Page 176 of Drown Like Heaven
“I’m not mad at you,” he said, laying his palms on my shoulders. “Breathe.”
“Fuck you.”
“Try that again.”
My heart tripped nervously over a beat, but I steeled myself.
“I saidfuck you, Micah.”
For a moment, he was silent. He didn’t move, didn’t speak, didn’t even react to what I’d said. Somehow, that scared me more than anything else. A cold feeling slithered under my skin, gliding across my body.
I regretted saying it. Regretted throwing the glass. Regretted even sucking Mason’s dick in the first place.I want to go back to how it was before.
Then, before I could even blink, he’d yanked me off the ground.
I gasped with the pain of his grip, but it was already gone by the time I registered it, my body tumbling onto the mattress. Micah ripped open a drawer on his nightstand and I flipped onto my hands and knees, crawling away, heart in my throat. I had no idea what he kept in that drawer, and I didn’t want to find out.
“Staythe fuckwhere I put you, Dakota, so help me God!” he shouted.
I froze, tears springing to my eyes. Fearfully, I looked over my shoulder at him. He’d never yelled at me like that.
He was holding a bundle of black rope.
“Are you done?” he asked loudly, grabbing more rope. My chest flushed hot, blood rising in my cheeks. “Or do you want to keep fighting me? I can do this all day. Your choice.”
I hesitated, my mouth slightly open.
Indecision stole my brain from me, and I couldn’t think. Did I want to submit to him now? Or did I want to fight him?I don’t know. I don’t fucking know anything. Tell me the answer.I wascaught, like a deer in headlights, prey being stared down by a predator.
“Lay on your back,” he ordered.
I was already doing it by the time he stopped speaking; I was already listening to him. Tears dripping down my cheeks, chest caught on silent sobs, lower lip wobbling, I obeyed him. I laid flat on my back, head on the pillow, my hair splayed around me.
Micah knelt over me, cupping my face with his hand, then he leaned down and kissed my forehead.
I squeezed my eyes shut, more tears coming now.
He skimmed his mouth over my temples, my cheeks, catching stray tears with his lips, pressing soft kisses to my hot skin.
And then he flattened his tongue on my skin, licking long and slow all the way from my jaw up my cheek.
It awoke something dirty and primal inside of me. I forced myself not to squirm, so I could stay still where he wanted me.
“You like that?” he asked.
“I wish you could lick my heart,” I whispered shakily, simultaneously sinking down into his pillows and floating up into a submissive cloud. A few more tears dripped down my cheeks.
“I would if I could.” He dipped his head, skimming his lips over my chest.
I wanted him inside of me, as deep as he could get, fucking me so hard I could pretend that every beat of the muscle in my chest didn’t ache the way it did. Because once he was inside me, how close would he be to the vault of my ribs, my tired lungs, my bleeding heart, my bared soul?Closer.
Close enough to twist up my insides, to shape me how he liked, to unlock every secret and myth that comprised me if he knew how to look for them. Pushing into my most sacred and secretive place, touching the raw vulnerability I couldn’t keepfrom infecting my marrow. Not just inside my body, but inside my tenderness, my wounds.
Micah’s hand found the hem of my sleep shirt—his shirt—and he teased it up, baring my waist. Goosebumps scattered all over my skin. He lifted the hem further, bringing it all the way up under my chin while I laid motionless before him.
Micah crawled lower on the bed, carefully lowering my sleep shorts by an inch, then pressed his tongue flat on my lower belly, dragging a slow, hot line all the way up my stomach. Over each arched rib, sweeping over the bottom swell of my breast, then curvingaroundmy nipple, denying me the touch I needed.
I muffled my moan by sealing my lips together. A tortured breath huffed out of my nose.
