Page 93 of Push & Pull
Petra relented her grip, pulling her hands out of the blouse and pressing her forehead against Simone’s chest. If Simone wanted, she could bury her nose in Petra’s scalp. Something she had done before when they were alone for a week.
“I want you, princess.”
Such simple words whispered against the length of Simone’s throat were enough to tear her asunder. Her whole body transformed into liquid, spilling to the floor and sieving into madness.I hate how much I still want her.Simone was susceptible to destructive addictions. They didn’t stop at drugs, alcohol, or even sex. Sometimes, the most dangerous substance was what her brain released when she swore she was in love.
Let alone with the wrong person.
“You remember what I once told you?” Petra’s heated look was bereft of more than morality. It threatened to step into the liquid puddle that Simone had become.Not only will I be on the bottom of her foot for the rest of her life, but a part of me will still be down here, dirty and sullen.“About you being the princess in the tower? You’d rather be with the witch who captured you than with Prince Charming, who has come to rescue you?”
Of course, Simone remembered. The metaphor had haunted her ever since because nobody had ever so succinctly put her heart into words.
“I’m the wicked witch who absconded you from your royal bed, princess.” Petra lifted Simone’s blouse over her head and cast it to the floor with the jacket. “I locked you in my magical tower because I couldn’t bear the thought of the rest of the world having you while I was forever alone.” Only now did Petra tackle those clasps holding Simone’s bra together. “I’ll give you whatever you want as long as you’re with me. I picked you among all the other princesses because you’re the one who most likes what I’ve got to offer. Don’t you?”
Simone instinctively covered her chest as her bra fell to the floor as well. Yet Petra was in the way. For Simone to lift her arms and wrap them around her chest was to bring Petra into a firmer embrace.
“Do you want to rejoin the world with Prince Charmings and royal pageantry?” Petra made short work of the zipper separating her hand from the wastes of Simone’s true depravity. “Or do you want to stay in this tower with me? I’ve got enough spells and tricks to make you fall in love with me all over again every day.”
Simone gasped in acquiescence as Petra’s hand slipped between that zipper and her mouth encircled the first nipple it found at eye level. The wall threatened to abandon Simone if she didn’t get her act together. A fine feat, if she were to ever accomplish one.
“Oh, God.” Her hand slapped against the wall as she attempted to stay on her feet. Petra slammed her other hand against Simone’s ass. Anything to keep her standing upright.
“That’s not a direct answer.”
As laughter huffed against Simone’s chest, she gave in to the strange feeling that overwhelmed her whenever she was with Petra.I don’t care if there’s some ulterior motive.Simone tilted back that head and kissed Petra with the full force of her lips.Anyone who makes me feel this good can’t be entirely faking it.
The logical side told her to embrace the possibility that they were doomed.Don’t get hurt. Keep some of your wits.Yet that logic quickly slipped away as Petra’s fingers encircled Simone’s face and their kissing was on a crash course to mayhem. The softest place to land wasn’t the floor. It was the bed, which had been adorned with the petals of half a dozen roses. The other half were still in their vase, occupying the nightstand.
Soon Simone was occupying the bed, her wicked witch on top of her.
Power wasn’t the only thing she craved from a lover, and pure, physical power wasn’t the only thing petite Petra offered as she pushed Simone’s head off the bed. As the blood rushed there, Simone struggled to hold on to the other things Petra offered her: the candid desire that had flowed between them, and the respite from the modern world that Simone always craved.Cravings. Desires. Fantasies.Sometimes, she was still that naïve girl who escaped into her chapter books while her mother drove them into town for a day of shopping and bonding. Other times, she was a grown woman who missed her family and all of the safety and comfort they had promised her. Where was that now? Where had it gone? To the great beyond, with the souls of those who had walked the earth before her?
Or were they still here, transferred to the person she needed at such a pivotal point?
There was nothing wicked about the way Petra kissed her. Or touched her.Or taunts me.It didn’t matter if Petra covered her in kisses that both titillated and adored her. Or if she entered Simone’s body with the intent of a wanton woman who only knew one speed. It wasn’t wicked. It couldn’t be anything but good enough for Simone’s existence.
It was the escape she needed.
Petra had not forgotten what Simone responded to most.
If Petra’s actions didn’t say a bad thing about her, then neither did her words, which were naughtier than any of the trouble they had gotten into during one week on the eastern coast.
Naughtier, but still everything Simone craved from one unforgettable lover.
“You’re my favorite captive.” Petra, as naked as the woman beneath her, straddled Simone’s waist and loomed over her like the dark shadow of the west. “Do you know how many I’ve had, princess?” Her finger traced the sensitive outline of Simone’s lips. It tasted familiar, as if Simone could place her own flavor in the heat of the night.
“No…”
“Enough to know that you’re the only one I’m going to have for the rest of my lucky existence.” Petra’s hips gyrated against Simone’s, her heat as welcomed as the heavy breaths vibrating in her throat. “If I don’t make you forever mine, then I’m no good as a witch at all.”
Simone gasped again. As much as she wanted to become Petra’s, there was always that part of her brain that begged her to stay tethered to reality.The Prince Charmings. The pageantry.
The stepmothers and castles.
“What’s it going to take to make you mine?”
Simone’s eyes opened to black bangs in her face. She smelled the fresh hair dye on Petra’s head. “Take me away from here,” she whispered, fingertips clinging to the edge of the bed. “Make me really believe I’m the princess you’re going to do with as you please. Make all of my fantasies come true.”
She was the only woman in the world Simone could say that to, let alone with such a pleading voice.Because she gets me.Because Petra didn’t make Simone feel broken or devoid of love.
