Page 41 of Gluttony

A fiery hand reached into his chest and ripped out his heart. His breath caught, suffocating him, as he fell to his knees before her.

Wanted other women more? Impossible!

“Fuck, baby, I need to touch you,” he rasped, pained. Not waiting for her to respond, he placed his hands on her legs, absorbing her heat, desperately pushing his need to comfort her through his hands and into her.

Steadying himself when what he wanted to do was throw himself out the fucking window, he reached out a shaking hand, curled a finger under the chin, and raised her face. Her breathtaking eyes, glimmering with unshed tears, met his, and he cursed.

Moving forward, he pressed his belly against her knees, getting as close as he could—but he was still too far away.

Face to face, breath mingling with breath, he fought the urge to kiss her, to show her, with his body, what she meant to him. But it was his body that had betrayed him before; it was listening to his body that had hurt her in the first place.

“You’ve got it so wrong, baby—I never wanted those women, not the way you think.”

She snorted, rolling her eyes, which offered scant relief; at least she wasn’t pulling away. She raised her hands from her lap to brush her hair behind her ears, then dropped them back into her lap. Using his free hand, he took her hands into his much larger one, squeezing them.

Again, she didn’t pull away.

Taking a deep breath for the first time in what felt like hours, he admitted, “I know it sounds fucking cliché and misogynistic as hell, but those women were a placeholder, just holes to fill. There was no emotional component—never was. For me…sex is a primitive drive, no higher reasoning involved. I need to fuck, so I fuck, and I get that isn’t how it is for everyone, but that’s how it is for me. No excuse, I get that, because I told you I would wait…and you believed that meant something I hadn’t intended.”

“Is…is that how sex would be between us? Transactional, just a primitive drive to fuck—you’d nut then roll off and go about your business?” she inquired, both hurt and fury in her voice.

“Fuck no, my Daisy,” he replied, emphatically. The hand under her chin slid up to gently cup her face. “I love you. My emotions are 1000% involved. Having sex with you…making love with you would be the most powerful experience of my life…because it iswith you, the woman I love. The woman I’ve been desperate for.”

Swallowing, he squeezed her hands once more, then, with a voice heavy with unspoken emotion, he said, “With those women, it was transactional because we were performing a service to one another—an exchange, pleasure for pleasure, no feelings, no strings, no promises, no commitment.” He raised her hands, pressing a soft kiss to her knuckles. “But between us…you and me…it would be covenantal…a promise, a vowbetween two people who love each other. It wouldn’t be fucking, it would be love making because it’s deeper than just two bodies joining: it’s two hearts beating in sync, it’s two souls merging with their other half. It is a marriage, a wedding, a covenant, something unbreakable, unbending…forever.”

Her eyes were huge in her pale face, her breaths shuddering, her lush lips parted. She looked like she wanted to speak, but she bit her lip instead.

Tired of fighting his urges, he leaned forward and pressed a soft kiss against her lips. She didn’t recoil but she did tense, holding her breath.

For a long while, the only sounds in the room were the muffled voices and noises from outside the office filtering in through the closed oak door.

Finally, Val blinked, squared her shoulders, and met his gaze with her bright brown beauties.

Her voice strong, unwavering, she announced, “I want to fuck someone else…and I want you to watch.”

FOURTEEN

Val almost giggledat the look of shock on Red’s suddenly pale face. Almost.

Oh, he wasn’t expecting that, was he?

Too fucking bad! Oh, his talk of covenants and forever had really struck her right in the heart, but her mind was still wrapped up in the fact he’d been deceptive—whether intentional or not.

She’d never seen anyone move as fast as he did—in a flash, she was, once again, pinned to the wall, but this time, Red restrained her wrists over her head. As shocked as she was, she didn’t even think to struggle.

Eyes wide, heart thundering, she blinked up into his face. Anger like she’d never known before burned from his nearly black eyes.

Holy shit, hereallydidn’t like what she’d said.

Somewhere, in the back of her brain, she recognized the ringing of a phone, but his next actions stole every ounce of her attention.

His face collided with hers as he took her mouth in a kiss that scorched her. Wet and hot, he invaded her, his tongue tangling with hers in a dance older than civilization. He commandedwithout a single word as she groaned, the taste of him heady, delicious, addictive. She opened further, mindlessly offering to him more of her, giving permission to destroy and rebuild, to devastate and hold her together—in that moment, they were two people, but one single organism, breathing and thriving, hurdling headlong into utter cataclysm.

Fuck, he could kiss.

Tearing her mouth from his, she tried to wrest her hands from his grip, but he held tight.

“You think you can take what belongs to me and give it to someone else—and expect me to fucking sit by and watch?” With every word, his voice dropped until he was growling so deeply, so darkly, she could feel every syllable in her core.

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