Crown of Lies

His voice darkened to nightmares. “You don’t have to hide with me. You want it rough—” He looped his hand around my nape, crushing my cheek into the brick as his other hand slid down my body and scooped up my dress, up and up until his fingers found my inner thigh and aggressively cupped my core.

My heart exploded through my ears as intensity I never thought existed came alive beneath his fingers.

But then he switched.

The violent hunger in his touch melted into gentle petting. He pulled me away from the brick, hugging me, supporting me while his tongue licked my neck and his fingers feathered so lightly over my clit. “Or do you want it soft?”

I shuddered in his arms, confused when my body reacted more to anger rather than sweet.

“I’m attracted to you, Elle. I have been since I saw you. I know you want me too because right now, my hands are on your pussy, and you’re so fucking wet.” With a harsh breath, he pushed aside my panties, running his finger along my bareness.

He hissed in my ear as my hips rocked involuntarily. “There you go. Stop lying to yourself. That’s the worst crime. Tell me what you want.”

“I still don’t like you enough to tell you.”

He was utter temptation.

Beyond reasoning and comprehension. But he pissed me off as he chuckled low in my ear, taking pleasure in my undoing as he pressed his finger into me.

I lost the ability to stand. The delicious throaty echo of his laugh sent a coil of desire shooting right into my soul.

I clenched around his finger as he sank deeper.

“Your body likes me enough for your mind and heart.”

My nerves heightened to a magnitude I couldn’t withstand. His touch. His control. His manipulation—it made him more than human.

I didn’t stand a chance.

“Just sex...” I panted as he fingered me.

“If that’s what you want.”

“Just lust.”

“So much fucking lust.” His touch seemed to double in size, dragging heat and sharp, sharp need.

A single finger.

It was too much.

It wasn’t enough.

But my body, after years of neglect and build-up of countless nights imagining such a thing, surrendered entirely.

Penn sucked in a breath as I allowed my head to fall back over his shoulder, giving him utter control. He held me against his body, his finger never ceasing.

“Is that another yes?” He kissed my throat, biting it as his finger thrust upward. “Tell me it’s a fucking yes before I lose my goddamn mind.”

I nodded.

And that was it.

Penn Everett vanished, replaced by a hunter. Spinning me around and shoving me against the wall, he kicked my feet open and drove his finger higher.

My mind panicked that he would take me here like this. My first time would be against a dirty wall outside a nightclub, but he proved I was right to trust him. That I could give him power even though I’d never like him. That I would always hate him, purely because he wasn’t Nameless and I’d clung to the ridiculous delusion that I’d find him, save him, and find a happily-ever-after.

Penn was the harbinger of truth in that respect.

I’d failed Nameless. I would never find him. It was time to accept that and move on.

Starting with sex.

“I’m going to make you come.” Penn breathed into my skin. “And then...you’re going home. We’ll save my place for another night.”

The bands of muscles in my core clenched around his finger as he pressed my clit with his thumb. His free hand grabbed my jaw, holding me prisoner while he kissed me so damn deep.

With his tongue inside my mouth and his finger matching the same pulse, I let it happen.

I didn’t hold on.

He didn’t drag it out.

I’d always been sensitive—always had a naughty ability to seek pleasure in banal situations. I’d stopped blushing years ago when I crossed my legs in a meeting filled with stuffy businessmen and enjoyed the tingle of desire just from the seam of my underwear. I’d accepted my body and how hotly it ran, simmering sweetly, ready to overflow into climax whenever I wanted.

Penn didn’t know that.

He knew nothing about me.

But somehow, my body spoke to his and his touch sought those triggers inside.

His finger arched up, hooking hard.

Holy...

My mouth popped wide, shuddering in yeses.

He grinned in triumph, knowing he’d found one button to punish me with but there were countless more.

His kisses turned reckless. His fingers thrusting right there.

The recipe turned tentative sparks into fireworks and fireworks into detonations and detonations into a mushroom cloud of pure bliss. The orgasm scurried up my legs, down my spine, and convened in my core to explode in an avalanche of pleasure.

“Oh...God.” I sucked in air as I drowned, but he didn’t give me time to breathe. He kissed me, sucked on my tongue, and let me ride his hand until the final wave of my release abated.

Slowly, his body peeled away from mine. “Well, that was interesting.”

His lips disengaged, leaving me bruised and stinging while he repositioned my underwear and removed his touch, letting my dress slither over my thighs.

Without another word, he pulled me away from the shadows toward the busy pavement, caught the eye of David, my driver, who’d miraculously appeared, and placed me reverently into the Range Rover.

Chapter Eighteen

THE NEXT DAY, I went to work as if nothing had happened.