Page 42 of Best of Me

She pulls back, releasing me with a wetpop. Her throat works as she swallows. I sit back dazedly. My first post-Val orgasm that wasn’t delivered by my right hand. A riot of emotion swells and crests inside me, slamming against my chest like waves breaking on the rocks. Love, lust, desire, reluctance, acceptance, confusion…but strangely enough, guilt isn’t present.

chapter twenty-five

Mallory

“That was…” Duke starts, but I don’t stick around to hear the rest. I fly up the stairs to my loft, hitting my bed just as the first tear falls. How can being with him feel so right and so wrong all at once?

The way he looked at me afterward, his face full of some unidentifiable emotion—I can’t help but wonder, was he seeing me, or a memory of my sister? The thought is paralyzing.

My tears flow in a steady stream as I listen for him to leave. He’s probably so full of regrets that the mere sight of me will disgust him. I’m so lost in my own despair I don’t even hear him ascend the steps. I have no clue he’s anywhere near me until I feel my bed dip under his weight. “Cricket. Baby. Talk to me?”

I’m crying too hard to talk, but patient as ever, Duke rubs his hand soothingly over my back, whispering sweet nothings as he waits for me to calm. “Did we…was that…a mistake?”

“Do you think it was a mistake?” he asks, swallowing roughly.

“I…I don’t know. I don’t want it to be.”

“Then it’s not.”

I sit up and face him, not caring that I most likely resemble a deranged raccoon, what with my hair a mess from his hands and my eye makeup smeared from crying. Without an ounce of hesitation, Duke pulls me into his lap. “That easy?” I ask, nestling my head into his chest, readily accepting the comfort he’s freely offering.

“Mallory, I can tell you right now, there won’t be anything easy about us. It’s gonna be a tooth-and-nail fight, and even then, some people may think it’s wrong. But listen to me when I say I want you.I want us. I know this is new and scary and maybe even a little forbidden, but the way you make me feel…I’ve never felt anything truer in my life.”

His words pierce me. Surely, he can’t mean all of that, right? “But what about…” I trail off, allowing him to fill in the rest.

“Val? What about Val?” he asks, running his thumbs under my eyes, brushing away the last of my tears and melting makeup. “I think…I think she’d want both of us to find happiness. I think fate brought you and I together, and I think we’d be foolish not to at least give it a try.”

“But what if it doesn’t work out? What if we sizzle and burn out? What then?”

“Cricket, baby.” He presses his lips to my forehead. “We won’t know if we don’t try. Take a chance with me?”

He sounds so earnest, so convincing, I already know I’m going to agree. Heck, he could probably lead me off the side of a cliff and I’d follow willingly. “Okay, Duke. I’ll take a chance with you.”

His lips tip up. “Really? You mean it?”

“Yeah, I do.” Duke lunges for me, tackling me back to the mattress. My eyes fall closed as my head hits the bed, my lips tingling in anticipation of his kiss, but it never comes.

Instead, he trails his trembling fingers down my cheek, his touch reverent. “Thank you. I know neither of us knows what the future holds, but I’m exactly where I want to be in this moment.”

I reach up and cover his hand with mine. “Me, too.” He pulls back just enough to look me in the eye, pausing to search my gaze. After a beat, he must finally see what he’s looking for because in one fell swoop, his lips are pressed to mine, sealing this new thing between us with a kiss.

A kiss that quickly gives way to roaming hands and panting breaths, until, one piece at a time, the clothing separating us disappears. By the time Duke has me naked beneath him, I’m a sweating, writhing mess, overwrought with need.

“You’re so damn beautiful.” Duke stares down at me in awe, his eyes trailing my body like a caress. “Let me make you feel good.”

“God, yes, please,” I moan wantonly, his every look, word, and touch driving me wild. Even before, when we were at odds, Duke had this unfathomable hold over me; my body craved his touch long before my mind wanted his company.

He draws his index finger down the bridge of my nose, traces my lips, skims over my jaw and blazes a path down the center of my chest. His finger dances around my navel before finding my center. He teases me, gliding his finger up and down, up and down, taunting me with the promise of my release.

I’m desperate for him, dizzy with desire. My breaths are shallow, and my heart beats furiously behind my breastbone. His fingers brush over my clit causing my back to arch and my threadbare patience to snap. “Please, Duke. Oh, God, please.”

We lock eyes, and he smiles wickedly. “I’ve got you, Cricket.” He kisses his way down my body, his lips following the same path his finger took only minutes ago. I tense when his lips meet my center—a place no man has put his mouth—but his talented tongue chases all of my doubts and insecurities away, leaving nothing but pure, undiluted pleasure in return. He licks and sucks and nips at my swollen flesh with a precision I never knew was possible, as if he can anticipate my body’s needs before I even know them.

I’m shaking and sweating and swearing to gods I’ve never even heard of, I’m so desperate to tip over the edge of the cliff I’m teetering on. I’m babbling and begging; hell, I may even be crying. But through it all, Duke’s ministrations never once stop or let up. No, he feasts on me like a man possessed until I finally topple over. I cry out his name as blinding light flashes behind my lids and electricity courses through my veins; a pleasure unlike anything I’ve ever known before lights me up from the inside out.

“Beautiful. That was so damn beautiful,” Duke coos in my ear as he brushes my damp hair away from my sweat-soaked face.

“Will…will you stay the night?” I ask, hating the thought of him being anywhere but here after what we just shared.

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