Chapter 22

twenty-two

Tav

I see Ian to the door not long after Olympia excuses herself to bed. In the kitchen, I hunt for a bottle of Tylenol, worried she has a fever and not wanting it to get worse. I’d gone to check on her shortly after she dismissed herself, but after hearing the shower through the closed door of her bedroom, I left her to it. After saying goodbye to Ian, I again stopped by her bedroom door, but with no light creeping from under the door, I figured she was already asleep.

I plan to leave the Tylenol and bottle of water on her nightstand. I’ll touch her forehead to make sure she isn’t burning up, before leaving her to rest. If she is burning up, I’ll wake her to take the medicine.

It’s as I’m entering the hall that I hear the first little moan.

I can see there’s no light from below her door, and at another throaty sound, I think she must really be sick. Maybe she’s in the throes of a delusional fever. I think about calling Candace, knowing she’ll be off soon, as my steps quicken.

I don’t think as I push her door open, and at the sight of her naked body draped in candlelight, I freeze. All the blood in my body instantly rushes to my dick. I think I forget to breathe as her blue eyes widen, and she pulls the toy from her between her legs. I glare at it, jealous for the first time in my life of an object.

With the Tylenol and water in one hand, I lean casually against the door. I’m not fucking casual though. Anything but.

My voice comes out rough, “Don’t stop on my account, Princess.”

Her body flushes a bright red as her legs snap closed and her hands shoot up to cover her breasts. The toy is still humming on the blanket beside her.

“Tav,” she croaks my name, and if it doesn’t have another hot gush of blood traveling south. Fuuuck.

She’s exquisite.

But she’s not telling me to screw off, so I step into the room. Saying nothing, I move to the nightstand where I set the Tylenol and water.

Her eyes squeeze closed after they lock on my offering, and her flush deepens. Unsteady breath rattles over her lips and her body starts to tremble. Anxiety. Fear.

I recognize the tremble as the same I’d experienced in the bathroom after feeling that scar on her ass. It won’t be long before she disconnects from me mentally, slamming a shield between us to protect herself—from me.

Not happening, Princess.

“Look at me,” I command.

Her eyes fly open, and I see firelight reflected in the endless blue. My voice is husky, and I realize as I look down at her, that I’ve never wanted anything more than I want her in this moment. But I know she’s not ready for me. What she is ready for, however, is to come.

“Make yourself come.”

“I—” She wets her lips. “I’ve been trying.”

My eyes don’t move from hers. “Looked like you were doing just fine to me.”

Her lips tremble, and then she shakes her head. Her voice is so small as she admits, “It’s my first attempt.”

Seriously?She’s pushing twenty and she’s never made herself come?

“You don’t masturbate?”

She shakes her head.

“Why not?”

“It’s—I thought it was dirty.” Her face flushes even deeper. Her voice is so low, I have to focus to hear her next words. “I was ashamed.”

“You’re a beautiful woman,” I tell her. No truer words have ever been spoken. “Your body has needs.”

Fuck, I’d been trying my hardest to spark those needs in her since the night of the pool party when I decided to hell with the bet, this woman is mine.

Wet shimmers in her eyes, and I press, “Spread your legs for me, beautiful. Show me what feels good.”

When she shakes her head in refusal, I lower my hand to the bulge behind my jeans and stroke my palm over the hardness there. Her eyes widen, and I nod. “This is what seeing you like this does to me. I’m rock fucking hard for you.”

A shaky breath rolls over her lips as she slowly releases one breast. She watches with those depthless blue eyes as my own feast on the creamy skin of her breast. I want to suck that rosebud nipple into my mouth so badly, it’s physically difficult to stay rooted where I am.

When her hand moves to the vibrator and she lifts it from the blanket, parting her legs and sliding the toy against her glistening cunt, I feel arousal slicken the tip of my dick. Her breaths start to come harder, rushing in needy puffs over lips I ache to devour.

I watch as she moves the toy over her clit, pulling it away innocently when it becomes too much, growing more and more frustrated when she fails to make herself come undone for me.

After a few minutes of watching her, my balls so tight they ache with need, she whimpers, “Tav…”

“Make yourself come, Princess,” I urge.

“I—can’t.” She throws the vibrator to the side. “It’s useless. I’m broken.”

She looks like she might cry.

My beautiful, sexually frustrated, temptress.

“Want me to show you?” The words sound from the depths of me and her eyes flash to mine. And, shit, I swear her pebbled nipples stretch up as though reaching for me.

Please say yes, baby.

She nods.

“I need you to say it, Princess.”

“Please, Tav.”

So good. But not good enough.“Ask me to make you come.”

Her lips tremble. Her entire body trembles. “Please, Tav, make me come.”

Christ.

I need to taste her. Her mouth. Her breasts. Her cunt.

I want to devour her.

She’s fucking with my head.

With my hands on her knees, I spread her legs wide before I lower my body to hers. It’s not what she expected, I know. She figured I’d pick up the toy and finish where she left off. Not a fucking chance am I using a toy when my fingers burn to feel her under me.

Crashing my mouth to hers, I devour her with a kiss so deep, I think I taste her rain-drenched soul. I want to capture it, grip it tight because I feel like this moment might slip through my fingers like water. She might slip through my fingers.

I’ve been an asshole.

She has no reason to trust me, to give me this part of herself. Not after everything.

Still, I want it. I want it all. All of her. Her body. Her mind. Her heart and her soul.

My tongue moves against hers, devouring sweet innocence. She tastes like champagne and apples. Like sinful temptation and redemption all wrapped up in sweet peas and rain.

She’s entirely naked beneath me, completely vulnerable. Yet, she’s never been safer. Because for this woman, I would die. As I nip at her lips, swallowing her sighs and pleas, her warmth seeping through my clothes to singe my flesh, I know I’m never letting her go. In a matter of seconds, it becomes my mission to brand my name on her heart, to carve it in every breath she breathes. This woman is mine.

I am hers.

Her body shudders as I plant my hand on either side of her head, pushing up. Her eyes take me in, lust reflecting in the bottomless blue. A breath hitches on her lips as she lifts her hands to the hem of my shirt, uncertainty flaring in her eyes.

“I want—” She hesitates. “I want to see you.”

When her little hands move under the material of my shirt, pushing it up my chest, I sit back on my haunches between her legs. I suck a sharp breath between my teeth as her arousal glistens in the candlelight between her legs. My dick is so hard, pressing so painfully against the zipper of my jeans that after I tear my shirt over my head, I rub my palm roughly down the length of it. Her eyes track my movement and her lips part, a pretty pink tongue sliding out to wet kiss-swollen lips.

The sight of her like this beneath me is the most erotic sight I’ve ever seen in my life. Innocence shines from within her, and yet she makes no attempt to hide her body from my hungry gaze.

Fucking hell, this woman. How could I have thought I’d be able to move on with my life as it was before her?

Dropping down again, I dip my lips into the curve of her throat before kissing a searing trail down to her breasts. Palming one, my thumb sliding over the pebble of her nipple, I suck the other into my mouth. When I swirl my tongue over the bud, her back arches and she cries out.

The sound.

I want—no, I need—more.

Releasing her breast with a sexy as fuck pop, I move to the other, using teeth and tongue to drive her wild. When I lift my head again to look at her, I’m lost. She’s exquisite perfection.

I want her heart.

“Tav,” she calls as I trail kisses down her belly, over her navel, to the V between her legs. She tries to close her legs around me, but the motion only helps me toss her legs over my shoulders before I dip low.

A shrill sound erupts from her as my tongue connects with her clit. Her hands stop trying to push me away to fall to the blanket beneath her, fisting it as she holds on for dear life. I’ve hardly tasted her, but I can feel she’s already so close. The breaths that burst from her chest ride low moans and pleading words that nearly bring me to the brink as I suck her clit hard, loving the way she bucks against me, seeking release and reprieve.

When I feel her body tensing under me, I push a finger into her entrance, stroking up and fucking loving the way she screams as her body clamps down around me. Pleasure ignites her flesh as she throws her head back, and I keep sucking at her clit as wave after wave pulses through her. I keep stroking as I ride out her orgasm until she’s tender enough to beg, “Stop. Please, Tav, I can’t⁠—”

With one final stroke of my tongue against her swollen clit, I crawl back up her body to claim her mouth in another brutal kiss.

Pulling away, I search her face with tender eyes, because I’ve never seen her look so sated. So blissful. So fucking beautiful.

“Feel better?”

Slowly, shyly, she nods.

I pin my gaze to hers. “Next time you feel the urge to come, you find me.”

A sharp inhale shudders through her. “Next time?”

“There will be a next time, Princess.” When her brows furrow and she hesitates, I know there are some things I need to clarify with her so there is no confusion later. “The bet is off.”

Her eyes widen. “Off?”

“Off,” I confirm.

She tries to push at my chest, tries to push me away, but I’m immovable and she gives up quick. I don’t miss the flash of fear in her eyes, though, as she stares up at me. “The bet is off because I let you make me come?”

“Yep.” I don’t bother telling her the bet has been off since the pool party. She’s been mine since I realized she hasn’t been feeding me lies.

I received my mother’s will that same night. After Ian saw I cared for Olympia, really cared, I had a copy of the original will in my inbox. He’d held out on me until he’d been certain I’d do right by Olympia. Fucker.

I should be pissed at him. But I’m grateful instead.

If I’d gotten the will, I’d have tossed her out.

If I’d tossed her out, I would never have gotten the chance to taste her.

She wouldn’t be mine.

My heart slams in my chest at the thought of her belonging to another man, and I can’t help myself as I go in for another bruising kiss. I’m trying to leave my mark on her. On her soul.

She sucks in air when I finally pull back again. I want to devour her. All of her.

Her brows furrow as she studies me above her. “You keep kissing me.”

Damn right. Fucking addictive. Tastes like apples and sin.

“You don’t like it?”

She wets her lips. I want to taste her again.

“I didn’t say that.”

“Talk to me, Olympia.”

“You say the bet is off? What does that mean?”

“It means you’re mine.”

Her eyes widen. “You’re not kicking me out?”

My head jerks back an inch. “Fuck, no.”

“But—” She shifts beneath me, and my dick gets ideas. She huffs, “I’m so confused.”

“It means from now on, your ass is in my bed at night.” I feel my eyes darken on her as a primitive, primal part of me flares. “It means I’m going to sully you, wreck and ruin you for any other man. I’m going to do this, Princess, because there will never be another man for you. I’m it. Until your last breath.”

The little temptress narrows her eyes. “What if that’s not what I want?”

“It sound like I’m giving you a choice?” I smirk when she gasps, continuing, “You don’t want a choice, Princess. You want me like I want you. You fucking love me.”

I say the last flippantly, but she shocks me shitless when she admits, “I did. I’ve been in love with you for years. Until the night I arrived here. That’s when I started to fall out of love with you.”

That stings. With both hands on either side of her face, my eyes boring into hers, I vow, “I’ll make you fall for me again, Olympia. I’ll make you fall so hard; you’ll never stop again.”

Wet hits her eyes, and I know I fucked up over these last weeks. She’s tender and sore and it’s my job, my honor, to make it better. To make it up to her.

“I don’t know, Tav.”

“I know enough for both of us, baby.” Without another word, I lift off her body and blow out her candle. Then I lift her into my arms bridal style, ignoring her protests as I head to my room.