Kingdom Come

“Get up,” she said, the coldness back in her tone.

I pulled out and smeared some of her come on my fingertip. As she stood, I put the vibe necklace back on her. I let our combined come leave an invisible trail between her breasts as I drew a line parallel to the necklace.

“Still angry?” I teased.

Unfortunately for me, she didn’t smile. “No. Not even a little. I just came to a decision.” Her brow lifted as if she wondered if I’d caught her double entendre.

“What’s that?” I asked, no longer smiling.

“I don’t need a fuck buddy. I need a man.” She let the words hang in the air. “See yourself out.”

I shouldn’t have cared. I should have fucking left and never looked back. But a part of me, even grinning inside, knew that a reminder that we had just fucked lay between her breasts and between her legs.

She had to know by that alone, we weren’t done yet.Twenty-TwoLizzyWhen I left the room, I was ready to lay to waste to anyone who got in my way. However, after just a few steps, I realized I needed to go the opposite way to my private restroom for a little cleanup.

“Damn him,” I muttered.

As I was about to pivot, my parents emerged into the hallway.

“Lizzy,” Dad said with open arms.

I couldn’t deny him the hug and walked the few steps to embrace him with my thighs clenched, praying that my eagle-eyed mother wouldn’t notice anything that might make it past my thighs.

“You’ve done great,” Dad whispered.

“Thanks,” I said.

“It’s lovely, dear,” Mom said. “And everyone’s talking about a proposal. Your father didn’t let me find out what happened though. Do you know?”

“No gossiping tonight. This is about our daughter.”

Mom had stepped over to air-kiss me, and I held my pose well enough that no sexual aftermath could escape as I struggled with how to explain my sudden fake marriage. Before I could, Dad’s gaze shifted over my shoulder and I closed my eyes. I opened them just in time to get a glimpse of Striker’s smirk as he passed us.

“Do I know him?” Dad asked.

“No,” I said emphatically.

“He looks familiar.”

I shook my head. “He just has one of those faces,” I said, hating to acknowledge the man’s perfection in any way at that moment.

“What’s this?” Mom asked, reaching forward.

I leaned back as if I was doing an impression of Neo from the Matrix movies my brother loved and had forced me to watch.

Her brow crinkled in the middle. “There’s something on your necklace, dear.”

Oh, there was something and I didn’t want my mother to touch it.

“Are you okay?” she asked as I struggled to come up with an appropriate response.

“If you guys excuse me, I really need to use the ladies’ room.”

Mom grinned. “I can tell.” She let her eyes fall to my legs. “I remember when you were three.”

I couldn’t wait. Gravity was winning and my thigh gap wasn’t helping. I dashed into the bathroom, closing and locking the door to catch my breath. Angry, but not at Striker, I inwardly chided myself for giving in. Lust had won the first round, so I’d let my inner bitch have at him after.

Though I hadn’t conveyed it fully to him, I did want a man. A man to be mine in all ways. For months, I’d been longing for something. I thought I’d just missed my best friend, but the truth was, I wanted what she had. I wanted someone to call my own. It was partly the reason I’d stayed with Hans so long.

I’d also come to the conclusion that it wasn’t just the sex that hadn’t been working in that relationship. Hans was a good man—too good for me. I needed a man a little rough around the edges. I needed a man who could protect me. Maybe that was a result of past trauma. My brother had been my protector for years, but he was gone too.

I wanted adventure, and damn if Striker wasn’t a man I could see taking me on those. His show of possessiveness had been kind of sexy, but I would never allow a man to rule over me. There was a thin line, and he’d crossed it tonight.

Worse, I hated that I’d end up in fake marriage headline, because on some level, I desired what my parents had. An unconditional love that lasted a lifetime. Now I’d be the girl who cried wolf—no, cried married when I wasn’t. I’d be the laughingstock of the press, and who would ever want to marry the woman who had not only broken the heart of American’s Sexiest Single but with a lie?

Anderson knocked on the door. “Lizzy. I really need you out here.”

My business! I got to work cleaning up. I also wiped down the vibe, remembering his finger leaving a blazing trail between my breasts.