Honey watched her. He couldn’t drag his eyes off her. He couldn’t stop his breath from billowing out of his lungs like a goddamned steam engine. He couldn’t stop the need and jealousy that had flooded through him when he’d first seen her walk into that bar in that dress. And he couldn’t stop the rage that had blinded him when that fucker had laid his unworthy hands on her.
“What the hell were you thinking?” he bit out he words, that anger still riding him hard as all the ways it could have gone wrong played out in his mind.
“What do–What are you talking about, Honey?”
“I’m not talking! I’m shouting!”
“I can see that,” Elle shot back at him, “What I can’t understand is why.”
“Why? You want to know why, Elle?” Honey forced out on a harsh laugh, “Because of you. I’m shouting because of you. Because you have no sense of self preservation. You put yourself in danger, you keep putting yourself in danger and you don’t have a fucking clue!”
“I don’t!”
“You do! Yes, you do! What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t been there tonight, huh?” Honey said, the thought alone causing his throat to close on the bile that threatened to rise. He took a step closer, glaring down at her, “What do you think would have happened?”
“I don’t–It doesn’t matter, Honey. The point is you were there, you saved me–”
“I shouldn’t have to save you! You’re a smart person, Elle, I know you are. Way smarter than me. Way smarter than any one of those assholes,” he gestured with a waved hand back towards the clubhouse, “but you show up at a place like this, looking like that–”
“What’s wrong with how I look, Honey?” Elle cut in, her voice angry, “Hot Wheels gave me the dress to wear. Granted it wasn’t my first choice, but–”
“Hot Wheels. I owe her one. She should have fucking known better.”
“No, Honey! No!” Elle shouted and the shock of it made Honey look back at her, oddly cooling some of his own temper, “Not Hot Wheels. Not Joel or Carla or anyone else. It was my choice to wear the stupid dress, it was my choice to help my friend, it was my choice to do what I could, to keep the promises I made. And you know what? I did it! So stop acting like I’m some fragile porcelain figurine, because I’m not!” Elle took a deep breath, and Honey couldn’t take his eyes off her as her eyes gleamed and a flush flamed across her cheeks.
“Besides, it’s just a dress. A stupid dress. What does it even matter?” Elle shook her head, still breathing hard as she tried to reign in her anger and Honey was surprised to find his gone. Disappeared in the wake of her words. He was much less surprised by the desire that took its place. The need that was his constant companion whenever she was near. But he kept it in check as he watched her.
“God, you don’t even realize, do you?” Honey said, his voice tinged with awe as the realization washed over him. She really had no idea just how gorgeous she was, how beautiful, how drop dead sexy. Honestly, it should be a sin for her to walk around like that. With a small smile, he held out a hand as he moved to stand in front of the full length mirror that stood against one wall.
“Come here.”
***
Elle looked at his outstretched hand like it was a snake, just waiting to strike. And then she really would be helpless. Then she would lose all the control that she had fought so hard for.
Would that be such a bad thing? that sly voice whispered inside her, warm and sweet like the desire that was melting through her to pool between her thighs. Would it be so bad to lose control for one night? Just once?
“Come here,” he said again, his words soft and rough as they wrapped around her, pulling her closer to him. She wasn’t even aware her feet were moving until she was suddenly standing in front of him.
Honey placed one hand at each of her shoulders and she looked at him in confusion as he slowly turned her around until her back was against his front.
“What are you–”
“Hush,” he whispered, letting his hands slide down the sides of her arms and lower until they rested across her hips, “Just look.”
“Look at what?” Elle asked uncomfortably as she shifted, restless and aching, needing…something. One of his hands made the journey back up, passing her shoulder until it reached her chin. Honey tilted her face until she saw it. Her own reflection, staring back at her, with Honey standing right behind her, his arms twined around her.
She gasped though as she drank it in. It was her, but it wasn’t her at all. Her hair was loose and long, waving in gleaming tendrils that looked tousled, as if someone had just run their fingers through it. The makeup Hot Wheels had applied was simple, but dramatic. Her pale skin looked creamy and flawless but with a hot blush across her cheeks that she thought might have more to do with the man standing behind her than anything cosmetic.
There was no other makeup except around her eyes, but it was enough. A smoky eyeshadow in dark charcoal grey made them look lidded and sultry and the eyeliner, drawn back in a cat eye, made her look somehow…mysterious. Feminine, but strong.
And the dress! It was unlike anything she would have picked out for herself but it flattered her body, enhancing curves and emphasizing dips that she didn’t even know were there before. Honey had been right. She really did look like sin. It sent a jolt of power through her, thick and heady, and when she met Honey’s gaze again in the mirror there was a different look in her dark, chocolate brown eyes.
“Fuck, Elle,” he breathed out hoarsely and then his lips were dragging across the side of her neck, up across her jaw, and she watched. She saw it all in the mirror. And what she saw was the woman she could be.
No, this is you. This is a part of you, another side of you. Embrace it. It was that voice again, the one that she’d started to think of as the little devil on her shoulder. But there was truth to the words. This was still her, this stranger in the mirror. Or it could be, if she let it. And God did she want to.
Especially when Honey turned her face towards him, capturing her lips with his own. She wanted to surrender, she wanted to give in. More than anything else, she wanted him. And she put that into the kiss as she moved her mouth, opening it to allow his tongue entrance as it teased inside, tangling with her own.
In a millisecond, the kiss went from burning hot to nuclear explosion and, after a breathless moment, Honey pulled back, stripping off his shirt in a fervor as she helped him slide the dress from her shoulders to land in a pile of silky material at her feet.
“Fuck, Elle,” Honey gasped as he drank in the sight of her. She was naked underneath the dress. She couldn’t wear anything underneath otherwise the lines would show but she followed his gaze down to where it clung between her thighs, “You–You’re. You shaved,” Honey finally forced out the hoarse words and Elle nearly laughed. Or she would have if her own need for him wasn’t driving her on, making her wild for him.
She didn’t answer him, she just tugged at his pants. Finally, his hands were there too, helping to strip the rest of his clothes. He just stopped to grab a condom from his wallet before spinning her back around to face the mirror.
She heard the sound of the foil packet ripping open before he rolled it on his thick erection and he was back, his hands running across her body, touching everywhere, spreading fire everywhere.
“Are you sure?” Honey asked, the question in a roughly whispered breath against her ear.
“Honey, please I–”
“Tell me you’re sure, Elle. Please baby, tell me you want this as much as I do,” he groaned the words and she could hear the raw need in his voice as it dropped ever deeper, “Tell me you need me.”
Elle meet his dark gaze in the mirror and the force of it nearly brought her to her knees, his reflection revealing everything that he wanted her to see. He wasn’t holding anything back, and she found, she couldn’t either. Not then, not with him.
Slowly, she nodded, “Yes, Honey. Yes. I’m sure. I want you.”
“You need me. Say the words, Elle. You. Need. Me,” he ground them out, holding her body on the agonizing brink.
“Yes. I need you! Honey, I need you. Please–” Elle gasped at the exquisite pleasure as he thrust deep inside her, his hands at her waist holding her still as he moved hard and fast and sure, his rhythm carrying pleasure through her entire body. Pleasure that she had no choice but to cling to or else she was afraid she would fly apart and never be able to put the pieces back together again.
But soon her thoughts were gone, stalled as Honey thrust harder and harder, faster and faster as the sounds of their bodies meeting filled the room, an accompaniment to the orchestra of their cries. Honey’s growls of ecstasy and his name falling from her lips over and over again. A staccato rhythm that she wasn’t even aware of, even if he was.
Finally, it was too much, the pleasure too much, Honey’s body driving hers masterfully up and up until her crescendo hit, hard and fast, stealing her breath away as every muscle in her body clenched powerfully on his.
Honey’s cry told her that he’d followed her over the edge but her eyes were still squeezed tight as he thrust inside her again, and then once more, drawing out every trembling note of sweet pleasure that he could.
Elle felt the soft kiss on the back of her neck and then a moment later, he was pulling away and it was only her hands pressed against the mirror that kept her on her feet.
“Where are you going?” Elle whispered hoarsely, still trying to catch her breath, “I guess I should…I should go too?”
“Oh no, sweetheart,” Honey growled, grabbing her hand before she could take a single step. Not that she was sure she could anyways with the way her legs were still trembling, “We’re not done yet. Not anywhere near done yet.”