Page 59 of Hell to Pay

I slipped my hands under the hem of her tank top and finally came in contact with the silkiness of her skin.

She sighed when I closed my hand around one of her tits, and I stroked her nipple while I trailed kisses along her jaw, then pressed my lips to the hidden place behind her ear.

Her nipple was hard under my thumb, her breath coming fast and shallow, and I had the urge to press my ear to her chest, not because I was worried that something was wrong with her heart but just because I wanted to hear it beat.

Because I loved the sound she made when she was alive.

“Mind if I take these off?” I asked, tugging on the tank top and hoodie.

“We… we can’t,” she said.

I lifted my head. “Why not?”

When she opened her eyes, they were fever-glazed, and I knew if I dipped my fingers into her pussy I’d find her dripping wet. “Come again? And by that I mean I really want to make you come again and again.”

She laughed. “Matt’s here.”

I looked around. “I don’t see him.”

She rolled her eyes. “Notherehere. Just… you know, in the house.”

I kissed her long and slow, relished the slide of her tongue on mine. “These walls are very well insulated. Jude insisted.”

“It would be weird,” she said. “I can’t.”

I dropped my head onto her shoulder, my dreams of finally fucking her senseless — alone — dashed. “Cockblocked by the little brother and he’s not even in the room.” Her laughter reverberated through my body and I lifted my head to look at her. “I think you might be enjoying this.”

She held up her thumb and forefingers close together. “Maybe just a little.”

“You’re evil.” I took one of her hands and pressed it to my throbbing dick. “See what you do to me?”

She let out a little gasp and squirmed under me. “So not fair.”

I kissed her, then looked into her eyes. “Don’t worry, it’ll be waiting for you when you’re ready. But now you have to stay for a while to cuddle, because if I can’t make you come, Idefinitelywant to cuddle.”

“Cuddling is allowed,” she said primly.

“Thank god.” I pulled her tank top and sweatshirt down — pretty fucking reluctantly I might add — and lay next to her, lifting my arm so she could settle against me.

I hadn’t been lying: I was dying to make Lilah come, to bury my face between her thighs, to taste her on my tongue, to bury my cock inside her.

But being with Lilah in any way was better than not being with her at all, something I knew firsthand, because when I looked back on the house — on our lives — without her, I had to be honest: they looked pretty fucking empty.

I knew this couldn’t last, that Lilah couldn’t stay with us forever. That she wouldn’t want to because who would want to stay with us after what we’d done?

But she was here now, in my arms.

Mine.

It would have to be enough.

39

LILAH

I must have dozedoff in Nolan’s bed because when I opened my eyes, he was sound asleep, his arm still tight around me, like he had no intention of letting me go.

Ever.

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