“Baby,” he murmured roughly, staring at me fixedly with half-closed eyes, “I try and put myself in your damn shoes every single day. Because you’re my girl. You’re my woman. You’re my partner. You’re my lover. And if I can’t try and fucking understand you and that complex, crazy head of yours, then I’m not doing my job. Then I’m not worthy of you. I want to be worthy of you, baby. I want to know how you work, how you function, how you think. I want to know you so I can be there for you and be there with you. There’s not a day that I’m not trying to discover another one of your beautiful layers. So don’t say that I’m not in your shoes. I’ve been wearing them more than you think.”

Oh god. His words rendered me speechless and sent my heart into a tailspin. I could only stare back at him, my resolve melting into his warm hands.

“And I’m sorry,” he went on, licking his lips, still gazing at me seductively, “if I didn’t tell you about me and Rebecca. I wasn’t trying to hurt you—I wasn’t trying to do anything. All I think about is you, Perry. From the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep, and even in my dreams. I don’t think about my past anymore. I only think about my future. And you’re my fucking future.”

Wow.

“You jerk,” I blurted out breathlessly. “I love you.”

He grinned at me as his eyes slid over to my lips. “That’s all I needed to hear.”

Then he kissed me. Hard.

Hard enough that the back of my head banged against the wall and I let out a cry of surprise that was buried by the intensity of his moan. His tongue was feverish, relentlessly fucking the inside of my mouth, his lips soft and violent. I closed my eyes, immediately succumbing to the delicious feeling of him wanting me, of his obvious desire, of his brute strength and masculinity.

My hands went for his jacket, helping him shrug it off while he pulled my sweater and t-shirt over my head. He put his mouth to my neck, biting me sharply, his hands going to my bra and unclasping it from behind. I moaned as he licked the sore flesh of my neck with his tongue then continued licking up to my ear. As soon as his lips enveloped my earlobe, his heavy, lustful breathing making my skull buzz, I was as wet as sin and famished, desperate for him to be inside me. As if knowing this, his fingers swiftly unzipped my jeans and thrust themselves inside me—one, then two, then three at a time.

“Fuck you’re so wet,” he grunted, his mouth covering mine again. “I’ve never wanted you so badly.”

“You can fucking have me,” I managed to say before I was overcome by his tongue again. He pushed his fingers further inside, making a motion that rubbed hard against my G-spot. I cried out, insane with pleasure, but still needing more. “Deeper,” I told him breathlessly. “Harder.”

“I’ll give you harder,” he said. I heard the unbuckling of his pants, and the stiff, solid length of his cock against my thigh. He pulled off the rest of my jeans, then grabbed the backs of my thighs and pulled me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and he pressed me hard against the wall, the tip of his dick finding purchase within seconds, as if it was second nature. He pushed himself into me slowly and I widened for him, taking him in as deep as he could go without it being painful. I never felt better than when he was inside me, filling me up, making me feel whole.

He brought his head down to my breasts, biting and sucking them as he started thrusting deeper inside of me, his pace quickening.

“Harder,” I groaned.

He hissed in a breath through his teeth and I looked into his eyes, almost startled by their madness and intensity, the pure hunger that was rolling through him. He drove himself deep inside until I gasped and then he kept hammering me, one thrust after another until my head was banging against the wall, the pain a complete turn on. He’d never wanted me so badly and I’d never been so fucking horny.

Pretty soon I was coming just from the feel of his cock inside me, of the crazed frenzy of our fucking. But Dex had stamina. After my moans quieted down and I stopped clenching him from inside, he grabbed me around the waist and spun me around with a powerful cry. He slammed me down onto the counter, a bunch of medical textbooks and boxes of latex gloves clattering to the floor. The rest of the books and other items poked into my back as he tried to lay me flat, still pounding me with the same wild intensity. He looked like a man possessed by lust, and I had the perfect view of him, from his intense eyes and sexual sneer to his wide shoulders and hard, sculpted chest with those infamous words And With Madness Comes the Light. I loved the sight of his large, strong arms and skilled hands as they gripped the softness of my hips, the muscles in his forearms tensing as he ground in and out of me. His bronzed six-pack was taut with his movement and I knew his ass cheeks were flexing as he worked.

He smirked at me, the cocky bastard knowing I was gaping at him. He put his thumb onto my clit, and the slick pressure had me coming again. I yelled out his name, taken by shock with this orgasm, my eyes not leaving his as he kept my heady spasms rolling through me. I was flying fucking high, delirious and possibly insane, and yet he still drove deep inside me and I still wanted more.

“You’re being a little greedy,” he grunted as he stared down at me, his lips parted, chest heaving from the strain.

“You’re being a little generous,” I lazily said back to him. “Are you afraid of coming?”

“Baby, I could go all night.”

“You know we can’t. Let me finish you off.” I tried to push back with my elbows so I could sit up and suck him off, but he just growled at me, wrapping his hands tight around the small of my waist.

“Oh, you will,” he stated huskily. He pulled me off the counter and placed me down on his bed before immediately flipping me over and pulling my ass high in the air. “Just fucking perfect,” he murmured as his lips and tongue trailed over the soft mounds, taking his time to try and lick me to death. I groaned, about to lose my mind as I felt the pressure inside me building up again.

He pulled his head away, and while stroking me softly with one finger, pushed himself inside me again. His grip on my hips tightened. “Sweet Jesus, you’re so fucking beautiful,” he whispered, his breath hitching. I could feel his eyes scanning over my bare body. “So beautiful. I’m so damn lucky, baby. You have no idea.” His began to pick up the pace, both his thrusts and his finger becoming quicker. “I’m going to come now. Oh god, I just want to come.”

“Then come,” I growled at him. He started banging me harder, the bed moving back and forth, his balls slapping against my ass. The swirl of his fingers tightened, the pressure increasing, until once again I was reaching the brink. The result was explosive, violent. I came harder than ever—an out of body experience—before plunging deep into a wave that drowned me in pleasure. I cried out his name, expletives, and then I was just crying, a few tears leaking out while I tried to comprehend the feelings rushing though me and knocking me off my feet.

Dex came at the same time, his fingers digging sharply into my hips, holding on as if he’d lose me otherwise. He grunted loudly, gasping for air, letting loose the pressure inside as he pounded the last of himself into me.

I fell forward, flattening against the bed in exhaustion, and a spent, naked Dex tried to spoon me on the single bed, wrapping his arms around me, his ragged breaths at my ear.

“I love you,” he whispered between exhales. “More than you know.”

“I love you,” I told him back, meaning every word.

And then the room went black.

As in, the lights just went out.

“The fuck?” Dex asked.

I tried to sit up without edging Dex off the bed. We had been plunged into darkness.

“Did the power go out?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said quietly. “But I’d really appreciate it if you kept your arms around me.”

“Don’t worry, kiddo,” he assured me. “It’s probably just the storm. It will come back on.”

“You do realize where we are, right?”

I felt him smile against my cheek. “I do. A haunted school. And look who said she could only come in this place if I had two dicks. Well, guess what, baby. You came three times on just one cock. You should never underestimate my penis again.”

“Believe me, I won’t,” I said. While it was obvious the power was out, we also weren’t alone in the school. I could hear people in the halls walking, chattering loudly, their voices high and anxious. Through the frosted glass of the door to the nurse’s office I could see a scarce amount of light shining in, just a dull glow.

“You’d think their generator would be coming on,” I said to him, picking up on the anxiety of the staff and students in the halls.

Suddenly we heard the door to the office open and saw the moving beam of a flashlight. A wide silhouette paused outside our door.

“Hello?” Davenport’s shrill voice shot through us. “Anyone in there?”

Shit.

“Just a minute!” I yelped. Dex and I both tried to get off the bed at the same time, resulting in both of us tumbling to the floor. I landed half on his back and half on my side. “Fucker!”

I scrambled to my feet, trying to figure out where my clothes were. They were clear across the room with Dex’s clothes. No way we could find them in the dark without injuring ourselves.

“Kiddo,” Dex said, and suddenly I was enveloped with a blanket. “Cover up.” I felt him stand behind me, holding my shoulders. “Come on in!” he yelled.

The door opened and I automatically winced from the flashlight Davenport was holding in her hands and aiming right at us. Her mouth dropped open before she quickly snapped it shut and gave us an unimpressed once-over.

“I came to tell you that the power in the school is out,” she said. ”You may or may not have noticed.”

“We noticed,” I said, holding the blanket tighter around my boobs, hoping that naked Dex was well hidden behind me. Thank god for my wide hips.

Just then, Rebecca came inside, holding the camera and our own light.

“Oh,” she cried out softly when she saw us. She raised her thin brow. “I see.”

Just claiming back my man, I thought, which was totally petty. But whatever, I was still pretty miffed at her for telling me about her and Dex the way she did.

Davenport shook her head and clucked her tongue. “At any rate, I’m glad you three are here. The power has gone out because of the storm. We’re sending everyone home. We do have a generator here, but it’s not enough to power everything we need. Carl can keep it running for you, but it would just be in the cafeteria so the food doesn’t spoil. You’d have to move yourselves down there—keep in mind I don’t want anyone sleeping in the kitchen. That’s unhygienic.”

The cafeteria was one of the few places on this floor we hadn’t really been in; we just had a little look when Kelly was taking us around. It also wasn’t a place I felt like holing up in. Though it wasn’t a big space, there was something extremely unsettling about empty cafeterias and kitchens at night. I think I developed a healthy fear of them after Jurassic Park.