Blaze (Virtues & Lies 3)

She’s going out of her way to be sweet, and I’m not sure why. I like that she’s sarcastic and spunky. This whole nice business is creeping me the fuck out.

“It’s big enough that it pokes out of the water,” she tells me when I pause in the doorway.

My eyes glance down her body to her belly, and then they wander back up to her breasts. And fuck, she looks so fucking good that I have to swallow down the urge to rip her out of the bath and take her back to bed.

“What happened to the bubbles?”

“They’re gone.” Her hoarse whisper has every single one of my muscles tensing to attention.

Legs slipping straight into the water, she tips her head back. With her body bowed like that, it’s impossible not to focus on the way her tits have filled out as my gaze meanders over her belly, settling on the shadow between her thighs.

Before I do something stupid, I walk away. My feet carry me towards the stairs, and as I reach the top, I pause at the sound of her wet footsteps on the wood.

“You kissed me back last night.”

“Fleur…” I turn to face her. It was only a matter of time before that slip-up came back to bite me in the arse.

She’s got her towel wrapped around her, her belly leaving a sliver of it open, her soft skin exposed.

“What?”

“I shouldn’t…we can’t…I’m here to protect you.” And I have to keep my head in the fucking game because I can feel something coming.

“No, you’re here to protect your child, not me. If I wasn’t pregnant, you would’ve let them have me. We wouldn’t be here. So, don’t pretend any of this is about me.” She takes a step back, gulping in a lungful of air. “Besides, I’m not asking you to love me. I’m asking you to fuck me, and you didn’t have a problem with that before.”

Penny’s words from the night we left echo around my head—you were meant to look out for her. You were meant to protect her, not sleep with her.

“I want sex. That’s it.” Her cheeks flush, but her eyes remain glued to mine. Begging. “I was sick before, but now…I’m horny all the fucking time. All the time. It’s all I can think about when I’m not stressing over what’s going to happen next. It’s all I want.”

She grasps the towel tighter around her chest. Her wet skin is covered in goosebumps, and the way her hair is dripping, the droplets running down her chest…

“Please.” My feet move forward at her plea, and as I come closer, she drops the towel to her feet. “You want it as much as I do.”

She’s right, and now I wish she was back to playing nice because I’m losing my fucking mind.

Turning, she keeps her gaze locked on mine over her shoulder. From behind she doesn’t look like she’s seven months pregnant. The taper of her waist has held its shape, but the curve of her arse is more defined.

I’m enthralled by her as I follow her through to the bedroom. Climbing on the bed, she stands on her knees, facing me. She’s quiet as she pulls off my T-shirt with my help, and then her fingers trail the tattoo on the side of my neck to my shoulder, slipping down to my hand.

Grasping it, she holds it up between us, smoothing over the back of it while tracing the lines of the lion inked on it. She takes her time, taking in every line, and once she’s done, she presses my opened palm to her breast.

Heart thudding almost in time to the pounding of mine, she says, “I want you to touch me like you used to. Like you’re starving…for me.”

I swallow down the urge to throw her down and devour her like I’ve never stopped wanting to.

Squeezing her hand, she kneads her breast with mine. It feels so fucking good to touch her like this, and before I overthink it, I push Fleur back on to the bed, guiding her fall with my free hand as I grasp her breast with the other.

She’s right, I do want this. Every time we lie together, when we sit on the sofa with her practically on top of me, all I can think about is this. Losing myself in her so completely that this world and our life cease to exist.

“Oh shit,” she gasps when I lower over her and suck a nipple into my mouth. “That feels so good.”

Her hands claw at my hair and my neck as her feet find purchase on my thighs and she tries to grind on me.

“This isn’t working.” Her cry snaps my eyes up to hers.

“What?”

Pushing me off her, she sits up, a sulky pout scrunching her pretty face. “It’s in the way. My belly is in the way.”