Chapter 16

The music poundsas I rush past bodies, needing to find Karen. I can't believe the owner found me again.

Why is he fascinated with me?

My skin crawls. This was a mistake.

I have to leave, and I definitely have to delete that application he sent. I'll find another way.

As soon as I step into another corridor, I run into a hard body.

As I glance up, I realize it's him. The man who touched me. The one who gave me my very first orgasm. The one I can't seem to forget.

I instantly want to run, feeling dirty at the thought of what I let him do. What I wanted him to do.

As he looks at me, that familiar feeling returns, and I can't seem to shake it. I want to step closer toward him to look at his eyes, but it's dark here and I can't make out the eye color.

His lips jerk and he nods, as though in apology for banging into me.

"I'm sorry about that. It was my fault." I laugh nervously. "I lost my friend again, the one who wouldn't shut up last time, and I wasn't watching where I was going."

He doesn't say anything, simply remains there staring at me.

Why are you still standing there? Leave! Before whatever happened last time happens again.

He holds out a hand, and I don't know why, but I take it.

Why am I lying to myself? I do know why. I like how he makes me feel: like a woman who's desired.

Devlin…

Thoughts of him scatter in my mind as the stranger pulls me in, my back to his front, like he doesn't want me to know who he is as much as I don't want him to know who I am. His arm circles around my front, his hard bulge pressing into the small of my back, while a hand sinks into my hair, his nose running down my neck as he pulls my head back.

My eyes close and my skin flushes.

His low, rumbling grunt has a moan slipping from my lips. His rough hands on me feel too good, while his mouth brushes down my throat, leaving my pulse thumping loudly as he does wicked things.

My body aches to be kissed, to be touched. I want to feel what he did to me the last time. A whimper escapes me, and his fingers drive lower, brushing between my thighs as I hum with need.

When my eyes open, I stare into the room we're currently in front of. A woman hangs from the ceiling while a man uses a toy between her legs.

The man behind me presses his palm into me there and my arousal grows until it burns to be put out. The more he touches me, the more I watch what's happening to the woman, the more I hunger for something deeper, something to take this ache away.

His fingertips stroke back up my body, from my stomach to my breasts. And I gasp when his thumb brushes over my erect nipple.

"Shh," he whispers into my ear, his teeth sinking around my earlobe as a heady moan makes its way out of my lips.

He pinches one after the other before a hand slips under my dress to feel them bare. He easily fits his hand through the side of the exposed material. His hands on me feel good, too good, and my shame morphs with pleasure until I don't know which part is winning.

He palms my breast and kneads it in his expert hands, and the way I want this right now, it's unexplainable.

I want to fight it, this insanity that is happening, but I'm too far gone, rubbing my behind on his very hard erection. He cups my other breast and tugs on my nipple.

"Oh, God," I cry out, realizing I enjoy this.

And the more I groan in pleasure, the more he touches my breasts. How would his mouth feel on them? His teeth…

Devlin…

That's who I'm picturing right now. It's him behind me. His hands on me. Him as those fingers drop to my thigh and start lifting the dress up.

Oh God, I want him so badly.

My eyes fall to a close, and I drop my head on his chest. His grunting only makes me widen my thighs for him.

I didn't wear any underwear like the last time. These dresses are too thin.

He growls when he finds me without any, fisting my hair as a single finger dips and strokes between my soaked lips.

"Yes, please," I beg this stranger to make me come.

If Karen or Adam see me like this, I may die.

"Mm-hmm," he growls, and when his finger rubs my clit, I'm done for.

It wouldn't take long, just a little and I'd be flying.

"Don't stop," I groan. "I need this."

His breaths storm out of him, wafting across the curve of my ear. His touch is rough, yet somehow softer too.

And the scent drifting from his neck…it reminds me of Devlin.

Can it be?

No. Of course not. He wouldn't do that. He wouldn't touch me like this. He'd be furious that I was even here and he'd march me right out.

The man is careful not to sink a finger inside me, keeping his rhythm fast, then slow, around my clit as he coaxes the orgasm free from my body.

"Oh my God, so good!" I gasp as he starts upping his pace.

My eyes roll, my knees buckle, and when he gives it a little pinch, I scream out in pleasure, not caring who hears or sees. The feeling is all-encompassing, like I'm being thrown off a cliff, the air hitting my face fast as my body rushes for descent.

But as I hit the ground, I wake up. My eyes widen, and my breaths come in gasps.

I just did that. Again. In a club. In front of everyone.

There are people all around us, but they're not really paying attention. The owner probably watched me, though, ready to tell my father what a whore I am.

"I—I…" I pry myself out of his grasp and get ready to run.

He holds out the fingers he just used on me and runs them over my lips, forcing them into my mouth.

I suck on instinct, tasting myself as our eyes lock. My heart races, but something about this is exciting and hot.

His mouth tips up in approval as he slips his fingers out.

"I have to go. I…uh…" I tremble out and rush out of here like my ass is on fire.

Karen. I need Karen. I need to go home.

DEVLIN

I told myself that wouldn't happen again, but I've simply been lying to myself.

I wanted more. More of her. Her body, her taste on my tongue. I wanted to be the one to give her that again, something I know she's never felt before me.

But what's worse is that she thinks it was someone else who made her come.

I did that. Me!

Feck! She's gonna go on thinking some random arsehole made her pussy do that? Everything in me wants to tell her the truth. But I can't feckin' do that.

A growl rumbles out of me, hands fisting at my sides. Want to spank the holy hell out of that woman for letting me touch her like that again.

I watch as she returns to her dorm room, in regular clothes now—leggings and a hoodie—pretending to be a good girl, like she wasn't just at a club coming all over my hand.

As soon as she enters her building, I'm following her. Not sure what I plan to do, but I need to see her. Need to make sure she's okay after she rushed out so quickly.

She enters the elevator and rides up while I wait for the next one.

I get out on her floor, but she's already inside her room. Knocking once, I wait until she appears a few seconds later, like a vision straight from every dirty movie I've ever watched.

"Devlin?" she whispers. "What are you doing here?"

"May I come in?"

"Sure."

She moves out of the way, and I step inside.

"I just came to check on you." I decide on the truth. "You looked upset after coming back from Karen's."

She shrugs, but her chin wobbles in this adorable way that has me wanting to hold her close and make everything better.

Before I can stop myself, I wrap her in my arms. "I've got you, love."

She sniffles against my chest, and all I do is grip her closer until my heart just about gives out.

On my fingers, I can still smell her arousal, the way she gave me that. Or gave him that. This is hell, her thinking it was someone else.

I weave back and cup her face in both hands, searching her eyes for more. More of anything. I love her too damn much. Life isn't fair sometimes.

"I've just had a bad day." Her mouth thins, and her eyes fill with moisture. "Will you…"

"Ask me," I tell her.

Because in this moment, I'd give her anything.

"Will you stay with me? I just don't want to be alone right now." Her voice breaks, and I want to be the one to put it back together.

"Aye." I can't stop looking at her, and the more our gazes twine, the more our hearts do too.

My hand lowers until my fingers slip through hers, and she's pulling me onto her bed.

She climbs in first, and I remove my shoes and slip off my jacket before sliding in beside her. It's soft as I land on her pillow and smells just like her. My Eriu.

She faces me, and the back of my hand brushes down her cheek. Her lashes flutter and her lips part.

"Tell me what has you upset."

"Everything?" She laughs, but it's more like a cry. "I'm scared, Devlin. I'm really scared I'm gonna have to marry him, and I'm running out of time."

"I promise I'll figure it out."

The more she stares at me, the more I want to kiss her as I glance down at her soft, tempting lips.

"There"s no time left," she whispers. "Before I know it, I'm gonna be walking down the aisle toward that man, and I can't do it." She swipes under her eye. "I'll do anything to avoid it."

"Mm-hmm." I lose all sense being this close to her body, remembering how good she felt when I touched her sweet pussy.

Gently, I push away a loose strand of hair from her eyes. "It"s gonna be okay. I won't let anything happen to you."

"Devlin…" she whispers, her fingers reaching for my face, feathering over the stubble of my jaw.

I release a low groan, unable to contain it, not when she's touching me this way. She holds her breath; her awestruck look has my cock throbbing. Like a little deer stuck in headlights. Wanna feck it right out of her.

Before I can stop her, she lowers her mouth to my jaw and gives it a little kiss.

"Christ. What are you doing?" I grunt.

My hand clutches the back of her head, but I make no attempt to push her away. Instead, the devil in me fights to keep her. Her lips on me is like tasting the poisoned apple from a tree. Now I just want to sin and take everything she offers.

"This is wrong." My fingers sink into her hair. "We can't be doing this."

But I don't even sound like I mean it.

Her eyes search mine, brows hunched in frustration. "None of this feels wrong."

She swipes a thumb across my lips, and I give it a little nip, unable to control what's happening. She tries to lean into my mouth, but I take a fistful of her hair and jerk her back.

With a whimper, she palms my chest. "Stop fighting me, Devlin. Don"t you wonder what it would be like? For us to be together?"

"All the bloody time." The confession slips out easily.

Her eyes burst.

"Then why? Why won't you be with me?" she asks so vulnerably.

I ache to tell her none of it is her fault. It's all mine.

"Because you're far too good for someone like me, Eriu. You have no idea the kind of past I've had. The kind of things that could hurt you."

"Being a Quinn is already dangerous. What's a little more?" Her eyes grow sad.

My palm falls to her nape, and I bring her to me until her forehead meets mine, until her breaths become my own, until her mouth is all I crave to consume.

"You don't know how badly I want to kiss you right now."

"Then kiss me," she says. "Just this once. Because for as long as I live…" Her lips brush mine. "I will never love anyone the way I love you, so don't you dare refuse me right now."

Feck. I can't kiss her. If I do, it won't stop at that.

"Eriu…"

She registers the battle in my voice, and when she peers back, her face grows with anger. "Maybe I should ask my father for a different guard. Maybe this isn"t something that we can do anymore."

She fights back tears, and as soon as she tries to get out of the bed, my hand snaps around her wrist and I yank her soft body right on top of me.

"Mine," I growl, an unexplainable possession taking hold. "You're all mine, you hear me?"

She gasps, not understanding what the hell I'm doing. I've not got a clue either.

My fingers slide into her hair and my gaze bores into hers, devoured by her beauty, too consumed by it.

"Devlin…" She takes a shaky, shallow breath.

"Right here, love." I grab her jaw, my eyes lingering on her full mouth before I smash my lips to hers, kissing away the shock on her face, needing this like I need air.

I hold her face in both hands, kissing her with beating passion and fiery longing. I kiss her like the world is about to end and all we have is the two of us.

My tongue sinks inside and rolls with hers, taking everything.

Tasting her, I get so bloody lost, I don't know how to climb back out. My teeth bite and nibble her bottom lip, and the sounds she makes, so feminine and innocent, are tempting me to lose all my control.

My God, she makes me weak. I'm not used to that. But I wanna be.

I jerk my hips up, my cock stirring to life, growing hard and ready, but that can't happen. I can't just take her virginity.

I let myself taste her, make love to her mouth, and that's all I'll allow myself. She makes small little erotic sounds, and I flip her beneath me, rocking between her warm and willing thighs.

Before I can stop myself, I reach and yank her leggings down, lowering them around her upper thighs. This time, she's gonna know who's making her come.

She moans against my mouth, the sounds vibrating deliciously around my tongue. I pull back a drop to look at her and my soul comes undone.

"Please." Her begging has my cock jerking. "I need this with you. You don't know how badly after?—"

My eyes darken; I know what she wants to say. "After what?"

My hand edges up and fastens around her neck, the span of my large palm covering her delicate throat.

"After everything with…you know…everything?" She swallows nervously, her pulse slamming wildly against me.

"Hmm." I palm her pussy with my free hand. "Forgot your panties, baby girl?"

As I massage it, she groans. "Oh my God."

"You like walking around bare like that?" I nudge the column of her throat with my thumb.

"Yes…" she pants, her teeth snapping around her full bottom lip.

"You want my fingers right here? Want me to rub this clit and make this sweet pussy come?"

"Oh my God, is this really happening?" she pants with a tantalizing groan.

I chuckle, rubbing my thumb over that spot, and her back jerks completely off the bed.

"That's right, it is. You've been driving me mad. And I've been waiting too long for this to stop now."

My lips drop to her jaw and I kiss and suck along its path, leading to her throat, lowering my elbow onto the bed.

Her pulse hammers beneath my touch as I stroke her clit, making her sound so bloody good, I almost come too.

"That's it, scream for me. Let me hear what I do to you, mo stoirín."

She doesn't speak my tongue, doesn't know I just called her my little darling. But that's what she is to me.

The urge to sink my fingers inside her overtakes me, and instead of fighting it, I do. I push past her entrance until my first knuckle, not enough to take her virginity, but enough to feel her stretch for me.

"Oh God, Devlin! More! Please." Her fingernails dig into the muscle of my bicep, her eyes lost with mine.

My thumb circles around her clit while my fingers sink a little deeper, curling inside her.

"Shite, you're so tight. Can't even take my cock, now, can you?"

She nods. "I can. I'll learn to."

I chuckle.

"Can't believe I'm doing this," I hiss as her walls suck me in.

"Yes! Oh, God!" Her back arches. "I knew it would be this good. Just you. That's all I've ever wanted."

My hand returns to her throat, squeezing as her eyes fill with even more desire.

She's close. And I want her just like this when she comes. Palm wrapped around her throat, at my mercy. When I swipe my finger this time, she screams.

"Devlin! Yes! I'm…I'm?—"

The way she moans…I want to consume it.

"That's it. Good girl. Come for me."

I continue to work her, wanting every drop that belongs to me.

Her jerky movements and the ripples of her walls send me over the edge.

My cock throbs to be free, to feel her mouth and pussy around it. But this was about her. I don't want nothin' in return.

She's slick, soaking wet, and when I feel the sheets below her, I know she just made a mess.

"Think I just made you squirt, love." My mouth curls.

"Wh-what? Is that what I felt? Like a balloon that was about to pop?"

I let out a rumbling laugh as her chest climbs higher with every inhale, trying to catch up with her breaths. I slide over to her side and take her to my chest, kissing her forehead.

"That's right. How did it feel?"

She drops her chin to the top of her hand. "Amazing."

There goes that lip bite again, which is not helping the massive hard-on I'm carrying in these damn pants. I reach down there and, as politely as I can, I re-adjust myself.

She immediately notices and rises on her elbow.

"Do you want me to…" Her words are caught in her doe-eyed expression.

A smirk appears on my face. I want to see how far she will take this.

"Do I want your soft hands wrapped around me? Your pretty mouth sucking my cock?" I hum with a growl.

The tip of her tongue licks her lips like her throat has gone dry.

My little siren. She may not know the kind of power she has over me—not yet—but she's starting to suspect. I can see the glint in her irises.

Slowly, she reaches down, her hand hesitating to touch me there.

"Wanna feel how hard it is for you? How much I want to feck you rotten?" I grasp her jaw in a rough palm and stare deep into her eyes. "Wanna know how many nights I've lain awake just wondering what your pussy would feel like when I claimed it?"

Her face flushes, but she nods, those eyes widening with every word. And that pretty hand lies against my hard-on.

She squeezes a little, and I let out a deep-chested moan, putting my hand over hers, showing her how I want it. I grip and stroke with her hand beneath mine and let her take over.

"Too many nights, Eriu. I've wanted you since that first letter you wrote me. When you told me how much you saw me. I was afraid that I was seeing you too, and I was ashamed of it." My knuckles brush her cheek. "You were a Quinn and I was a McHale. Our worlds weren't the same. I was never anything special. But you always were. And even now, just to be with you this way, it's not right, but I couldn't refuse you anymore. I didn't have the strength."

"You are special, Devlin. Don't say that." Her dark brows pinch. "Does that mean…does that mean you'll marry me?"

"Eriu…"

She snaps her hand back. "No! Don't tell me you can't. God! Why? Just give me one reason why!"

I pinch my temple. "Even if our ages weren't enough, I've got people after me who wouldn't hesitate to kill you or our children just to get to me."

Her face goes white.

"That's right. I'm not a good man. I've done things, and there's no coming back from that. Not for me." I kiss her with a groan, my pulse racing. "So I'm doing what I can to protect you. But I swear I will get you out of that engagement. You won't marry him."

She falls backward on the bed beside me and stares at the ceiling, sighing with exasperation.

"Can you spend the night?" Her body turns to me and her eyes are sad again, causing my heart to break. "Just to sleep?"

I curl my arm around her back and pull her to my chest. Her cheek rests against my ravaging heartbeat. "I'm not going anywhere. I'll be right here when you wake up, I promise."

With that, she settles, her body sagging against me. I lift her thigh and let it rest on top of me, ignoring my still-pulsating hard-on.

But I want every inch of her body on me. I want this moment to last as long as possible. Because tomorrow, we'll wake up, all of this will be forgotten, and we'll go back to how things used to be.