Page 79 of Blood We Steal

“Rubin. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re in a jail. And there are zombies outside. I promise I’m not going far.”

Her smile was soft as she looked up at me.

“Don’t disappear like that again,” I repeated.

“Okay.” Still smiling, still amused, still lit up by whatever had happened in her time with Veronica.

I got her back to the office in record time and practically pushed her inside.

Her hand was pressed against my chest. I’d been so tangled in my own thoughts I hadn’t noticed she was touching me. Somehow Simone was the only thing that could distract me from Simone.

I looked down at her hand, thinking it would give me a moment to regain control. Long fingers, sturdy. Neat clipped nails, unpainted. A little divot where her cheap pens pressed into her skin. Wholly unremarkable, like the woman herself.

Now that unremarkable hand, belonging to an unremarkable woman, pushed against my chest. My eyes flashed up to hers. Her fingertips pressed harder. I stepped back, then saw where this was going.

“Simone…” I’d intended the word as a warning. It came out as something else altogether.

“Rubin…” She said my name like she had every right to. Like she wanted to.

The backs of my knees found the couch and I sat before I’d decided to. My body moved on its own, and by the time my mind caught up, Simone stood in front of me, pulling down the heavy canvas of the white prison uniform that never should have touched her skin.

She draped herself over my thighs like she’d done it a thousand times.

God, this was so perfect.

I couldn’t allow that to be.

I didn’t move.

I stayed exactly where I was, her weight settling over me, the astringent scent of cheap soap and pure Simone underneath it. She widened her legs and I breathed her in deep and hated how much I wanted this. Like always, the feelings only Simone could pull out of me hit at once as I stared into her brown eyes. The hatred that made it almost impossible to draw my next breath, and the things underneath it I wouldn’t dare name.

I’d taken her on this couch before, her cheek pressed so hard against the rough fabric it left a pattern on her skin. I should have done that now, given myself the escape some part of me knew I needed.

Still, I couldn’t move.

I also couldn’t let Simone win. I’d always enjoyed testing my control, and she was a way to do it. I kept my eyes locked on hers and refused to look away. She wouldn’t make me hide, even as I shivered under her hands moving down my chest.

She smiled as she moved them back up and cupped my stubbled cheeks in her palms. Warm. Soft, her face close enough that I could see the flare of her nostrils. I knew what she meant to do a breath before she leaned in. I let her get closer, closer, then turned my head. Her lids lowered, but she kept her eyes on mine, disappointment and want clear in them.

No.

Simone didn’t want me. This was only an angle. She had her part to play, and I had mine. So I’d do that now, and let her, but it would never be more than that. I’d prove to myself I could. Take her face-to-face, watch her the whole time, remember exactly what this was. Simone recovered and pressed her lips to my jaw, then my neck. I shivered, but I wasn’t surprised. Maybe it had hurt her. Maybe I’d just given her exactly what she wanted. I didn’t know. I couldn’t know.

That was why this boring, dull woman was my undoing.

She proved it again when she freed my cock from the uniform, dragging the coarse fabric down with punishing patience. She stroked me root to tip, slow, watching my face the whole time, studying my every reaction. She worked my cock until I was slick and leaking over her knuckles. Before I could stop, I rocked my hips up, fucking her fist so eagerly it was embarrassing.

Then she just stopped.

Held me on the edge of oblivion, her thumb gently stroking my leaking crown.

“Look how hard you are for me,” she said, pride and awe in her voice.

“Are you teasing me, Simone?”

Her answer was a swipe of her tongue around my crown, pulling me just deep enough into the warmth of her mouth that I shivered. Then she rose up and settled over me, lazily dragging the head of my cock between her lower lips.

Fuck.