All the Pretty Lies (Pretty #1)(48)
Author: M. Leighton

I find myself panting as I watch him. It’s so naughty, so intimate. Hemi pumps his hips, squirting until there’s nothing left. I glance up at his face. His eyes are warm and intense. And then I feel his fingers. I look down to see him rubbing them over me. “This,” he says, wetting three fingertips on me, “is mine.” On the last word, he slips those three digits down and into me. “All mine. Next time, I’ll come inside you. I’ll fill you up with me. All of me.”

Already, even when I feel so sated, I can’t wait. I can’t wait until the next time he touches me, kisses me, puts his fingers or his tongue or…anything he wants into me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR – Hemi

Gently, I let Sloane’s legs fall. I drag my fingertips over her smooth skin and feel the blood rush back into my dick. I could go again, but I won’t do that to her. She’ll be sore as it is.

“Are you okay?” I ask when she groans a little.

“I don’t think I’ve ever been better,” she replies, her voice soft and sleepy.

I smile. “Yet.” She turns her head and smiles at me. “But I won’t prove my point tonight. Tonight, we’ll get cleaned up and go watch a movie in bed. And order pizza. How does that sound?”

“That sounds like heaven,” she replies.

I give her a peck on her lips as I straighten and reach for the open water bottle. I pour what’s left onto one corner of the towel and use it to gently wipe between her legs. She flinches at first.

“You don’t have to do that,” she says, clamping her thighs shut on my hand.

“I don’t mind.”

“No, seriously, you don’t have to do that.”

I look up at her face. I can see the color in her cheeks. I lean forward, kissing her nose and her forehead and then brushing my lips over hers. “There’s no reason for you to be embarrassed. I’ve kissed and licked and sucked and touched every square inch of your body. Why would it bother you for me to clean you up?”

She shrugs, relaxing her legs a little. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just…embarrassed.”

“But why?”

She won’t meet my eyes. “I’m sure this isn’t a mess you have to worry about with the other women you’ve been with.”

I stop and give her my full attention. “Sloane, not only did we just have some kick-ass sex, but you gave me something that you’ve never given to anyone. I know how special that is. And you need to understand that it was special for me, too. I’ve never taken someone’s virginity. I’ve never even wanted to. But with you, I did. I wanted to take it. I wanted to be your first. I wanted you to be all mine. Just mine. I told you I was selfish and it seems that I’m only that much worse when it comes to you.”

Sloane relaxes her legs and tilts her head to the side, watching me as I go back to work wiping blood off the insides of her thighs.

When I’m done, I fold the towel over and wipe off myself as well.

“Thank you,” I hear her say quietly.

“For what?”

“For giving me this wonderful night.”

“It’s been one hundred percent my pleasure,” I tell her honestly. Her smile widens and then dies slowly into nothing more than a gentle curve of her lips. It looks almost…sad. It’s a look I’ve seen come over her face several times before and I always wonder what puts it there. But I never want to get involved enough to ask. This time, I nearly do.

Nearly.

But knowing what I’ve done and how Sloane would feel if she ever found out stops me.

“Come on,” I say, taking her hands and pulling her into a sitting position. “Let’s go upstairs and rinse off in the shower before we crawl into bed.”

She nods but says nothing. We walk up the steps in silence, stopping only long enough for me to pitch the towels into the wash machine for Cicely when she comes on Monday.

Sloane heads down the hall toward the room she slept in last night, the room her things are in. I follow her through the door, only long enough to grab her two bags and take her hand again.

“This isn’t your room anymore,” I say simply, leading her back out into the hall and down two doors to the master. “You’ll be staying in here. With me.”

I don’t give her a chance to argue. I set her things on the dresser and tug her on to the en suite bathroom where I turn on the shower and drag her with me into the warm spray.

Just for a few days, just while she’s here, we can pretend that this is all about us. And that nothing else matters.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE – Sloane

The first thought I have when I open my eyes is that I’m in Hemi’s bed. Where I spent the night. All night. Wrapped in his arms. Several times, I turned over on my side and, within seconds, he’d turn over and adjust to the way I was lying, curving his body around mine. It was the best, most comforting night I’ve ever spent. I’ve never felt safer. Or happier.

And, now, more worried.

I’m in love with Hemi. There’s no sense even pretending that I’m not anymore. Does it change anything? No. I wish it did, but I don’t think it will. Do I regret it? No again. I wouldn’t trade last night for a thousand good-yet-lesser experiences. Whatever heartache comes, it was worth it. It was all worth it. However long I may live, I’ll have this time. And like Sarah said, I plan to enjoy every second of it.

Carefully, I turn my head on the pillow to look at Hemi’s gorgeous face, relaxed and a little more boyish in sleep. It gives me the opportunity to study him unnoticed, so I do. It doesn’t take me long to realize that, in wakefulness, Hemi is extremely intense. Everything about him from the sharpness of his eyes to the squareness of his jaw to the firm set of his mouth is intense. But now, lying here resting beside me, he just looks handsome. And a little more fragile. He seems invincible, bigger than life when he’s awake. But now, he looks like a mere mortal, vulnerable and woundable.

I glance down at his bare chest and the ribs exposed to my eyes. I wonder again who has wounded him in life, what events have shaped the sad and bitter edge to his personality. He hides it well, but it’s there. I notice it because I have one, too. Again, everyone has their secrets. Hemi included.

I hear my phone buzz from my purse somewhere toward the end of the bed. As easily as I can, I slip out from under Hemi’s arm and tip toe to get it before it wakes him.

It’s Dad.

I walk down the hall to the room I slept in that first night, pulling the door shut behind me before I answer.