The Taking (Seven Deadly Sins #3)(41)
Author: Erin McCarthy

“But you’re willing to risk it with me?”

Tossing the mess of sheets and blankets back onto the bed, he kept his back to her. “You and me, we’re both damaged. So neither one of us has any expectations.”

“Why the hell does your tattoo spell out ‘GREED’?’ she asked, horror mingling with curiosity in her voice.

Felix whirled around and saw her stricken expression. It made him turn back to the bed again in shame. He’d forgotten about his tattoo, his own personal branding. There was a story he told everyone, and then there was the truth. For some reason, he found himself giving Regan the truth. “I used to be greedy. I wanted money, power, material possessions. And I got them. But it wasn’t worth what it cost my soul. So this is to remind me that my greed is behind me.”

“I see,” she said.

He sensed her moving up to him, and then her fingers were fluttering across his skin, tracing the letters. Felix stood still, enjoying her touch, yet unable to shake the shame of who he was, what he had done.

“Maybe I should get a tattoo,” she whispered, her breath tickling his shoulder. “Only mine would read ‘Stop Being a Doormat.’”

Felix laughed, turning to take her into his arms. “I don’t think anyone who leaves Alcroft and fights through a divorce is a doormat.”

“Do you know him?” Regan asked, head tilting slightly.

“Yes.” Felix left it at that, cursing the fact that he’d brought the demon’s name into what they were doing here, together. “Now get in bed.” He pushed her so that she lost her balance and fell backward onto the mattress and crumpled covers.

“Ah!” she yelped, before launching a pillow at him. “Jerk.”

Glad to see she was grinning, Felix just smirked. “And don’t you forget it.”

Her smile turned tender then disappeared altogether as she lay on the bed looking up at him. She whispered, “I think you’re nicer than you’d like to admit.”

Felix lost his grin as well at her words. He wanted to scoff, to protest, to tell her the truth, that he had never been a good man, that he tried to find ways to be decent in this life he had to live, but that in no way was he a man of quality.

But he didn’t want that look on her face to alter. For once, he just wanted to close his eyes and believe that he could be worthy of the love or at least affection of a wonderful woman.

Climbing onto the bed, he ran his hand up her leg, her thigh, drifting over the front of her panties. “Is this nice?”

Her breathing had already altered, becoming more audible, her eyes widening as she watched him. “Yes.”

“I can make it even nicer.” Felix leaned forward and brushed his lips over her panties, taking in the scent of her arousal.

Then he jerked the cotton to the side to expose her to his view. She was slick with desire already, her dark curls dewy. Skimming his thumbs down either side of her, Felix flicked his tongue over her swollen clitoris. Regan gave a soft moan and her fingers made their way into his hair.

His c**k swelled at her reaction and at the taste of her, so elemental, so sensual. He knew he was good at this, knew that he could please a woman, and he enjoyed that. But he had never needed to know he could satisfy a woman as much as he did with Regan. It mattered. And that scared him at the same time it thrilled him.

Moving his tongue first slowly, then faster, Felix listened to Regan responding, to her increased moans, her rapid breathing. He felt her body tighten, shifting restlessly beneath his touch, felt her fingers dig deeper, her back arching as he licked and sucked at her. Her flesh grew warmer, her body damper, her cries louder.

Felix felt his own body stiffen, his grip on her thighs tighter as he reveled in her pleasure. He wanted to shift up and plunge his erection into her, but he wanted to have her shatter on his mouth more.

When he sucked her clitoris, she did, calling out his name in such a raw voice it made a chill rush over his hot body. Slowing his tongue down over her slick folds, Felix pulled back as her orgasm petered out, intent to replace his tongue with his c**k inside her warm and wet body.

Only Regan stopped him by reaching down and closing a hand around his cock, putting her other hand on his chest to prevent his forward motion.

“No?” he asked, disappointed in more ways than he could describe. But it had been a long and emotional night. Maybe she just wanted to go to sleep. He couldn’t be selfish and withhold that from her simply so he could get his rocks off.

But sleep wasn’t what Regan had in mind. She had sat up and was moving forward, her mouth open …

Felix stared down at her in shock as she touched his c**k with her lips in a small kiss. No woman had done that, done this, in over a hundred years. They always took. They never gave. And it wasn’t right to ask. But Regan’s lips were separating, head lowering, as her hot, smooth mouth slid over the length of him.

Felix closed his eyes and gritted his teeth at the agony of pleasure. Damn it, it felt so good, better than he remembered, all-consuming. But he had to force himself to say, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

She looked up at him, her eyes glossy with desire, her lips wrapped around his cock, shiny and damp, her hair falling in her eyes. She pulled back just enough to say, “Oh, I want to. Trust me.”

That alone almost sent him careening over the edge. The look in her eye matched the conviction in her voice, and Felix was stunned. She meant it. She wanted to suck him, and that was the hottest damn thing he’d ever experienced. Despite his curse, somehow this woman wanted to give him pleasure instead of just taking it.

So he put his hands on the back of her head lightly and watched her as she took him into her mouth over and over, her mouth slicking him, the sensation hot and tight and explosive. Felix felt the edges of his control starting to splinter, both his physical and emotional barriers disintegrating. He should stop her, it, this … everything between them, but he couldn’t.

It might be selfish, but just once, he wanted to share, to feel that bond of intimacy, to be one, instead of two separate people moving through life alone.

He wanted to fall in love, and be loved.

Knowing he was going to lose it, Felix pulled out and pushed at Regan’s shoulder.

“I wanted to …” she started to say.

But Felix shook his head. He couldn’t finish that way, or he might never recover.

Regan saw the fierce look of determination on Felix’s face and swallowed her protest instead of him. Falling back onto the bed, she had barely hit the mattress when he was inside, entering her with a brutal thrust that had her gasping.