Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 129986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
“No.”
I look over at him. “You swear?”
“I would never hurt you, Aubrey.”
“You have hurt me, Dare.”
“Fine, I would never fucking kill you,” he says, irritated with me for even suggesting it.
Up until now, he has respected my request that he not touch me, but apparently, that question pushed him past his limit.
He reaches over and grabs me around the waist, pulling me tightly against his hard body. Leaning close, he rumbles in my ear, “I fucking love you, Aubrey. Don’t you get that by now? I would kill for you, but I would never hurt a hair on your goddamn head. I have ruined fucking lives to hold onto you, and I’d ruin more. The last thing I want is to lose you.”
It’s a little sick to feel so reassured by that, but maybe that’s what loving him has made me: a little sick.
I turn in his arms so I can look up at him. He cups my face, and even though it’s tender from the bruises he left there last night, it feels so good.
“I’m sorry,” he says soothingly, leaning in to kiss my lips. “I’m sorry for all the shit I’ve put you through. I’m sorry for even giving you a reason to ask me questions like this, but I fucking love you. I need to know that you know that.”
I close my eyes and sigh, lost for a moment in the reassuring strength of his grip as he pulls me close and kisses me. He kisses the side of my mouth and my face. He kisses my jaw around his hand, but he never lets go, never eases up.
“You’re mine. You’re fucking mine. It’s forever, and I won’t let anyone get in the way of that.”
Finally, he claims my lips. He pushes me back on the bed, moving on top of me. I want to tell him no, not tonight, but then his hand slides up under my shirt and his tongue sweeps into my mouth. I can’t speak, can’t breathe air that isn’t his, too.
To be loved so hard, so aggressively… it’s frightening, but intoxicating, too.
I don’t ask him to stop when he shoves his hand down the front of my ugly sleep shorts. I gasp against his lips as he teases my clit, stoking my pleasure until it’s at fever pitch. I cry out and he covers my mouth with his, catching my cries and feeding on them as I come apart in his arms.
As my heart pounds in the aftermath, Dare wraps his arms around me and pulls me back into his relentless embrace.
“I love you,” he whispers.
“I know,” I whisper back.
Chapter forty-three
Aubrey
When I wake up the next morning, my bedroom is bright, my legs are spread, and my boyfriend’s face is buried between my thighs.
The sensation of his tongue on my clit sends a shiver of awareness straight through me and I moan softly, twisting my hips away from his beautiful head.
He pulls his mouth off my pussy to look up at me. “Good morning.”
I stretch, twisting my body and bowing my back a bit. “Bold to wake me up with sex when we literally just had a chat about you casually raping me last night.”
“What can I say? I’m a bold guy.” He kisses my tummy, then looks up at me. “And you said I couldn’t drug you. You didn’t say I couldn’t wake you up for breakfast.”
“Ugh.” I grab the pillow he slept on and throw it at him.
“A man needs to eat,” he murmurs shamelessly, spreading my thighs again and latching onto my pussy.
He’s doing good work, so I thread my fingers through his hair and close my eyes, enjoying this pocket of pleasure before we have to get back to the horrendous real world we’re currently living in.
When he’s done eating me out, and I’m lying in a sated, twisted, heavy-breathing heap, Dare pulls me into his chest and rests his chin atop my head.
“I have to go see my lawyer again this afternoon.”
I frown a bit, nuzzling against him. “Okay,” I murmur.
His grip on me tightens just a bit. “I need to know what you’re doing so I can talk to him about it.”
I’m still heavily fogged from that orgasm, but the realization sneaks through that this is perhaps the most twisted moment of our relationship. He’s holding me, my heart still pounding from the orgasm he just gave me, asking if I’m going to impose legal consequences for the rape he definitely perpetrated against me.
I’m too distracted by the unsettling glimpse of reality to answer right away. He must take my silence as indecision because he starts talking again.
“I get it if you’re not sure, but I want to make it very clear that in my mind, you and I are not on opposite sides. We are on the same team. I talked to Hayden about all this yesterday, and in the interest of shielding you from even more bullshit, he honestly believes it’s in your best interest not to pursue it.”