Page 209 of The Wicked

“You fell in that pool with me,” she breathed, rocking her hips. “I’m sure as hell you didn’t think about the water when you spoke to me seconds after you came up for air. It wasn’t because you wanted to drown me. It was because you didn’tthink.”

My hand moved from her hips to the small of her back, aiding her movements as she rode me, rolling her hips in a circular motion that had my head spinning.

“You were too focused. On me. Not the water. You didn’t punish yourself then. You punished me. Now you’re not punishing me; you’re fucking me.”

“Ah.” My chest heaved out the sound, her tight walls hugging my cock in an intense vise as she rocked back and forth, her back arching skillfully as my hips lifted to meet her strokes, drawing out a moan from her.

Her soft lips kissed the underside of my ear. “The problem here… isn’t the water or the tub; it’s your thoughts, your mind,” she whispered before raising her head and locking gazes with me. “Let me be your only thought.”

She was my only thought; the water and the tub were the last things on my mind.

We were going slow… this moment was therapeutic and intimate. I pulled her closer, her pelvis rubbing against mine as she rode me, feverish breaths escaping both our lips, gazes locked, the lust and intensity in her eyes luring my release.

“Feel me,” she whispered, hand cupping my neck and the underside of my left ear. “Feel only me, see only me. Forget yourold memories from this tub. Make a new one of me riding your cock, looking into your eyes, telling you how fucking pretty they are when filled with lust for me. Only me, only Zahra.”

“Only you.”

“Yes,” she moaned.

My skin heated up, her movement dialing up, riding me with the intent to get off; our lips were parted, breathing through our mouths, said breaths mingling to form the most intoxicating sound I’d ever heard.

She was divine. This was divine. This was everything.

“Fuck,Sport,I love being inside you.”

Her other hand came around my shoulder, hugging me as her hips rocked with mine, a rhythm created by a connection I never thought I would feel with another human being.

I always thought I was a man without feelings. No—I had believed the projection people had imbued in me about not having feelings. I thought it to the extent that it took a great deal to make me feel something—anything.

But right now, all I was doing was feeling.

Her skin melded with mine, a blend that gave the wordperfecta run for its money, her moans and mine highlighted to speak languages to the ears of the very element that fueled our attraction. The thumping of my heart followed the same rhythm as hers. A rhythm that spelled eagerness, intimacy, lust, and need.

I came with a groan, the same time her hips pressed around me tightly, and her release joined mine, a high we were climbing together, the feeling weakening every bone in my damn body as hers fell flatly on mine, our breathing the only thing to be heard.

This woman had just ripped up a page in my book, taking the liberty to write her own paragraphs.

I stood corrected; Zahra Faizan’s body was equivalent to a serum created to ignite a strong dose of fever into a healthy body.

This healthy body being mine, and this fever, too far gone to be cured.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Zahra

I may have overdone it.

Trickery and manipulation were my things, but it had never gotten to the point where I’d used this particular skill to help someone else. Especially not someone like Elio Marino, who saw words as affirmations. Passing on the wrong notion might be terrible, but if I was honest with myself, would it still be considered wrong if I actually wanted to do it because I cared? Not really. But denial was sweeter than acceptance. We might be alike, but I sure as hell was not ready to confront my conflicting feelings, at least not when my intentions were a little… sideways.

There was a benefit, though. Having him by my side was for the best. It was better to be in the good graces of this man than the opposite.

One thing I had come to learn in this game was that trusting impulsive and unpredictable people could lead to your downfall; so no, I didn’t trust him, and he didn’t trust me either, but there was a truce somewhere in the middle, and I had to admit that it was better than nothing at all.

We were settled back on his bed, and I’d gotten dressed again; after wanting to bolt, immediately I had my clothes on, but then I remembered dinner, which was not as hot as when I first brought it, but warm enough to be eatable.

It wouldn’t have cost me a second to leave it all for Elio to eat, but I was hungry too, and I never said no to food, no matter how awkward the situation might be. Who was I kidding—I was more uncomfortable because the situation wasn’t awkward. Eliowas quiet, on his phone, looking more relaxed than he had been before I got here.

I was the problem.