Page 148 of House of Crimson Hearts
“Pardon?”
“You heard me. I’ll be right back.” She speeds away and I huff as I was about to protest. But the jacuzzi does look absolutely divine and I’d rather like a dip. So I do strip. I drop my clothes on a seat behind me and dip my toe in the water. It’s warm and very fucking appealing.
I glance at my watch before taking it off, acutely aware that this is probably a big waste of time. But Octavia seems convinced she knows the answer. I decide to trust her and slip into the water.
As I sink my shoulders under the glistening surface, she reappears, holding a strap-on. It’s one of those double ended ones that will vibrate inside me and her at the same time. Like the one we used in her castle.
“Oh,” I say.
“I want you to use it on me,” she says.
“Ohhh,” I say and immediately grin. “I mean, I’d love to, but like… don’t we have a trial to finish?”
“Do you trust me?”
I nod.
“Give me this. One last bit of fun together and then we will discuss the trial.”
“Okay,” I say, and she flings the strap at me. I climb out of the water and slip one end inside my pussy. It’s more difficult with my skin already wet, but she helps me in and then I’m peeling her clothes off and she’s slipping into the water too.
“No,” I say. “Not yet, you sit here.” I pat the ledge of the jacuzzi.
She sits obediently, legs shut, dangling in the water. I grin at her, knowing exactly what I want. I push her knees apart and edge my way between her legs.
I kick up and use the ledge under the water to stand high enough to kiss her. I slide my hand around her neck and push my lips over hers. She meets my mouth and kisses me tenderly, her fingers tracing circles around my shoulders. She pulls me in and holds me so tight and so safe.
“I’m sorry for how I treated you. For assuming the worst about you and Amelia.”
She shrugs. “In your defence, I did turn her. You just turned up to the mansion at the wrong time.”
“I know that now. I needed someone to blame and that became you. I couldn’t cope with the fact she was now the very thing I’d been trained to hate.”
“That’s understandable.”
“I’m a hypocrite, standing here knowing I’ve spent a week fucking you, despite being pissed with her for making the choice she did.”
“Being messy is part of being alive,” Octavia says. “Would you have made a different choice?”
“That’s the thing, the more I’ve thought about it, the more I realise I don’t think I would have. I like living. I would have had Amelia at the front of my mind, worrying about who would look after her if I was gone.”
Octavia brushes a wet strand of hair away from my cheek.
My stomach churns as I pluck up the courage to say what I need to say next. “And the thing is, how can I hate her when I’ve fallen in love?”
She tenses under my grasp. “In… In love?” she whispers.
I nod. “With you. That is. I have fallen for you. The very thing that I’m meant to hate.”
“You’ve fallen for the villain in your story.”
“That’s the thing, Octavia. I don’t think you were ever really my villain. I just couldn’t see it.”
She leans in and kisses me but her cheeks are wet. And I’m such an idiot for taking so long to realise. But I know exactly how I can make it up to her. I know what I can give her to make her see I mean it. That I don’t hate her or her kind anymore…
I kiss her again and then I slide lower, cupping her breast and sucking her nipple into my mouth until it hardens, and I scrape my teeth against it. She flinches and then moans, pushing her torso into me harder.
I lick down her chest, kissing and biting bits of her skin. And then I slip between her thighs and find the thing I covet. I push her and she leans back on her hands making more space for me.
