Chapter 23 Ihaven't been in my cave all this time, but I have been hiding out. There are certain people who come into your life and never leave. And I don't mean that physically because people come and go. But the imprint of themselves they leave behind on your soul can never be washed away no matter how many times you attempt to scrub them out. That's Liora for me. I realized it the day I nearly committed manslaughter in her name. I was willing to kill for her, but the way my blood hummed with violent rage to break the man who had dared to touch my girl told me this was different than anything else. That she's different from anyone else. Then when I took care of Hazel and the way Liora kissed me and smiled at me, I knew I was a goner. That coming back from her a second time was impossible, especially when I wasn't so sure I'd ever fully come back from her the first time. I stayed away. I kept my distance. I dug more into things that aren't giving me the answers I'm after. Tonight as I tossed and turned in Stone's guest room, unable to get Liora out of my mind, I knew the only place I wanted to be was home because that's where she was. It drove me crazy. The way I'm addicted to her, already so gone. I was still going to keep my distance. I really only wanted a glimpse, maybe a smile or a sharp word. Then I found her stripping out of her shirt, wearing nothing beneath it, before she put on mine. Now there's no turning back. Maybe there never was. Maybe from the moment I saw her again, it was all over for me. Inevitable. With deft fingers, I use one of my stupid ties I only wear when forced around her wrists, testing their pull against the wood headboard and her circulation. I can feel her eyes on me, but she's not stopping me. She's curious and turned on, and she trusts me. I know she does. She wouldn't live in my house with her child if she didn't. I sit back on my haunches, taking in the sight before me. Fucking hell. "Spread your legs," I whisper. "Do it, Liora. I want to see you. All of you. I want to see how wet I just made your cunt." A flush creeps up her face, and it almost makes me smile. She's not shy. She's spread her legs for me before, but this is different, and we both know it. She's nervous, and she should be. On a shaky breath, she slides her feet wide until she's almost spread-eagle. I shift in between them, taking her in from this new angle while I reach behind my head to pull off my wet shirt. I leave my jeans on for now. Her pussy is pink and swollen and glistening, and her smooth belly leads up to her full tits and bound wrists above her head. She's at my mercy now. "Perfect," I murmur, staring at her, unable to stop myself from gliding along every inch. "God, baby, you really are perfect. Everything about you was always meant to be mine." Before she can say anything in return, I grab her beneath her thighs and lift her pussy straight to my mouth. I lick a ring around her clit before I thrust my tongue in deep, needing to taste her. And like every time with her, she doesn't disappoint. She is as perfect as I just said. I groan, unable to hold it back. She makes a high-pitched keening noise, and I hear her pulling against the tie. Probably because I'm not being gentle. Her pleasure is my ultimate game, the thing that gets me off the most if we're being honest. But I like controlling it. I like owning it. I like using it and playing with it in ways she never imagined it could go. I suck on her pussy, creating a wave-like motion with my mouth, and her legs fly up and clamp around my head. Hmm. I pull back and reassess. Liora isn't all that tall, and even though I'd enjoy it, I don't think she's ready for rope. Shame. Flattening my palms on her inner thighs so I can hold her open, I go back in, eating her sweet cunt with abandon. I lick and ring and flick at her clit, keeping one hand in place and using my right hand to fuck three fingers into her. She's so tight and dripping everywhere and already so close it drives me fucking wild. Just before she reaches her climax, I draw back, lightening the pressure and pulling my fingers away from her front wall. "Ah! Why'd you stop? I was there." I grin against her pussy. "I know. That's why I stopped." Because part of me wants to punish her. Just a little. Just enough for making me this way. She starts to protest, calling me an asshole and a few other choice words that have me smiling. I blow cool air on her clit, and she jerks back, her back arching, her pussy already growing sensitive. With the tip of my tongue, I roll her clit, using the pad of my finger with it. I go slow, savoring her moans as I build her back up. It doesn't take long until she's a writhing, begging mess, and even though I'd like nothing more than to edge her all night, I slide my fingers back into her and fuck her while I suck and lick her clit. "Tell me how badly you need it," I growl, increasing the pace of my fingers and using my lips to play with her clit so I can watch her face. Her eyes are closed, and she's biting her lip, but she's lost to it. "So bad. Please. I'm right there. Fuck," she cries before it grows to a scream as I fuck her front wall and eat her pussy until she starts to come. "Ah. Oh my god. Oh my god!" She's thrashing and yanking at the tie while her legs crush me, equally trying to hold me in and push me back. The moment she's done, I sit back and gaze down at her as I run my finger in a tight circle on her clit. Her pupils are blown out and her tits are as flushed as her cheeks. God, I fucking love how responsive she is. "I plan to fuck you harder than I just did. Should I gag you?" Her eyes round. "Gag me?" "I don't want you to wake up Hazel." Her head tilts against the pillow. "You're worried about waking my daughter?" I smirk at her dumbfounded expression. "Aren't you?" "Yes. But..." She shakes her head and wheezes out a half-laugh. "Wow. I was joking." Her eyes hold mine, searching. "But you're not. You're serious. You'd gag me. Wow," she repeats. "We're not in Kansas anymore, are we?" I don't reply because there's nothing to say. It was rhetorical anyway. She can see that a lot about me has changed in the last ten years. I have a whole drawer of stuff in my closet I'd like to use on her. "You know what? I'll behave. No gag needed this time." "Good. I like hearing you." I drop my weight onto her and kiss her, framing her face in my hands. She can taste herself on me, and she moans and then groans as she yanks at the tie, frustrated that she can't use her hands. Smiling against her lips, I lick the seam of them before I travel down her neck to her tits. I take one tight nipple into my mouth and suck on it while I use my other hand to cup and lift her breast. I can't get enough of the way her skin tastes, and I suck harder on her tits, creating marks I want to see as I fuck her. My jeans are still a little damp from the weather, and they take me a minute to work off. I don't mind it, though. It allows me to lick and taste and touch as much of her as I can. Listening to her sounds and noting the way she moves as I do. Finally I get my jeans and boxer briefs off, and then I'm back above her, hovering by her entrance. Sᴇaʀch Thᴇ ƒind ηøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. "Are you ready for me, pretty girl?" "Condom?" she asks, and I shake my head. I don't want one with her. Maybe that's stupid and wrong of me, but I have to feel her without anything between us. "You don't need one from me, and I want to feel you and nothing else. Do I need one for you?" "Um. Well, no. Technically you don't." She studies me. "This is just sex, right? Just getting each other out of our systems?" My eyes are right above hers. "When has anything between us ever been just? We've never just had sex, and there's no just getting each other out of our systems. And I think we both know it." With that, I thrust into her and nearly blow my fucking load right here and now because fuuuuck, does this woman feel good. And fuck, is she tight. I've never gone without a condom before, not even when we were kids together, and feeling Liora like this is so much more than I ever expected. I stay still for a moment, savoring the connection, the rightness of it despite everything. "Holy shit." Her eyes pinch shut, and I hold myself still as her hands grip the headboard. "What is that? Why does it feel like that?" "Good or bad?" "Good. Amazing. But..." I grin and pump up into her, rocking my hips forward and backward and bringing one of her knees up to my shoulders so she can really feel all of me. "I have a reverse Prince Albert, a frenulum piercing, and two more Jacob's ladder piercings beneath it. That's what you're feeling." "Can I see them?" "Not yet. First you're going to feel them." With one knee on my shoulder and the other at my waist, I push up into her all the way to the hilt. My spine tingles with pleasure as she whispers my name, followed by one word. "More." "I'm going to fuck you until you can't remember your name," I promise, my voice low and rough. "Until all you can think about is my cock inside you. Is that what you want, Angel? Is that what you've been missing?" She nods, her breath coming in short gasps. "Say it," I demand, rocking into her without really fucking her the way she needs. "Tell me that's what you want." "I want you to fuck me," she says, her voice breaking with need. "Hard. Please, Vander." I pull almost all the way out and push back in with one slow, deliberate stroke that buries me completely. We groan at the sensation, her tight, wet heat enveloping me, the fullness stretching her. "You feel so good," I whisper, almost reverently. "So fucking good." I begin to move, setting a rhythm that's neither gentle nor punishing. At least not yet. Her legs tighten at my back and hip, pulling me deeper with each thrust. I watch her face, the way her lips part, and her eyes flutter closed, only to open again and lock with mine. The connection feels almost unbearable in its intensity. "Harder," she urges, her nails digging into her palms above the bonds. "I won't break." Something snaps inside me at her words. The restraint I've been clinging to, the ways I've been holding myself back, incinerate. I give in to the raw need that's been building since she first tumbled back into my life. I grasp her hips, pull them up and off the bed, and drive deeper into her. Giving it to her a hell of a lot harder, just as she asked for. "Is this what you want?" I growl, watching her tits bounce with each thrust, my hips slamming in and out of her. "To be fucked like this? To be mine again?" "God yes," she moans, meeting each thrust with an arch of her hips, moving as best she can despite the restraints. Only I'm the one in control. I have the power with this. I squeeze her ass, holding her body tighter as I piston wildly, ramming my cock repeatedly into her. I reach between us, my thumb finding her clit so I can circle in time with my thrusts. Her breathing changes, becoming more erratic, and I can feel her getting closer, her inner muscles tightening around me. Sweat clings to my brow as I pump in and out of her at a rough, hard pace that has us both breathless. I smack her tits and pinch her nipple, only to bend and cover it with my mouth. Her tits are so fucking amazing, and just like the rest of her, they're mine now. Not for anyone else to ever see or experience again. I press her down into the mattress, using my knees for leverage as I fuck up into her, holding her without giving her any room to move. All she can do is take what I choose to give her. "Do you like that? Do you want me to make you come?" Her eyes pinch closed as she gives a shaky nod. "Yes. Please, I need it." I bite her nipple and slip my hand between us to find her clit again, working it hard and fast as I fuck her. Her thighs quiver against me, her pussy growing tighter by the second. I'm so goddamn close, I'm barely hanging on. Her cunt. Her body. Her face. Her. "Who owns you, Liora? Who do you belong to?" "Ah. Vander. No." "Yes, baby. Yes. Don't lie to yourself, and don't lie to me." She pinches her eyes closed and shakes her head. But it's there. She feels it too. I grin and suck on her bottom lip, pushing hard on her clit and fucking her with everything I have. "That's right, baby. Just mine. Just for my pleasure. That's it," I encourage, my own release building at the base of my spine. "Show me how dirty my girl fucking likes it." She cries out, her body tensing beneath me as waves of pleasure wash over her. I keep moving, working her through it, watching the bliss transform her face into something almost painful in its beauty. It's so much she almost can't stand it, and the pressure on her clit and the way I'm fucking her doesn't let up. "No. Ah, stop." "You don't mean that." I continue to take her like this, knowing I can get her to another orgasm. Her face pinches up, and she's struggling to catch her breath. "It's too much. I can't move. Can't control it." "I've got you. Feel how I own every part of you and control your pleasure. Submit to it, Liora. I've got you." I roll her clit, lightening some of the intense pressure I was pushing on it, and adjust her so that both her legs are on my shoulders. Climbing up onto my knees, I bring her with me, suspending her in the air. With my other hand on her hip, I piston in and out of her, not slowing or letting up on this. I need to come. I need to come so fucking badly, and I'm right there. Hell, I've been right there since I first thrust into her. But I won't until she gives me another orgasm. I drive into her, rubbing her faster, and on a screeching cry that has me covering her mouth with mine to stifle it, she comes, harder and hotter and wetter than the last time. She fucking gushes all over me, and it sets off my own release. I come inside of her, sucking on her lip and groaning and grunting into her mouth. She whispers encouragements, filthy promises of what she wants me to do to her next time. It's those words-next time-that have me wrapping myself around her and holding on tight as the last of my aftershocks ripple through me. I collapse, taking her with me, and for several moments, I can't move or think beyond the pulsing pleasure still echoing through my body. Eventually, I shift my weight to avoid crushing her and reach up to untie her wrists. The silk has left faint red marks on her skin, and I bring each wrist to my lips, kissing the tender spots and rubbing the ache out of them. "You okay?" I ask, suddenly concerned that I was too rough. She smiles, a lazy, satisfied curl of her lips. "I'm good." I pull her into my arms, her back to my chest, and our legs tangle together. The sweat cools on our skin, and when I notice goose bumps on her arms, I pull the blanket over us. I have no clue what I'm doing, but I'm unable to stop as I press kisses to her shoulder, neck, and the back of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair, loving how she still uses my shampoo. We lie here breathing together, the weight of our history and a million spoken and unspoken words suspended between us. I don't know what to say. What I should offer her and what I shouldn't. Hell, I don't even know what I want other than her. Her fingers trace patterns on my arm, and I tense. She hasn't seen my tattoo yet. How will she react when she does? What will I tell her about it? Too soon, she pulls away and sits up, keeping her back to me. "I should go back upstairs. Hazel might wake up." "Right," I say, reluctantly loosening the last of my hold on her. We've crossed a line we can't uncross. The taste of her is still on my tongue, the feel of her still imprinted on my skin. My bed smells like her, like us together, and I already know I'll be haunted by it when I try to sleep. I sit up, running a hand through my hair, uncertainty spiraling through me. My entire life has been upended. The careful walls I've artfully constructed, she's breached. The truth is, I'm still in love with her. I never stopped. But I'm not sure how to reconcile how I feel about her with what my life is. With what her life is. She turns and kisses me once more, soft and sweet, but brief and a little detached, before she slips from the bed. I watch her gather my shirt and slip it back on. She looks rumpled and thoroughly fucked, and something possessive stirs in my chest at the sight. I don't want her to go back upstairs. I want her to sleep in here beside me. That feeling quickly turns on me as she throws me a fleeting glance and walks out of my room. I fall back and press my fists into my eyes. For better or worse, Liora is under my skin. She's in my blood. She's my girl. The one I let get away and the one I'm positive I'll never get over. Yet she's not even close to being there with me. Now that I've had this with her, how am I supposed to let her go?