A light bulb switches on inside Isabelle’s head, once again surprising me with how clued in she is. “You have Hugo watching me.”
“I won’t let Col hurt you, Isabelle.”
“I know that,” she replies with absolute certainty. “I am more worried about why Col wants to hurt you. Why does he have a vendetta against you?”
An awkward bout of silence stretches between us, but before she can remind me of my earlier pledge that I don’t lie, I confess, “He blames me for his daughter’s death.”
And rightfully so. He played me like a fucking fiddle. I was meant to remove the anguish from Ophelia’s eyes, but that night, I utterly swamped them with it. The instant CJ hit the boxing ring mat, his sister hated me. It would have taken even the most solid relationship to come back from that level of disgust, but we weren’t even given the chance.
She died hating me.
That isn’t something you simply forget. It eats at you until there is nothing left but the carcass of a man who should have fought harder. And although the realization now is too late for Ophelia, it doesn’t have to be for Isabelle. I can protect her. I just need to remember who I am and how I got here. Then there will be no more deaths on my shoulders bar my own.
After rinsing out Isabelle’s hair, I guide her out of the shower stall, then pat her dry with the fluffy towels Catherine replenished earlier today. Torn between wanting to be the man she deserves and the ruthless enigma I need to be to keep her safe, I carry her into my room before dressing her in one of my shirts. I made a mistake bringing her here, but I wasn’t lying when I said I can’t give her up now.
Isabelle is mine, and although my hands are clean right now, I will have no hesitation staining them to ensure everyone knows the repercussions of messing with something that is mine.
“Thank you,” Isabelle faintly whispers when I pull her wet hair out of the collar of my shirt.
The tilt of her chin when the back of my fingers brush her cheek exposes she wants to be nurtured as much as she wants to be dominated, but since I’m not in the right headspace to answer her every whim the right way, I put on a pair of sleeping pants before slipping between the sheets on my bed.
My back only just braces against the headboard when Isabelle rests her cheek on my pec. The silence teeming between us should be suffocating her desires, but it appears to have the opposite effect. Within seconds of her freshly washed hair wafting into my nostrils, her index finger commences tracing a figure-eight pattern on my V muscle. She circles it around and around and around until the tension brimming between us becomes palpable.
“Isabelle,” I groan out in warning when her hand slips underneath the waistband of my pajamas. I want her to touch me, my needs are almost desperate, but since I’m stuck in the devastating throes of grief, I feel as if moments like this shouldn’t be mine to appreciate.
With the eyes of a determined woman, Isabelle presses her lips to my jaw, neck, collarbone, and chest before she grazes my nipple with her teeth. An unexpected smirk lifts my lips when she unashamedly tugs on the brown pebble before she sucks it into her mouth. I had no clue male nipples were as receptive to pain as the ones on the female anatomy.
Hoping to get in on the action while Isabelle soothes the sting of her bite with her tongue, I slip my hand underneath her shirt to toy with her nipples.
I only get in the quickest tweak when she pushes my hand away from her voluptuous breasts. My growl draws her knees together, but it barely slows down her campaign to end my torment.
“It’s my turn to play,” she advises with a playful wink before locking her eyes with mine. “Please.”
Her eyes expose her true response. It isn’t her turn to play or to finally taste me. It’s her turn to comfort. She wants to take care of me as I did her earlier. She wants us on an even playing field.
I’d be an ass to pinch this opportunity from her.
So, with a smile that increases her erotic smell, I scoot my ass up the bed, then wave my hand down my body, granting her full access to both me and the shriveled-up heart she so desperately wants the chance to revive.
After inwardly cheering that she got an aggressive, dominant man to heel, Isabelle kisses a trail from my pectoral muscle to the waistband of my sleeping pants. It’s a teasing pace that would hide her eagerness if she didn’t almost shred the cotton material protecting my cock from her ravenous gaze.
She tugs my pajamas down my thighs with so much eagerness, threads popping sound over my hearty moan. I love her eagerness to suck my dick. It’s greedy and hungry, very much like the nymph I see in her eyes when she locks them with mine over the bumps in my midsection.
When I jerk up my chin, encouraging the lusty surge heating her veins, she wraps her hand around my shaft then gobbles up the drop of pre-cum on the end of my cock with her tongue.
After licking the underside of my twitching shaft, she circles the crown with her pouty lips before she slides them down the silky flesh. I fist the sheets in a white-knuckled hold when she adds a gentle suck to her teasing moves.
“Yes, Isabelle,” I moan. “Suck me hard and fast, baby. Make me come in your pretty little mouth.”
My requests spur on her pursuit to unravel me. She sucks, licks, and hand-fucks me over the next several minutes without her eyes once leaving mine. Her skills at giving head are undeniable, and within minutes, my ass is lifting off the mattress, and the urge to come is overwhelming me.
“Eyes,” Isabelle snaps out in a commanding tone when the sensation stealing my senses causes my eyes to flutter shut.
Her grab of the reins humors me, but since the locking of our eyes adds to the pressure of her sucks, I keep them locked as requested. She draws me to the very back of her throat, swivels her tongue around the head, then withdraws it with a pop.
She repeats the process over and over again until I can’t hold back the urge for a second longer. With a roar, I shout her name before I coat her tongue with my cum. “Fuck, Isabelle,” I grunt again when she swallows down my spawn like it is tastier than the meals we shared today.
She licks, sucks, and swallows me down until every drop of cum is pumped out of my cock and sitting in her stomach, then she crawls up my body to rest her once again sweaty head on my damp chest. I’ve never felt so drained, both emotionally and physically.
