours before you do.”

I didn’t even think. One minute I was holding the hilt of the dagger, and the next it was falling from my grip as I pulled Dex to me by the front of his shirt. His lips were on mine in an instant, consuming me like we only had this one moment. And maybe that was true.

We’d lost both our teams along the way, but right here, after all we’d survived we still had each other. We might not make it out of here and that thought alone was enough to savor his forbidden and damning kiss.

His hands wound into my hair, deepening his access to me.

I found my legs wrapping around his hips and he pushed me hard into the wall.

The desperation and need was coursing through my entire body.

I’d never felt this alive and exhilarated.

His hard length ground up into me and I could feel every ridge of him through my jumpsuit.

It made me shudder and gasp into his mouth.

I needed him closer. Wanted him in ways that lit a fire within my soul.

I didn’t even care that he hadn’t answered me.

I should have. Gods knew I should have. But all I cared about was his lips on mine.

His mouth opened and his tongue licked the tip of mine, teasing me.

Warmth spread throughout my entire body.

Gods, I didn’t want to stop. My tongue met his, tentatively at first, before I was meeting him in his desperation.

All the buildup and tension between us breaking in this one thoughtless moment.

There was nothing but need. The need to taste him. To feel him.

The way his hard cock ground up against me made my legs tremble and my head swim. His hands were all over me. Feeling the round fullness of my breasts and then dipping down to the curve of my ass. Never in my life had someone touched me so brazenly with so much passion and desire.

“I’ve dreamed of this. How you would taste. How you would feel.” He confessed into my neck, sucking on my sensitive flesh and marking me with his teeth. Shivers ran over my body at the overwhelming sensation.

“I can’t. I shouldn’t….

“But you want to. Tell me, does the man who gave you that ring make you feel like this?”

I tried to shove him hard in the chest, but he caught my hand in his, bringing the ring up between us. A glimmering reminder of my active betrayal.

“Does he?”

“You’re an asshole,” I spit out, dropping my legs.

He spun me around then, smashing my front into the wall as he pressed his hips into me. I could feel the swell of his cock on my backside.

“Tell me.” His breath was hot against my neck and his hands roamed my body, feeling every curve and dip.

“No, okay. No one has ever touched me like this before.”

I could feel the tug of his mouth against my skin.

“And are you wet for me?”

I was. I was so wet that I ached in places I never thought I could. The want for him was unbearable and I wanted, no— needed him to take the ache away. To fill me up and make me tremble in his arms.

“Use your words and tell me, Odessa, are you wet for me?”

“Yes.” That one word damned my soul. An admission of how he made me feel, and how my body reacted to him.

“Show me.” He turned me back around and I looked up at him. He was biting his bottom lip, waiting for me to comply.

I should have shoved him away once and for all. Taken that knife from off the floor and stabbed him through. But I undid my buttons one by one instead. Starting at the top of my jumpsuit and ending right above my pelvic bone.

Dex slid his hand on my stomach, wrapping around my hips and moved the fabric to the side.

His fingers dipped beneath my cotton underwear, sliding against my slick entrance and finding the answer to his question.

He groaned at the feel, and I did too. No one had touched me there before.

His fingers felt rough and warm, and my breath caught in my chest as he slid around my sensitive bud.

Electricity shot through me then and my hips moved on their own accord meeting his touch, urging him on to do more.

I should feel ashamed but knowing that at any moment I could end up like my fallen teammates had me throwing all logic out the window. It was just him and me and this moment between us. That’s all that mattered to me now— this feeling. How Dex made me feel. And it was so gods damn good.

“Gods, you’re so wet for me.” One of his fingers prodded at my entrance and my hips bucked. He chuckled at me. “So responsive,” he praised pushing all the way in.

I gasped at the welcome intrusion.

“So, fucking tight,” he said in my ear, working the length of his finger in and out of me as his palm applied pressure to my throbbing clit. It felt better than I’d ever been able to do on my own beneath the covers.

He added an additional finger, stretching me wider. It felt uncomfortable at first, the pressure building and merging into a pleasurable sensation.

He dropped to his knees then.

“What— what are you doing?”

“I want to taste you. Will you let me?” The light from the fire danced across his face as he looked up at me, begging to do what no man had ever done to me before.

“Yes,” I whispered.

He kissed the inside of my leg as he draped it across his shoulder, bringing my pussy closer to his face.

His breath skated along my most sensitive area and my heart pounded wildly against my ribs, not knowing what to expect.

No one had prepared me for this moment or what it would feel like.

Marley was the only one who talked to me about this stuff, and even she wouldn’t go into much detail.

His mouth pressed against my clit as his fingers curled inside of me. Shadows exploded from my hands darkening the entire tunnel as pleasure ripped through my body.

“Holy fucking shit. Please don’t stop.” I begged.

Dex’s tongue licked around my clit.

“Aw fuck, you taste like nectar. So warm and delicious,” he said sucking my skin into his mouth. I trembled, feeling my knees buckle from how overwhelmed he made me feel. I felt so aware of every little touch and tremor, ready to detonate on his tongue at any moment.

“Come for me, Odessa. Come all over my tongue,” he demanded, removing his fingers and replacing them with his mouth.

I rode his face as his fingers dug into my sides. My legs quivered as I reached the pinnacle of my pleasure. He moved his hands and shoved his fingers back in and out of me, rolling his tongue over my clit again and again. Working me into a fervor of need, ready to combust.

“That’s it, baby. Come for me. I need you to come.”

I cried out as my orgasm washed over my entire body, shooting down my spine and erupting over every nerve. Shadows danced all around us, darkening the already dim space.

I could barely hold myself upright as my body shuddered involuntarily.

He let my leg down, and kissed up the length of my inner thighs, then to my stomach and up my neck.

“Dex,” I moaned, smelling my orgasm on him. It was erotic and heady, knowing that I’d just come all over his face. “I don’t want to die before I have a chance to know what it’s like to be with someone who wants me. Please, I want to feel everything, and I want to feel it with you.”

His head rested against the wall.

“Are you sure?” He asked. His length was pressing into my stomach, letting me know just how much he’d enjoyed getting me off.

“Yes, I’m sure. Please, Dex.”

“You don’t have to beg me for something that’s already yours, princess.”

“Princess?”

He smiled, dragging his hands up my body and cupping my breasts in his hands.

“You feel like a princess to me.”

“Have you felt many princesses?”

He chuckled. “Jealous looks good on you.”

“I’m not?—”

“Ah, yeah. You totally were.”

“Fine. Now shut up and fuck me so hard that I forget my name.”

“With pleasure.”