Page 74 of Heart Sick Hate

Stepping to me, we’re skin to skin. We might as well melt in the heat of the steam in this bathroom. Crew’s hand finds my jaw and his thumb presses my lower lip as he dips his face to mine.

“You’re going to tell me the truth no matter how hard you try to run from it.” He rubs his thumb over my lip, my chin. “Maybe not tonight. But you will.”

“What makes you so sure?”

My heart is racing with every graze of his thumb.

“Because Iseeyou. Even if you’re not ready to admit it to yourself yet.”

Crew drags his hands down my arms and laces our fingers together, leading the way around the shower until we’re stepping inside.

I hate that he ignores how cruel I’m being in an effort to push him away and holds me close instead. It breaks through all my defenses.

Hot water floods my skin as he pulls me under it with him. And I close my eyes as his hands roam my body. I soak in the feel of the only man I’ve trusted to touch me. A man I said I was handing my virginity to because it would mean nothing. Because he’s incapable of caring about anyone but himself.

But as I open my eyes and am met with his gray gaze, I’m well aware I’ve been lying to myself. I gave my body to Crew because I wanted him to have the last piece that felt like mine. I trusted a monster because it’s a reflection of what I am inside.

“Crew.”

His soapy hands rub my arms. Water runs in rivers down his face, over the demons carved into his flesh.

“What, princess?” He cups my jaw in both his hands, and I wrap my arms around his neck.

“I wish things were different.”

He tips his forehead down to mine and takes in a deep breath. “Me too, Echo. Me too.”

I lift onto my toes, and he captures my mouth. Soft, tender. The sides of him he never shows me as he wipes my wet hair off my shoulders and over my naked body. He presses his hips against me, his cock firm between us, and my entire body aches.

Spinning us around, he presses my back to the shower wall. The cool contrast of the tile against the hot water has my senses on overdrive.

I tip my head back, and he leans down to kiss the path along my neck.

“Fuck me.” I rake my hands through his wet hair. “Make me forget.”

Crew doesn’t ask questions. He doesn’t need to know what problem he’s solving. And I appreciate the silence as he hitches one of my legs up around his hips and drives himself in.

He hits me deep enough that my soul leaves my body. Floats in the steam and melts into him. Crew tips his head down to press our foreheads together, and he fucks me slow and deep. I’m still sore from earlier tonight outside the bar, but I want that pain.

I grab the chain around his neck and hold onto my ring. My purity. Something he keeps safe when it no longer exists. He cherishes it like it was worth something it wasn’t.

He kisses my forehead. My temple. My cheek. He claims my mouth and our tongues dance. Our bodies mold. He shapes my heart and brings it to life again.

“What do you need, Echo?” he murmurs against my mouth, hitting me deeper.

He could be talking about this moment or in general. Either way, I only have one answer.

“You.” I cling to him tighter as he lifts my other leg and wraps it around him, pinning me to the shower wall. “Just you, Crew.”

“You have me.” He thrusts in again as his teeth sink into my lower lip. “You’re mine. All mine…”

He trails off, fucking me as the words reverberate through my being with every thrust. As he hits me until I’m coming hard, and he’s jerking inside me.

“You’re mine.”

He says it again and again. So many times, I almost believe it could be possible.

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