Page 87 of Black Sheep

I take a breath. Look away. But I can’t not look at her for long. She draws me back. Fucking Christ. She always will.

I can’t read the emotion that weaves through her eyes, maybe because my every sense is churning in a life-size blender.

She walks forward and perches on the bed in front of me. “You want to make amends? Then let me go.”

Let her…What?

The blender stops, and everything freezes. “Let you go… Hell no,” I snarl.

Her bottom lip quivers until she firms it. “Axel—”

“He physically abused you, Cleo. I’m not fucking sending you back to him.” My gaze drops to her midriff. I don’t need to pull the sheet away to recall the ugly bruises on her skin. “I don’t give a shit what he’s holding over your head. He’s never getting the chance to do that to you again.”

She inhales sharply. “I’m going back. I have to.”

“Tell me why you want to go back!” I don’t realize I’ve surged to my feet until her head snaps up.

A second later, she looks away. A vice clamps my chest. Hard.

“It’s not so easy, is it? Laying yourself bare? Opening yourself up to judgment?”

Her eyes are a little less haunted, a little more enraged, when she looks back up “I don’t owe you any explanations, Axel. As you said before, I’m merely your pawn. So do with me what you will, but don’t expect me to open up my heart to you just so you can inspect who lives in it. That is one satisfaction I’ll never grant you.”

The pressure in my chest tightens, the ferocity of it reddening my vision. I move without thought. Without focus. “Fine, then let’s concentrate on other avenues of satisfaction.”

The urgency to lose myself, now, pulls me under. She may not want to show me her heart—and just when did that become the single most important focus of my life?—but there are many other ways she can satisfy me.

I stare down at her, note her agitated breathing, the twitching of her fingers on the sheet. “The damn sheet is in my way again, Cleo. Make it so it’s not.” I sound like a being possessed. I feel like a beast owned. Chained by shackles she’s not even aware she owns.

Her tongue swirls over her lower lip, her breath growing choppier. “Axel—”

My name on her lips produces a potent, unmistakable effect. My thickening cock roars to life, the urgent jerks already tenting my pants. “There’s been enough talking for the day, baby. Time to shut that pretty mouth and put it to a different use.”

I grab my cock to alleviate the teeth-clenching ache taking over.

Her gaze falls to the proud evidence, and a decadent shudder ripples through her small frame. Beneath the sheet, her nipples peak. My already altered mind slides further into madness.

She seems to debate with herself, her slightly glazed eyes going from the cock I’m gripping to my face and helplessly back again. I smile inwardly. If I had a heart, I would pity her. For whatever reason, destiny and chemistry colluded to give us bodies that insanely turn each other on.

“You can’t help yourself, can you?” I mutter. There is no pleasure in my voice. No gloating. I’m just as helpless in this as she. But it’s the only thing she is offering. And, from her, I’ll take anything I can fucking get. And set the whole fucking world alight for a chance to have more.

The eyes that meet mine burn with lust and annihilate with censure. I reach out and brush a finger down her soft, warm cheek. Asking for forgiveness for the craving that has always been bigger than me? Maybe.

“You may have condemned my decayed soul and closed your heart to me, but in some respects, nothing has changed. Your body will always sing the perfect tune for me.”

A ragged little moan rips from her throat, and depraved asshole that I am, the sound goes straight to my cock. I lower my zipper, slowly so I don’t do myself an injury. My lack of underwear aids my eager dick in springing free. It juts out, ravenous and throbbing.

Her mouth drops open and her nostrils flare as she scents me delicately. The drugged want in her eyes threatens to knock me off my feet. I remove my T-shirt, toss it away, and then lurch closer, offering myself to her.

“Take it, baby. It’s yours.” It always has been. I’m beginning to fear it always will be.

A hungry little swallow and she reaches for me.

“The sheet, Cleo,” I bite out.

She raises the arm securing the sheets. The cotton slides down her tits, pausing for a cheeky second on the tight peaks before it drops to her lap.

Their gorgeous fullness makes my mouth water and sends moisture to other parts of me. Pre-ejaculate beads on my crown, and my cock bobs harder.

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