Burn (Virtues & Lies 1)

Her panting breaths coat my lips and my jaw and as she shimmies closer her crotch rubs my already semi-hardened cock.

Dear fucking God.

My hands instinctively cup her rounded arse and squeeze, earning me a low, growly moan from her.

“We have an audience.” I murmur in between soft bites of her lips.

“We always have an audience.” She acknowledges, as she reaches back and presses the button to close the roof. Tucking her face into my neck as she ducks the soft top, her tongue sweeps up the sensitive skin behind my ear. My dick jerks in the tight confines of my jeans as her teeth sink into my flesh.

“Cass…”

“Leo,” she whispers into my ear. “If I beg, if I go on my hands and knees, will you want me?”

“I do want you. I want your smiles and your tears. There’s nothing more certain than my want of you. Like this, naked, and in every possible way.”

“You could’ve fooled me.”

I stroke her faint smile with my thumbs and take her in as she looks down on me. I hate that smile. It reminds me that she still carries around so much sadness on her. The way she sometimes zones out and tears glisten in her eyes, she says that it’s the memories. Memories of her grandfather that she never thought would be just that—memories.

“Stop looking at me like that,” she demands.

“Like what?” Pulling her as close as I can, my heart stutters like it’s trying to fit an extra beat in its erratic rhythm.

“Like you’re the glue that’s going to put me back together.”

She’s wrong, I’m not going to be the one that fixes her. I can’t even fix myself. I also know that she doesn’t want to be saved like a weak princess locked in a tower waiting for her prince to steal the limelight. No, she wants someone that will stand by her side and hand her the weapon she’ll use to save herself.

It’s frustrating that she forgets this about herself but reminding her is going to be the best thing I ever do.

“Are you going to fix me, Leo?”

“Little Girl, I’m not the glue. I’m the dark sky. I’ll swallow you whole.”

Her hands slide up my chest at the same time as her eyes glass over with restrained tears. I’m about to kiss her when one rolls do

wn her left cheek, and another chases it on the right one. Before I get to catch them with my tongue, she’s crushing her lips to mine, hard and hungry.

Licking into my mouth with urgency, she moans, like she can taste my own need. It’s rough and coated in all the things that make her—sweetness, innocence, power, and fire.

I want her so much that it staggers me. I know that in the end she’ll burn me, but in this moment, I am Icarus and she is my sun. My love of her draws me closer, and it might be my undoing, but fuck it if I care right now, because what’s the point of playing with fire if you don’t get burned a little?

Pulling away with a scrape of her teeth on my lips, she catches her breath as she looks down at me. “What are you waiting for?”

“For you to feed the tigers!”

“God, you’re an arsehole!” she growls, slapping my chest as she opens my door.

She gets out and stands waiting with her hands on her hips as I readjust myself. Toby manages to scramble from the backseat and over my lap. He’s at her side before I can grab his collar.

He sits at her feet like she’s his mistress. His and mine. Getting out, I clip his lead onto his collar before Wayne takes him.

“As far as arseholes go, I’m the sweetest you’ll ever know.” Wrapping my arm around her shoulders, I pull her into my side.

“Turns out I know a lot of them.” Cassie smarts back and I can’t contain the big as fuck grin that tears my face to the point my cheeks hurt.

And I promise myself that I’m going to do everything I can to deserve her.

Chapter 23