Zane (Inked Brotherhood 3)

“Not afraid I’ll drop you?” I mutter as we reach the apartment door and have to put her down for a moment to unlock and open.

“You won’t drop me.”

She sounds so certain when she says it, and I just gather her up in my arms again and walk inside.

I wish I was as sure of it myself.

I walk blindly into my room and lower her on the mattress. At least the sheets are clean, I think. I changed them yesterday. The room is a mess, but in the dimness you can hardly see it.

Turning on the lamp on the bedside table, I sit down next to her and work on her boots, unlacing them and pulling them off. She wiggles her toes, and through the stretch fabric of her black tights, I can see that her toenails are painted black.

I run my hand up her leg, from her ankle to her knee. I want to unwrap her like a Christmas present.

“About the pool and the water,” she says, and I freeze, my hand resting on her thigh.

“You don’t have to tell me.” Because if she does, then maybe I’ll have to tell her about me, too, tell her more than I already have.

She shrugs and leans back on my pillows, crossing her legs at the ankle. “I fell into a pool once.”

I wait for more, but she just stares at her hands, folded in her lap, her eyes dark, so I rub my eyes and scoot beside her, until our shoulders touch. “Okay.”

“No, it’s not.” Her voice wavers. “I didn’t really fall, you know. I was pushed.”

I still don’t get what the big deal is, so I force myself to nod. We’re pressed against each other, ’cuz my bed isn’t a double, and there isn’t much space, so I lift my arm and place it over her shoulders.

She burrows into me, warm and soft, and I close my eyes.

“My boyfriend pushed me.”

My eyes snap open. “What?”

“My boyfriend at the time. It was three years ago.”

“Holy shit, give a guy a heart attack, will you?”

She laughs, but the crystal chimes and bells are dulled. “Sorry.” She rubs her hand over my chest, and it scorches my skin through the T-shirt. “He’s the reason I need to see your face when you touch me. I’ve had…” She slumps against me. “Nightmares with his face, leaning over me as he pushes me off the edge.”

“Motherfucker.” My arm tightens around her, crushing her to me. “Did he hurt you before? When you were with him?”

“No, he was okay.”

I don’t get it. Why is she so traumatized, if that’s all there was to it? Breaking her trust, yeah, that’s bad, but to make you scared of water… I open my mouth to ask, but she lifts her hand and traces my mouth with her fingertips.

My breath hitches. Nobody has touched me like this before, ever, and as her fingers trail up to my cheek and then skim over my eyebrow, I just wanna close my eyes and sink into her touch.

Sensation whispers over my mouth, and I jerk. Her eyes are hooded as she kisses me again, her tongue slipping between my lips, licking and stroking mine. My dick begins to harden, and I reach down to accommodate the growing bulge in my jeans. She lowers her hand, putting it atop mine, and then she’s pressing up against me, all soft curves and silky skin, still kissing me, until I’m fully hard and half-crazed with want.

I break the kiss, looking down where both our hands are cupping my hard-on, and I’m panting like hell. I want to sink inside her. Need her so fucking bad.

She sits up and straddles my legs. I tense, because she’s trapping me, and I need to be the one in control of this, to hold her down and call the shots—but she starts undressing.

Holy shit, is that distracting. Can’t remember what I was thinking. I haven’t seen her naked yet, and my dick is so happy about what’s about to come it’s leaking steadily in my briefs.

She lifts off her blouse, and I just grip her hips, my mouth going dry at the sight of her breasts, snug in a yellow and orange bra that pushes them up, as if to spill them into my waiting hands.

Shit.

She wiggles, pushing down her tights, and I have to tear my eyes off her breasts to see. A small, thin scar on her stomach catches my eye—and then she slides the black material down her smooth, satiny thighs, her knees, and off, letting the tights fall to the side of the bed. Her panties are yellow, too, and they hook my gaze and hold it as I remember what is underneath them.