Chapter 24

TWENTY-FOUR

DOMHNALL

I absolutely fucking lose myself in the taste of her lips.

I’ve missed her so goddamn fucking much. I pin her to the counter and kiss her just like I used to in those long afternoons lost on the Green, making out like mad teenagers.

Fuck I’ve missed the taste of her lips. She kisses the exact way she used to. She feels the same, too. And for just a moment, I’m the same kid I was back then. Cold grass underneath us and the Dublin sun only occasionally breaking thru the fog and glinting off the water.

She and me were the only things in the world.

But it never did last forever like I wanted it to. Later that night, or early the next morning when I got to the workshop because I started avoiding going in the evenings, he’d corner me. He’d get me and there’d be nothing I could do about it. And I’d try to hold on to the sunlight moment and stay far away in my head while he?—

A hand touches my face, and I shout “Fuck!” and yank back from Brooke, blinking hard.

I grab her wrists and pin them behind her back, constraining her there, both of us breathing hard.

I’m not who I was then. My teeth clench as the monster inside me yawns awake. He never sleeps long.

Now more than ever, I need to stay in control.

Brooke just blinks up at me, saying nothing about me pinning her hands behind her back. She only leans forward as far as she can with me restraining her. Her pink lips and cheeks flushed from my kiss.

I drag her to me by her wrists at the small of her back because I can’t fucking keep away from her, and we kiss furiously again.

I only pull back to growl, “If we do this, we do it my way. I’m in control.”

She nods, eyes still wide. “We fit like puzzle pieces, don’t you see? You lead and I follow. Make me whole, Donny.”

“Even if I want—” My breath hitches, hating myself in a deep way I haven’t felt in a long time. I thought I’d cut off all feelings for good but now they’re bubbling back up. She’s resurrecting what I thought was dead in me. “I’m fucked up. I’m a sadist. I want to make you cry in pain.”

She just fucking smiles at me. “I know. I told you, we’re puzzle pieces. Hurting on my skin is so much better than when the hurt is on the inside. It’s…” Her eyes look around like she’s searching for the right word before coming back to mine. “… freeing . You make it feel good. You make everything good, Donny.”

God fucking dammit, I die when she calls me that. And feeling rushes back in like water through dry rusted pipes. I do remember how. I’d just shut off the valve, but she’s wrenched it wide open again and now I feel— I feel?—

I kiss her again, needing her mouth more than I need my next breath.

Protecting her arms wound behind her back with my forearm, I press her into the counter and kiss her. She might kiss the same—innocent, receiving—but I’m not the boy I was. I devour. I intrude.

And then I pull back and lick teasingly inside the top of her upper lip in that place she was always so sensitive. I was too clumsy back then to understand how to handle that sensitivity.

But now, as I pin her to the counter, I gently lick at the fat little apex nubbin of her cupid’s bow upper lip.

And her body jerks against me, a surprised little high-pitched gasp coming from her throat.

That’s right. Yes .

Being able to control her body’s pleasure centers me.

And makes me ruthless. The tip of my tongue plays with the inside of her top lip, the exact same way I do when I’m teasing her clit.

The way she shudders against me tells me she can feel it. It’s so fascinating, all the sorts of different nerves that are connected in a human body.

And now, having Mads shuddering in my arms, little squeals getting higher and higher pitched from me merely kissing her—it’s getting me fucking high. And hard as fuck. But I’m in control, so I ride that edge as I continue to tease her with just the very tip of my tongue.

When she tries to kiss me more deeply—to take what only I can give, I withdraw. I’m wrapped around her body like a snake holding its snack in place. And I continue to feast, teasing out her pleasure and listening to her noises so I know exactly how hard to press with my tongue against the secret nubbin inside her top lip.

Until she’s finally so desperate and shuddering in my arms I suck her upper lip into my mouth with the pressure she deserves.

She begins screaming and shaking in my arms right as the smoke alarm starts to beep in ear-blasting chirps because the eggs I forgot about are burning on the stove.