Buttons and Pain (Buttons 3)

I wondered what Lars had said but I didn’t dare ask.

“I admit I didn’t approach you in the best way. If you shot me I wouldn’t have blamed you. But I was just so…angry.”

“Like how I was when I saw you kiss Jasmine.” I looked out the window and saw her kiss him in the fields. Rage like I’d never known took me. I’d never been heartbroken like that. The betrayal hurt me to the core.

“She kissed me,” he corrected. “And yes, that’s exactly how I felt.”

“Looks like we’re even.”

“No. Not even close.” Tension filled the air between us. It hung heavily in the air, reminding me how betrayed he felt when I slept with Jason. “I’ve never been jealous before. It’s not a good color on me.” He took a long drink to mask his anger.

It wasn’t a good color on me either. “Why haven’t you slept with anyone? Two months is a long time…” Crow was a man with specific needs. If he didn’t unleash his dark urges it would consume him.

He stirred his glass but didn’t take a drink. He set it beside his water, the dark wine half gone. When he turned his dark eyes on me they were impossible to read. He didn’t seem angry or annoyed with the question. “I didn’t want to.”

I waited for him to elaborate because that answer wasn’t enough.

His thin lips remained closed, refusing to speak another word.

“You didn’t want to?” I didn’t believe that for a second. Maybe he did miss me, but sex wasn’t emotional for him. It was just about getting off. He could use anyone for that, not just me.

“No.”

My eyes narrowed. “And that’s it?”

“Why is that hard to believe?”

“I don’t know…maybe because Jasmine was at your beck and call whenever you wanted her.” I’m sure she figured out I was gone and try to get under his sheets more than once. Why would he turn her way if I wasn’t there anymore?

“You know my type. I like smart, strong, and proud women. She’s none of those things.”

“But you slept with her before.”

“That was before my tastes changed.” He gave me a knowing look.

“Then why didn’t you look for someone else with those traits?”

He rested his hand on the table, and his slender fingers gently thudded against the tablecloth. “Like I said, I didn’t want to.”

My eyes narrowed in annoyance. “You made it very clear you were never mine.”

“I wasn’t.”

Everything he said contradicted what he said in the past. My neck was sore from the constant pull back and forth.

“But now I am.”

The frustration left my limbs, and my stomach tightened in response. My eyes automatically searched his face for a trace of a life. Did he really say that or did I just imagine it?

He rested his arms on the table and leaned forward. His voice came out low so no one else could overhear us. The look he gave me was terrifying but beautiful at the same time. “And I want you to be mine again.”

***

When we entered the bedroom he came behind me and unzipped my dress. It was a black with a lacey pattern. It fit the curves of my body perfectly, like he knew my measurements off hand.

It fell to the floor at my feet.

He immediately unbuttoned my strapless bra and let it fall to the floor. His lips founded my shoulder and he kissed it gently. The scruff from his chin caused the right kind of friction I missed. He slowly moved closer to my collarbone.

And I anxiously hoped he would nip at me.

His tongue licked the skin right over the bone. Then he nicked me with his teeth, giving me a nibble just like he did when we were in bed together.

I couldn’t help it. I moaned.

His hands moved around my waist then trailed up my stomach. He gathered my tits in his hands and massaged them aggressively. His mouth moved to my ear and his breaths filled my canal. “Button.” My nipples hardened, and he gathered them in his fingertips before he pinched them lightly.

My back arched into his chest, immediately reacting to the aggressive touch. I said I wouldn’t sleep with him tonight but my resolve was quickly slipping away.

His hand continued to grope my tits while the other moved down my stomach. Slowly, his fingers glided over my belly button and into the lace of my panties. Gently they migrated to my throbbing clitoris then pressed against it.

I arched my back again.

“This is mine. Do you understand me?” His lips moved against my ear, his heavy breaths igniting me.

“Crow…” I gave into his control and said his name when I shouldn’t. I missed this so much. I missed it more than I would admit to myself. He took control of the situation and made the decisions for both of us. All I had to do was enjoy it.