Because I Can (Necklace Trilogy 2)

Urgency roars between us, hot with demand and need.

Dash scoops my backside with powerful hands and lifts me. My legs instinctively wrap around his waist. He shifts me into the corner, anchors me, and then he’s driving into me. Over and over, sensations explode through me. In between his powerful thrusts, his mouth is on my mouth, his tongue against my tongue. Every emotion, good and bad, that this night has created, I feel in his touch, his kiss, the pump of our bodies. The build of pleasure is sharp and fierce and I try to push it back, to hold back, to make this last, but Dash is so incredibly hard, his face contorted in wicked passion, his muscles flexing with such beauty, and I just can’t. I shatter, my sex clenching around him, and Dash groans with the impact. He pumps against my spams, and throws his head back, quaking with his own release.

When it’s over, we’re back to burying the storm in the silence. We shower together, soaping each other, touching each other, but we don’t speak. When the water runs cold and Dash turns it off, we end up in bed, in the dark, holding each other. I shut my eyes reminding myself that no matter how good this bed that is my bed with Dash feels, there will be a last night. And it won’t be that far away. I cannot lose perspective or I’ll be the one who ends up badly beaten, only my pain will be emotional, not physical.

CHAPTER SIX

I wake to rain pitter-pattering on the window pane, laying on my side, with Dash wrapped around me from behind. I have about thirty seconds to appreciate this cozy moment before I realize that the doorbell is ringing. “Dash?” I murmur. “Dash, the doorbell—”

“Ignore it.”

The prior night comes crashing back and I’m instantly thinking of Allison, Tyler, the police, and more. “What if it’s important?”

“It’s my sister, Allie. I’m not talking to her this morning.”

His cellphone starts ringing on the nightstand. He doesn’t move. And I can’t move because he’s holding onto me. Which isn’t going to work. I know he knows it’s not going to work.

“I don’t know Bella well yet, Dash, but I know her well enough to know she’s not going to go away.”

His cellphone goes silent and starts to ring again almost instantly. He curses and rolls away from me, planting himself on his back, his arms to his side. I shift to face him and gasp at the sight of his swollen eye. “Oh my God, Dash. Your eye. It’s so bad.”

“Which is why I can’t see my sister right now.”

“Right,” I say, realization and understanding overtaking me. I shift to my knees, one of Dash’s T-shirts covering my body, my mind kicking into problem-solving mode. “Okay. Let’s think this through. She’s here so we can’t leave her outside the door. I can go and talk to her.”

He sits up. “And tell her what? She’ll come up here to see me, Allie. And she’ll freak the fuck out.”

His phone is ringing again. Mine will be next. I know this. He has to know this, too, and my mind races with a way to get us out of this. “Did you have a breakfast date with her today?”

“No, but she randomly stops in.”

“We could tell her we’re at my parent’s place and your phone was in the car and now my mother won’t stop talking. You could text her.”

His jaw flexes. “I hate lying to her and she’ll just come by later.” He glances at me, and I can barely see his eye. “And this is going to take at least ten days to heal.”

“Then we take this head-on. You were with me last night. Tell her you got in a fight, which is not a lie. Outside the bar, which technically is also true as well. You weren’t in the bar. And she won’t believe you were at the underground ring when you were with me.”

“She’ll know, Allie. She knows enough to read between the lines and it won’t be okay to her.”

“You have me by your side on this, Dash.” His phone is ringing again. “Tell her to come in. We’ll be down in ten minutes.”

His lips press together but he grabs his phone and answers with, “Can’t a man sleep late?” Obviously, she says something in reply as he answers with, “Yeah, well, I’m feeling like shit. Let yourself in. We’ll be down in a minute.” He disconnects and looks at me. “I was going to have to deal with this with her, but leave it to my sister to make me do it now.” He throws away the blanket and stands up. “And without a damn shower. I’m going to brush my teeth and wash my face.”