20. Adrian

Chapter 20

Adrian

T his . This was what felt right.

And maybe it was a mistake—maybe I'd acted too quickly, too irrationally, the moment she'd appeared out of what seemed to be thin air on the corner of Essex and Delancey. Maybe I should have taken longer than half a second to register that she was here as if by some miraculous answer to a prayer, maybe I should have considered the harm I could cause to not only myself but her and Lucas by proxy.

Maybe I should have done a lot of things differently.

But I just couldn't bring myself to fucking care, because it just felt right .

I tucked her up against my chest with an arm around her waist. Her mouth tasted of strawberries and sin, and in the glow of the streetlights with the occasional passerby hurling abuse at us for taking up too much space on the sidewalk, I didn't care that her lipstick was staining my teeth or that she was grabbing for the buttons on my shirt.

Scratch that. I cared a little bit once I realized she'd managed to get half of them undone.

"Car," I rasped, coming up for a breath of freezing cold air just an inch from her mouth. "Now."

Eyes half-lidded and mouth parted, she nodded, her nose brushing against my chin. "Okay."

My heart hammered in my chest as I forced myself to pull back enough to look at the sea of traffic. It had been maybe ten minutes total since I'd left the car, and considering traffic was moving at a snail's pace, my driver couldn't be that far.

I pulled my phone from my pocket with shaking fingertips. Adrenaline was dumping into my system—none of this felt real, not really. Why the fuck was she here ? To tempt me? To get me to finally break and give in to what I'd wanted from her for weeks?

If that's what her motivation was, she'd won. I didn't have it in me to fight it.

My driver's voice filtered down the line after a single ring. "Mr. Stone?"

"Where are you? Change of plans." I kept Ava pressed against me, the warmth of her body enough to dull the sting of cold air against the slit of visible bare skin between the two sides of my shirt. Part of me worried she'd run the moment things became too real, and I wasn't about to let her go anywhere.

A laugh came through the phone. "I've barely moved. I can see you," Oliver said.

Roughly six cars back from the traffic light, a black car flashed its headlights.

"You see me?"

"Yes." The crosswalk light turned green, and in a moment of haste, I pulled her with me toward it, braving the bitter wind. I didn't care what I looked like as we crossed the street together, didn't care that I likely had lipstick on my face or that my shirt was half undone. "Get the privacy screen up."

"Good God, Adrian," Oliver huffed. "I'll put in my headphones while I'm at it."

"Pretty sure that's illegal."

"And what you're about to do isn't?"

"Completely fair." I hung up the phone and shoved it into my pocket.

In the time it took to get her to the car, I could use half of my brain to take her in—all five and a half feet of her. Whatever her plan was seemed to be last minute from her choice of attire. The black leggings, the oversized tee shirt covered in splotches of paint, the pull-on boots, the wool coat that looked like it had seen better days…she must've been cold. It was freezing outside.

I shot Oliver a text that just said turn the heat up as we stepped onto the road near the car. He gave me a thumbs-up through the windshield.

"Where are we going?" Ava asked, her voice smaller than I expected.

I opened the door to the backseat for her. "Does it matter, Ava?"

She hesitated, her green eyes raking over me as if she were trying to come up with a reason to run. But she didn't find one. "No. It doesn't."

Thank God.

I ushered her in and across the leather seats before ducking down and sliding in beside her, closing the door with an audible thud behind me. The privacy screen was up and filled the gap between the back seat and the front, and even from here, I could hear the steady bass of whatever music filled Oliver's ears.

My twitching hands wouldn't let me stay put. It would have to do.

I climbed across the seats, twisting her in them with my hands the moment my mouth met hers again. She sighed into me, the warmth of her breath filling the space between us, and dear God, I couldn't wait another second. I needed to touch her. I needed to have her.

I pushed her jacket off her shoulders and grabbed the collar of it from behind, wrenching it down her back. She let it fall from her arms, and a second later it lay forgotten in the footwell.

With one hand on the door and my knee on the cushioned seats, I pulled her body closer, forced her thighs apart so I could seat my hips between them. She worked at my shirt again as her kiss turned needy, her fingers in my hair and on my buttons, and I shrugged my coat off my shoulders to give her that extra bit of help.

I pushed her old band T-shirt up her stomach, my hand roaming along her skin, and just as I crossed over her ribs…

No bra. She's going to be the death of me.

"God," I groaned, breaking my lips from hers long enough to get the shirt up and over her head. "You drive me fucking crazy. You know that?"

My nails dug in so hard to the door that I could feel my nailbeds screaming and the leather scratching. It took everything in me not to do the same to her soft skin as I dropped my mouth to her neck, my fingers kneading at the flesh of her breast, the scent of her shampoo and body wash filling my senses.

I kissed the slope of her throat, over her collarbones, down her sternum. The car moved forward an inch.

"Is it bad that I like that?" Ava whispered, a little chuckle shaking her chest beneath my mouth.

"Driving me insane? No." I laughed. Her hands gripped the sides of my shirt and pulled, freeing them from where I'd tucked them into my slacks. "I can't get enough of it."

She gasped a squeak as my mouth closed around her nipple, my tongue gliding across the erect little bud. Blood pooled in my already aching cock, and every movement I made, every stroke of my tongue or squeeze of my hands, was so goddamn controlled so I wouldn't devour her with everything in me at once.

Her hips ground into me in response, and I nearly lost every bit of patience I had.

I pushed her down into the seat beneath her with my free hand and bit down gently on her nipple as a warning. "Why were you there?" I asked, the words muffled through my teeth as I hooked my fingers in the back of her waistband.

She pushed the sides of my shirt off my shoulders, forcing the fabric to pool in my elbows and pull taut across my back. Her fingers felt like ice across my skin, but everywhere they touched seemed to catch on fire, burning me, consuming me.

"Ava," I growled.

I glanced up at her face, and even in the low light of the car, I could see how flushed her cheeks had gone. Splotches popped up across her jawline, her neck, almost down to her chest. "You know why," she said, her voice barely more than a breath.

"Tell me." I pulled on her waistband, bringing it down over the curve of her rear.

She swallowed, and the curve of her throat shuddered. "I wanted to know if you'd like her. And I was terrified that you would."

"Why?" Releasing her waistband, I grabbed for her feet, pulling the little zippers down on her boots and popping them off. They clattered into the footwell.

" Please ," she begged, her voice turning whiny as more splotches of pink appeared across the top of her chest. I bit down harder on her nipple. "Fuck, okay, ah —I picked well and that scared the shit out of me, okay? I don't want to avoid you. I want you, and that's pretty goddamn obvious right now. I want you. I want you. "

God, that felt like fucking opium in my veins.

I pulled my mouth from her chest, taking a brief moment to take her in like this—her top half bare, her leggings askew at the hips, her hair a mess and her lips swollen, laid out like a goddess along the backseat of the car. She was mine, for now, and that felt more charged than when I'd let myself play along on my boat or when I'd followed her at the charity ball.

"Please tell me you want me, too, so I don't feel like such a loser for saying that."

"I want you," I said, dipping down to her again and hovering just above her lips. I pulled at her leggings again, getting them down to her knees, and brought her legs together between us to tug them off all the way. "Why do you think I walked away?"

Unfocused eyes searched mine, and the moment her legs fell back apart astride me, she kissed me.

Fully bare in the back of the car, she morphed into a goddamn animal. Her nails clawed at my chest as she searched frantically for my belt, my zipper, the button on my slacks. She undid each one with scary precision, her kisses so aggressive that it felt as if she were devouring me. When she'd accomplished her mission and there was nothing between us, she only barely calmed—her hips pushed up into me, her warm, soaked entrance pressed firmly against the tip of my cock.

"Please," she begged. " Please ."

"Oliver is right there ," I laughed against her mouth, tipping my nose in the direction of the back of the driver's seat. The bass from his music still played steadily, but the car was moving now, and when I glanced out of the windows, the busy scenery of Delancey and Essex had disappeared and was replaced with the shimmering lights of Union Square. We were at least half of the way home.

That didn't mean that I didn't want to bury myself in her right then and there, though. The temptation of heat escaping her was almost enough to make me break.

"I don't care," she mewled. Her hips pushed against me again, her clit dragging against my swollen, aching head, her chest heaving with little gasps. I could have sworn I saw stars when she lifted her hips higher, forcing my cock to slip inside just an inch. "Adrian, please ."

God, the way she said my name was sinful. Guess I'll be torturing myself, then.

There was no chance I'd have enough time to take her fully before we got back to Darkwater, but I could give her what she needed in the interim.

"For fuck's sake, love," I grunted as I wedged my free hand—the one not gripping the door for stability—between her waist and the leather seat. I pulled her up and she flushed against me, twisting us in one quick movement until my rear was on the edge of the seat and her legs were on either side of me. With her on top and the tinted windows keeping the view from onlookers, I could focus entirely on what she needed.

I could mess with her, too.

Grabbing her hips, I pushed her down onto me, impaling her on every inch of my length at once. She cried out as her warmth enveloped me, swallowing me, bending and breaking for me—and it was music, it was heaven, it was every painting she loved and every photograph that enraptured me. It felt too good to be true, and every second she sat there unmoving and adjusting made my head swim.

"Ride me, Ava," I rasped. I didn't even think about it—I grabbed her around her throat, my fingertips squeezing gently on either side just enough to send her pulse racing but not for one second affect her breathing, and slipped my free hand into the space between our bodies. I grazed over her clit and her walls shuddered around me, those wild green eyes trained on mine. "Come for me before we get home or so help me God, I'll use you in every way I want to instead."

She swallowed, her neck bobbing against the palm of my hand.

She started to move, and I could have fucking died right there, could have spent eternity in hell for what I was doing if I had to. Why couldn't she be anyone else?

The sounds from her filled the hot air of the car, little whimpers and moans that set me on fire. I quickened my pace against her clit, gave her just a little more pressure on it—and dug my fingers deeper into the sides of her neck.

She yelped.

"Fuck, yes ," she said, and I used my hand to pull her closer to me, bringing her chest to my mouth.

I bit down on the flesh of her breast, soothed the ache with my tongue, groaned my own pleasure against her skin. I didn't want to leave the fucking car, not with her on me like this, not when I could spill everything inside of her right here, not when I could pretend the world didn't exist and it was just me and her?—

The car slowed, and a quiet, "Parking now, Mr. Stone," from the front seat made Ava jump.

Pink splotches sprouted back to life across her skin, and I lifted my mouth from her breast, grinning up at her. "Don't stop," I ordered, slipping my fingers down to where we joined and forcing her walls to make space for more than just my cock.

Her nails dug into my chest so hard I wondered if she'd made me bleed.

I hooked my digits on her pubic bone, pulling her body forward from the inside. She got the message, even if her brain wasn't entirely with it.

"You've got about one minute until we're parked," I warned, "and then that privacy screen comes down."

Panicked eyes met mine as she moved quicker, my fingers still seated inside, my thumb rubbing against her most sensitive spot. " Adrian ."

"Or I could open the windows," I said, my breathing unsteady as she fucked herself on my cock. The sensation was driving me insane, sinking me deeper into a pit that I knew I couldn't crawl out of, that same one I'd dug for her in my mind and tried to keep a solid foundation on top of. It would seal us both inside. "Let all of Manhattan hear you."

Her walls clamped down on me as the rest of her body began to lock up. I pulled her along to keep her moving. She was close, so close.

"Let them see you looking so goddamn helpless for me," I rasped. "Let them see how depraved Ava fucking Riley really is."

The moment she hit that peak, I released her throat, flooding her with the blood I'd been slowing the movement of—and ever so gently pressed the button for the window, cracking it just enough that she could hear the sound.

Just enough to get a rise out of her.

She pitched forward in an instant onto my chest as the car stopped, all of her going slack, a guttural cry leaving her body as she broke and shook. The sound hit my ears like music, ebbing and flowing, charging like a bull. Completely naked and out of breath, she clung to me.

"You're an ass," she laughed breathily, and I couldn't help but join her. Maybe I was.

Her hips moved forward, pushing me further inside. I grabbed for the soft flesh of her rear, holding her in place, keeping her from antagonizing me further.

"But you?—"

"I'd rather have my way with you upstairs."

————

Her cheeks and neck stayed red as a strawberry as she picked at the skin on her lips, her leggings and band tee tucked under her arm, her jacket buttoned up around her bare body. I'd barely been able to contain myself as she walked through the lobby of the Darkwater building like that, her hand clutching mine.

The second the elevator doors shut and I scanned my keycard for a direct ride up to my penthouse, her hands were on me again.

The moment the floor counter on the screen went from showing numbers to showing two dashes and we traveled express past the offices and lower residential floors, her fingers found the button of my slacks. I hadn't bothered buttoning my shirt back up or redoing my belt when I knew it could be hidden beneath my jacket, and she pushed it all back open, exposing my upper half in the small, enclosed space.

Despite her orgasm, she was still just as desperate as I was.

The warmth of her hand wrapping around my length was nearly enough to set me on fire, and as the elevator dinged and opened up into my private foyer, we stumbled backward into it together, letting the elevator door close behind us.

I couldn't even get my keys out of my pocket before she was kneeling down on the tile, her jacket halfway off and pooling around her elbows.

I couldn't breathe.

"Christ," I choked, pushing the hair from her face while she worked at pulling my slacks down enough to free what raged beneath. "You look so fucking pretty on your knees."

She beamed up at me.

I dipped my hand into my boxers and helped her, sighing in relief the second her warm breath hit my cock. I was stupidly hard, so much that it was making me lightheaded and I ached under my palm, and dear God , her lips were parting, a string of saliva connecting them?—

My fingers knotted in her hair as her mouth closed around the tip.

Damp, soft heat moved across the underside of the head, and I had to lean against the wall for support, my breath catching and my heart racing. " Fuck , Ava."

She hummed her reply, and the vibration of it against the most sensitive part of me sent me into overdrive.

Clutching her hair in my hand, I steadied her head, forcing her blown pupils to look up at me. Her jacket slid from her arms and landed limply on the floor around her, every inch of her on show for me, and all I wanted was to claim it, own it, keep it forever—keep her forever. What the fuck was wrong with me?

I pressed myself further between her lips, dragging my cock along her tongue, tapping gently against the back of her throat before retreating and starting again. She let me control her, let me guide her head onto me, let me pull her away.

Every dream, every thought, every imagined scenario of this that I'd come up with, touched myself to, driven myself mad with—none of it compared. Nothing compared. I wasn't sure if it was the way she felt or if it was truly just her , but it made me feel as if I'd been starved of touch for decades, as if I'd been burning up for as long as I could remember and had finally found water, as if I was experiencing everything anew.

It was psychotic. It was insanity, it was utterly absurd, and I knew better than the choices I was making. But I couldn't bring myself to care if this hurt me, and out of all of it, that was what horrified me the most.

With the back of her throat against my head, she held herself there, unmoving despite me attempting to pull her head back. Her lashes fluttered up at me, and just before I could ask her what on earth she was doing, her throat… opened .

She took me further. And further. And further.

Those same lashes turned damp as her lips touched base, her throat twitching around me. I couldn't think straight. I couldn't feel anything but her.

"You're going to ruin me," I whispered. My fingers loosened in her hair, and I smoothed it down, stroking my nails across her scalp. "And fuck , I want you to."

She pulled back, popping her mouth completely off of me and replacing it with her hand. Little strings of sticky saliva connected us as she grinned up at me. "Then I guess we're even."