Total pages in book: 145
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 133975 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 670(@200wpm)___ 536(@250wpm)___ 447(@300wpm)
Now he had a name. The members of the Trinity chapter as well as Rampage had attended the other three schools. Someone was bound to recognize Yaman Kuzmin. If not, Keys had all the faith in the world that Code would be able to track him down.
Keys reached across the table and swept back her hair, the pads of his fingers trailing along her high cheekbone and then over her delicate jaw. “We talked about this at great length. I don’t want any of them in your head. You give me this. Let me turn that memory into something altogether different. Trust me to do that for you. When you see cuffs, I want you to think pleasure, not pain. I want you to think of me, not them.”
Her long lashes fluttered in that way that got him in the gut. Her nod was nearly imperceptible. “I’ll try, Keys. It’s just that when we’re together, you’re always the one who has to be in the lead. I don’t want to make what we do together bad because I freak out. You’re always the one giving and I want that to be equal. I want to give you the kind of blinding pleasure you give me, but I don’t know how.”
That shocked him. He thought he knew her well enough to know when she was having doubts, but for him, the admission was on a completely different level, and he needed to clear that misconception up immediately.
Keys stood and rounded the table to stand in front of her. He widened her thighs so he could fit between her legs. Close, the way he liked to be with Lyric. The way he had never in his life wanted to be with another woman. He framed her face with his hands, tilting her head so she was forced to look into his eyes.
“Lyric, I don’t think you really understand what you do for me. You need to hear me this time. Don’t form arguments in your head because you were convinced, as a child, you’re less than. I need you to hear me out. Will you do that for me?”
Lyric bit down on her bottom lip, but she gave the barest of nods. He kept her delicate little face trapped between his palms. “I’m going to sound like a fuckin’ pussy, baby, but this needs to be said.”
That got him a ghost of a smile. “You have this misguided idea that because I have far too much experience and you don’t that I’m in a position to decide if you’re good enough as a partner. That’s bullshit. It’s always going to be bullshit.”
He watched her eyes. There was puzzlement there, but not rejection. “Empty fucking is not ever going to be the experience making love is.” Now he did feel like a pussy, using the term making love, but damn it, that was what he was doing when he touched her. Every time he touched her.
“Fucking can be a fun part of making love with the right person. You taught me that. You turned something that was empty, a nothing act that honestly didn’t make me feel in the least bit good about myself, into something so beautiful there are times I want to cry when I’m inside you and looking into your eyes.”
He really needed her to hear him. He doubted if he’d ever be able to make himself come out with the kind of douchebag poetic but all-too-real crap he had thought himself incapable of thinking, let alone saying aloud again. But she inspired it and she deserved to hear the truth, whether it made him uncomfortable or not.
“I don’t cry, Wildfire. Not ever. Nothing has ever mattered enough to make me feel that much emotion, but you can get me there. Baby, hear me when I say, without you, I would never have the beautiful, loving experiences we have when we come together.”
Lyric stared up at him, her gaze meeting his. He saw the emotion building in her eyes. “You really mean it.”
“Yeah, babe, I really mean it. My life isn’t one of giving, the way yours is. You make things better for the people around you. I do things most would consider wrong. Immoral. Criminal. I don’t give a damn about anyone’s opinion—but yours. I need you to see me the way you always look at me. As if I’m worth something. As if you truly believe it. I never had that until you. From that first time I ever saw you, when you smiled at me, the real thing that you don’t give everyone, I knew I had to be with you.”
“You didn’t,” she denied.
His thumbs traced the delicate lines of her cheekbones. “I did. I didn’t know how it was going to happen, but I knew it had to happen. Torpedo Ink has a rule that we travel in pairs. We watch each other’s backs at all times. That’s how we stay alive. The assignment was over, but I continued to come back alone. That was for you. I couldn’t stay away from you. And that should tell you, baby, I don’t look at those women. I don’t want to see them and I won’t. You’re my world, and when we go to any party or on one of the runs, I want you sticking close to me.”