Harkham's Corner (Harkham's Series Book 3) (13 page)

She pushed him back down, her hands braced on his chest again, and she rubbed her folds along his length.

It was nice.

“I don’t want nice tonight. I want bitey. I want pulling. I want you—in my eyesight, begging for me to keep going, begging for me to stop, but always begging because you love me.” His voice was gravelly, and he sounded like someone else entirely, but he didn’t care.

She wasn’t going to fuck him. That was his job. He was a
man
.

He tossed her off him and pinned her down. “Please . . . I know this isn’t nice, but I can’t do nice right now. I’m buried in secrets and burning for you. They hurt me, and that’s not nice. Can I do this?”

She grinned and dipped her chin down so she was staring at his erection between them, ready to go. “Are you asking if you can take advantage of me?”

He nodded, his heart lodged in his throat and in his ears, because all he was hearing now was how it was pounding furiously for her.

“Yes, please—I’ll kill someone if that’s what it takes.”

He swallowed before he spoke. “Wait a minute . . .”

She laughed.

“You didn’t really want to take charge, did you?”

She shook her head and kept laughing.

“You did that because you knew it would trigger me into action. You sneaky woman.”

“Please—don’t be nice, honey. Just fuck me hard. Like you do when something’s eating you up inside. Eat me until it goes away.” She spread her legs under him.

“Later. I can’t eat right now. Nice people can do that when they’re not bothered. I need to have your words in my face where I can hear them.” He lunged forward, trapping her head with his hands, his dick powering inside her. She gasped. “Do you understand what I need?”

“Adam,” she gasped. “Yes, I . . . I do. I want this, too. So much.” She wetted her top lip.

“Good. Then I know you’re able to be nice when I can’t be. I love that.” He stayed there, his muscles flexing, his cock aching, his head exploding with random words, numbers, musical notes—but above it all was the sound of her harsh breathing and the whimpers she released as he kept her there.

“Please, sweetie—you
are
nice. Soooo good.” Her innocent eyes held him.

She wasn’t really innocent—he knew that, but right now she was his victim, and she was allowing him to do as he pleased.

Raw power ran through him like a current through a cord, only it sat in wait at the tip of his dick.

A moment later, his legs couldn’t take it anymore. They moved, rocked, pulsed, but his cock didn’t. It only reached a little more, hitting her soft insides, gripping him.

“I’m not nice, and I don’t want to be nice. Nice people get hurt. Today this woman tried to hurt me. Mrs. Fahey.” He jammed himself in her as he said that vile woman’s name. There really wasn’t any further he could go, not really, but he found a way, using his arms wrapped around her head for leverage.

She kissed his forearms. “Oh, sweetie, I’m so sorry. She’s not a very good person to be stressing you out like this, but I’ve got you. I’m here for you. Anytime she comes around at work, you can call me. You know that.” Her soft voice and swelling lips kissed some more.

He got lost in the feel of her.

Her legs brushed up against his hips gently.

“I want her—unnnngh!”
Press
. “To go.”
Press
. “Away!” He nudged her legs apart as far as they could go with his own and pressed and pressed and pressed with little harsh jabs of his dick inside her. They were small, but they were fierce and almost pushed parts of his balls inside, too—that’s how deep he was getting inside her.

She stroked his jaw with the backs of her hands, caressed down his neck and gave him a look of total devotion. “She makes you feel dirty, doesn’t she? Like you did something wrong, but she’s the one trying to cheat, not you. Tell me what you said to her.”

He shook his head and looked away, keeping up his grotesque manic pace.

She only softened all the more under his assault, her touch going even more velvet and tender.

“She’s not what a man like you could ever want. You’re a man that’s decent. You’re a man that saves people because you care. She doesn’t care if she’s hurting you, so that makes it even worse.” She sat her torso up like he had earlier when he was trapped under her. Well, sort of trapped. She could never really do that to him, because he was a man. “I know.” She brushed her cheek against his, and her nose across his ear and whispered once more, “I know. Let it go. You’re home now—
safe
. I
know
.”

Oh God! His body shook, starting at his chest. Was he crying? Was that okay?

He was showing her he was a man right now by being inside her, but he was crying at the same time.

Wetness rolled down his cheeks.

“You do?” His sobbing voice gave it away if the moisture hadn’t already.

“Yes, love. I know—it’s why your father, Thomas, makes you so crazy, too. You can’t understand someone like that.”

He was about to come, but that seemed even meaner than those people she was talking about. He hadn’t touched her softly, told her he loved her or even made her feel good.

He bit her. He dug his hands in and battered his ram into her like she was the thing he wanted to break apart and steal away.

She was, but still . . .

“I love you—I love you so much. Can’t you see how much I need you all the time? And sometimes when I’m away from you, I can’t have you, and it makes me so angry that if another woman acts like that to me, I just want to shove her out of my face for not being you. And she. Is. Not. You!” He huffed hard.

This time instead of bruising her insides with his cock with wounded, hurting sex, he slowed down, gentled his mind, heart and cock. It all came flooding out of him the second she placed her hand over his heart.

This was why he couldn’t take it sometimes.

She was the reason his heart worked as well as it did.

“Jesus—I love you, Mari,” he choked out as he came completely undone.

And oh my God, she was coming, too. Crying right alongside him, creaming his cock and thighs, and sweaty and smiling and kissing him.

“You
do
understand.” He sighed and flopped down on top of her, but avoiding hitting her sore breasts in the process.

“Yes, I do. I understand you. I just think of what’s the opposite of me, and I come up with how you think about things. Works every time.”

He growled. “Don’t you ever say that. The only way we’re opposite is that I’m a man and you’re a woman. That’s it. And I like that you’re soft where I’m hard. And I like that you say the right things that make me think numbers are boring compared to you. I like most of all that you’re the kindest person I know, but you hide it because you don’t want to take credit for it. That’s all I need in this world.” He kissed over the marks he’d put in her temporarily, then he rubbed with small circles to ease any ache that might be there.

She circled her arms around him. “If you say so.”

“I do.”

“Okay.” She exhaled, and her chest swelled under him.

“And my other secret is my dad’s dying, and I don’t care. Thomas is a monster, not a good man, and I could probably save him, but I don’t think I want to.”

She made no move, not a sound, and he knew . . .

She wanted to run. Run from
him
.

Chapter 7

Adam’s leg jerked in bed, and he tossed over onto his side. He fell asleep quickly and breathed deep, his dream taking hold of him nearly right away.

“Where is my stupid lab coat?” Adam mumbled several foul words as he ransacked the closet at work. That was all he could recall. Yes, somehow his coat was missing. “I need that thing.”

He hated that this one he was wearing was kind of tight and the pockets smaller. It was a loaner for a reason. No one wanted this crap jacket.

He stomped his foot, dropped his head back and counted the dots on the ceiling tiles.

No one liked counting dots. Not even him, but this was absurd. No one had seen his white coat.

He pulled his phone out of his jacket and called the one person that could make him feel better.

“What up, bro?”

Adam fought off a grin, but barely. “I still can’t find my lab coat.”

“So what? I’ll buy you one if you’ll quit pissing about it like a bitch out of tampons.” Zach snorted.

“What does menstrual bleeding have to do with this?” Adam scratched his neck and kept counting.

“It means you’re being a cheap-ass pussy, is what it means. Hell, I can’t afford to buy it, but it’s worth skipping out on beer if it means you’ll quit complaining about it.” Zach chuckled.

Adam could hear Jill in the background, laughing at something.

“How are things besides missing your high heels and matching pearl earrings that go with said missing coat?”

Adam’s head dropped down. Someone waved to him through the glass windows of the office he was in.

“Fine, fine.”

“Oh man . . . I know what this means.” Zach’s voice was taunting.

“What? I haven’t said anything.” Adam took a seat in his dad’s chair.

Zach blew out. “You knocked her up again, didn’t you?”

“
Wha
t? Why would you think that?” Adam slumped over on the desk.

“Because the only time you get this worked up over little things is because you know she’s gonna be pregnant, and it’s your fault for being a pervy dick.”

Adam banged his forehead on the desk a few times. “She might be, but that’s not why . . .”

“Then what the fuck, man? I told you to start beating off more and come game with me online. It’s how we dudes relax when we’re stressed out. Or at least that’s how we dudes do it when there’s no beer around.”

“I don’t drink beer. It’s disgusting.” Adam wrinkled his nose, and his tongue poked out.

Zach laughed. “I know—you have no room for it. Too much soda.”

“I
like
soda.” Adam’s throat closed up at the mere thought of it. He wanted one right now.

“I know you do. The whole freaking world knows how you feel about it.” He heard a smacking noise coming from his brother. “That’s how I started getting this small gut of mine. I keep coming over for Friday pizza night, and you toss me a soda without asking.”

Adam grunted. “You’re not required to drink it.” He sat up. “Jesus, Zach, it’s not like I force you to eat our food or drink our pop. I can’t—”

“Stop being so sensitive. I was only messing around. Well, about being forced. I like soda, too, but I’ve seriously gained like twenty pounds because of all that shit you have at your house. Lorraine never buys junk food, so I get it at your place.”

Adam closed his eyes. “Seriously? You’re blaming your lack of self-control on
me
? I can’t believe this.” He picked up a pen and tapped it on his chin. “I’m gonna start charging you—that’s what I’m gonna do.”

“Uh, yeah . . . About that . . .”

What just happened? Something flipped on Adam—Zach suddenly sounded so somber, and he rarely sounded that way unless something really bad had happened.

“What’s wrong? Are you ill?” Adam stood up and paced right away.

“No, no. Sit your ass down. I can already hear your feet scuffing up the carpet.”

Adam sucked in a tight wash of air. “You can’t scuff carpet. That’s virtually impossible.”

“You’d find a way. I know you would.”

Adam started to argue, but he couldn’t because out of nowhere, Zach was crying.

“What’s happening? Home invasion? Did you run over your neighbor’s dog?” Adam’s head ran through all the possible scenarios. “Oh my God! Is Lorraine pregnant?”

“Yes, but it’s not mine. She left me . . . She’s
gone
.”

“Wh-what? But why? You were happy together.”

Zach was silent.

“Say something!” Adam shook in his spot. “Tell me you’re breathing, at least!”

“Yeah, I just . . . Jill doesn’t know, so I’m in the other room now. She walked past my closed bedroom door. I don’t know what happened to us—but both Lorraine and I did some stupid shit, and a lot of it’s probably pretty close to unforgivable.”

“Christ, this is bad. This is worse than bad. She’s a killer woman, out to hurt you being a man. Can I buy you a soda?”

Zach laughed, but it was tight sounding. Maybe he was wearing Adam’s lab coat? It wouldn’t fit Zach.

He shook his head. Nonsense. Zach wouldn’t.

Well, not right now anyway . . .

Another day he might.

“A soda’s not going to help, but I don’t know if I can afford to live here now. She was paying half our bills. We bought this big place to make her happy. You know her standard of living is more than I ever wanted.”

Adam shrugged, even if nobody saw. “Yeah, I know. I always thought she was being sorta mean to force you into buying it. She was kind of a bully sometimes.”