The taste of his kiss still lingers like it did that first time he walked away from me with the promise of nothing more. But here we are. I cradle my belly as I sit on the wiry bed in the corner of the shelter.
He’ll come for me. Like he did that night. He came for me…
Time stops the second Casper follows me into the empty hospital room. My tears burst from me, and all the anger I was harbouring towards him over his show with Laura at the ball evaporates.
The anger and anguish roll off him like city smog smothering sunlight. It’s a relief. I don’t have it in me to smart-mouth him. All I can think is that a few hours ago I was saying goodbye to Cassie, my best friend, and now she could be gone.
And his sister, Arabella…
The world spins as I’m pulled back by the loose skirt of my dress. My heels buckle slightly as he turns me fast enough that I’m too discombobulated to realise how close he is.
Hand tracing up my side, he pins me against the darkened corner. Neither one of us speaks or breathes as he closes it around my throat, thumbnail raking to my chin. As I open my mouth to suck in a steadying breath, he bites down on my lip.
There’s no preamble or request for more. He bites and sucks and licks. Casper licks into my mouth with a rough groan as his other hand lifts my skirt, unceremoniously tearing my underwear while parting my legs with a nudge of his foot between mine.
Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
It’s all I can think as he works himself between my thighs. My thong wisps to the ground, and while my hands find purchase on his shoulders, he pulls back and his eyes square on mine. Casper tangles the hand at my throat into my hair, pulling at my nape while he one-handed unbuckles his belt and lets himself loose.
It takes a fragment of a second. A fray in the fabric of time for him to lift me and bury himself deep inside me in one agonising thrust. He’s so big and…
Fuck!
Grunting and growling curse after curse, he fucks me. Hard. Deep. Unforgivingly.
He’s punishing me for a crime I haven’t committed, and I don’t want him to stop. If it’s possible, I want him to go harder. The ache of him bottoming out again and again alleviates the turmoil hammering at me.
Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
The pain inside me dulls as he inflicts his retribution. A sanction I didn’t realise I needed. And yet, it is so welcomed. So wanted and craved as I lick across the lion inked on his neck. The tang of blood and musk of his sweat are unlike anything I’ve ever savoured. As his rhythm falters, I bite down hard enough that he yanks my head back. He drives so deep that my breath and voice are obliterated in one.
“Fuck,” he grits out, pushing deeper, hands pulling at my hair and twisting in the skirt of my dress. “Fuck.”
Oh God, I scream silently. I don’t want him to regain his composure. The way he’s letting loose…the way he’s fucking me… Oh God!
My legs wrap tighter around him, and with a final bite of my lips and a low, vibrating groan, I feel him come, the heat of his seed sending me over the edge.
Everything fades but the way he’s holding me. The way he’s kissing me. Filling me so entirely that every jolt of our breathing sends frissons of pain and bliss through me.
Breathless and boneless, I can’t let go of him as Casper finally puts me down, my back sliding against the wall with the sweat from our effort.
“This doesn’t mean anything. We don’t mean anything.”
The urge to slap him is torture because I can’t move. My limbs are still weightless, and my head is in a haze of victory and grief.
He came for me. After all the bravado at the ball, he came to me. We fucked, and now it’s over. Reality seeps around me like a dark, dark fog while I watch him right himself. Apart from the blood and the creases, he looks perfect.
“It won’t happen again.” He drives the point home a tad further, even as he picks my torn underwear from the floor and shoves it into his pocket.
I didn’t have him pegged as a trophy kind of guy. As I didn’t have him down as a kisser. But he’s never been anything I expected. Casper has always been something more…unpredictable.
“You and me…it was this once.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I know how Casper Gladstone likes a whore.”
My own words claw at my chest. My heart is already on the verge of breaking. I’m barely holding back my tears. My breaths can’t bring me relief.
“Hmm,” he hums, nodding morosely as he turns to leave the empty hospital room we’ve just fucked in. “You shouldn’t talk about yourself like that.”