Page 31 of Hush, Hush

“And you made me the injured, bleeding animal, Keegan.”

“No, I made you the prize.”

I shake my head, and he follows too. “I’ll kill them if they touch you. I’ll eviscerate whoever sent you that sick bouquet. You’re mine, Delilah Astor. I don’t care if I deserve you or not. I don’t even care if you can’t stand me right now. I’m not going to sit back any longer.”

“Sitting back?” I narrow my gaze. “Keegan, you act as if you’ve been an innocent bystander. You cheated on me. You continued to show up to functions with other girls, showing me every damn time that you obviously weren’t waiting around for me, so stop fooling yourself that you were.”

“I was sick of never being enough for you. Everything I did, you scrutinized until you made me the enemy. I’m not going to be your savior, Dee. It’s not in me.”

I reach out, sliding my fingers over his. “Then what was last night?”

His jaw feathers.

“You came to my rescue when I called you. You were right here, ready to fight for me.”

“Because you needed me. You never need me, Dee. You’re so strong.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t need people. You think I want to be strong all the time? You think I want to go around acting like things don’t bother me when they do? Keegan, I have to be one of the wolves or I’ll get eaten alive faster than anyone else. When people see women in our circle, they see weakness. If I’m not an in-their-face, smart, quick-thinking bitch, they’ll walk all over me. I can’t let that happen.”

He sits on the bed, elbows on his knees as he runs his hands through his thick hair. “I want to take care of you.”

“I want that too. But I don’t need someone who’s going to make every decision for me and work while I stay home. That’s not who I am. I just need a partner, Keegan. I’m not trying to emasculate you, and I don’t want you to pigeonhole me into a stay-at-home-mom who day drinks and hooks up with the pool boy. I want a fucking fighter at my side.”

He peeks over at me, the gray shirt he pulled on taut over his shoulders. His blue eyes dance with lust. “Do you remember the first time I kissed you? You told me I was doing it wrong.”

I snicker. “Only because my entire knowledge of kissing at the time was seeing my mother and father peck on the lips, and you were trying to suck my lips off my face.”

His cheeks bloom an angry red, and my stomach sours. I’d meant it as a light-hearted comment, but something I’ve said has gotten to him.

He turns away. “I’ve seen things I shouldn’t. A lot of things.” His Adam’s apple bobs before he stares right back at me. “I only knew that I wanted to be as close to you as possible. I always have, Dee.”

Heat pools between my legs. I straighten them on the bed, squeezing them together. The shirt pulls up over my thighs. I don’t have to look down to know that my nipples are peaking right through his thin shirt.

Since he wants to be close to me, I think we can make that happen. “How about now?” I ask, drifting my knees apart. The shirt travels up and up until it’s around my hips, my bare pussy on display.

He doesn’t even drop his gaze. He crawls forward, moving his hand up my thigh until the shirt tangles in his grip. He brings it up, dropping a kiss above my belly button, then my upper torso. “I’ve been wanting to see you shirtless since the wet t-shirt contest. I know that makes me a horny bastard, but I am one when it comes to you.” He moves the material to the swell of my breasts before hesitating. “Can I take this off?”

Maybe Keegan and I can meet in the middle. He can restrain his baser instincts, and I can relax a little. I’ll give him more power as long as he doesn’t suck me dry. And he can show me he cares by doing things like this—by asking permission. Nodding, I lean forward to raise my hands in the air. He pulls the soft shirt over my head, past my hands, and throws it to the side. I’m naked in front of his fully clothed body. I’m baring all of my vulnerabilities to him, but it doesn’t feel wrong because he’s just bared his to me.

Reaching out with both hands, he cups my breasts. I push my chest forward, making him take all of them as they spill into his hands. “These got bigger,” he notes on a prayer-like whisper. He slides his thumbs over my hard nipples, forcing them to tighten under his attention. “I don’t deserve you.”

I lean back on my hands, and he follows forward. “That’s where you’re wrong. I just wanted you to work for it.”

He massages my breasts, plucking and caressing until I’m squeezing my thighs together to keep from leaking all over his bed. “I want to see,” Keegan purrs, forcing my legs open. In my heightened state of arousal, even the air passing over my sensitive flesh makes me moan.

“Mmmm,” he rumbles. “Look at that perfect pussy.”

My core tightens at his words, and I whimper in the back of my throat.

Moving forward, he presses a chaste kiss to my neck while stroking my breasts. “Touch yourself,” Keegan hisses. “I want to watch.”

I start to move my hands up under his to cup my mounds but he shakes his head.

“Your pussy, sweet Delilah. I have this handled. I want you to make yourself come all over your fingers.”

“Keegan...”

I press my lips together as he pinches my nipples to cut me off. “Show me how you do it when you’re thinking of me.”

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