To Hate Adam Connor

I put my hand on her back and pulled her flush against my chest, our noses inches apart, her breath becoming mine.

“Don’t hide from me, Lucy. Don’t pull away.”

“I’m so tired,” she whispered, her body still alert, still ready to put distance between us. “I’m so tired of trying to hold everything up and just messing things up even further. I talked to Catherine.” She sighed and dropped her forehead to my chin, her hands curling into her chest in between us. “I don’t even know why I did it. That’s not true, I know why I did it. I thought…maybe, you know. Maybe she’d be there for me. Maybe she’d do something and everything would be okay. She is family after all; that’s what family does. That’s what Olive does for me.”

“I take it that didn’t go well.”

A humorless laugh. “Yeah, you could say that. Every time I talk to her, happy or sad, she has a way of killing something inside me.”

“I’ll hold you up, Lucy. You can trust me. I see who you are. I see who you are, and I want you to choose me. I want you to open your eyes and look at me so you can see that I have what it takes, that I can take care of your heart for you.”

“I don’t hate you anymore.” Her fingers moved on my chin, on my neck, her touch a searing mark on my heart.

I wanted this girl…this strong, beautiful girl. I wanted her to be mine. To hold her hand and walk on the street. To smile with her. Do simple things. Things other people took for granted. I wanted to laugh with her.

I wanted to sneak into her heart just as I’d sneaked into her bedroom.

“I don’t hate you anymore, Adam Connor, but I can’t love you. I can’t fall for you like that. I don’t want to break like them.”

“Lucy,” I murmured. “Do you think even for one second that you’d let anyone break you? Don’t you see who you are when you look in the mirror? If someone’s heart is breaking, you’ll be doing all the damage.”

“You would. You and your son would break me.”

“Aiden loves you.”

“And I love him. But when you break my heart, I’ll lose him, too. Because of you…being an asshole,” she said with the first signs of amusement in her tone. “I’d lose both of you.”

“So you’re sure it’d be my fault. Something I’d cause.”

“Have you looked at me? I’m an angel.”

I tilted her head back and pressed a soft, quick kiss on her lips. “Let’s not play games, Lucy. I want your heart, and I will have it. Let’s not play, let’s skip those parts.”

“Hmm.” Her lips moved against mine, and she cupped my chin in her hands. “Brat.”

Coming from her lips, it didn’t sting. “Just because you are who you are, do you think you can take anything you want?”

Her finger parted my lips and pushed into my mouth. I grazed her skin with my teeth then gently sucked on it. She moved closer.

“I don’t want much, Lucy. You should’ve seen that by now.”

“Yet you still want my heart.”

“I want a chance to have your heart. I’ll do the rest. Just forget about your stupid curse and trust me. That’s all I want.”

With her palm on my cheek, her lips pressed against mine.

Time stood still as she kissed me like she’d never kissed me before.

“You wouldn’t be good to my heart, Adam Connor,” she whispered against my lips. “You’re already making it hurt.”

I wove my hand through her hair and held her head still as I took over her lips. She let me. She moaned so sweetly, so ready for me already.

Did she know her hand was shaking as it lay on my cheek? That she was falling for me even as I kissed her like she was already mine? Did she know how much she was ruining me?

I moved my lips over hers more firmly. I moved my arm from under her and held her beautiful face in my palms. With every moan, with every gasp, I took a little bit more from her. I took everything inside me and told myself that this would be it. That my nights and days and everything in between would be filled with this woman. That I wouldn’t let her go. I’d be her home. I’d give her a family. I’d be her family. Her heart.

In that bed, her lips against mine, her hands holding on to my wrists, I promised her without words that I’d take everything I could take from her and in return give her the world.

I’d be that wind she loved to feel on her skin so much, the wind that put that peaceful smile on her lips.

I’d be her love.

The one who broke the curse she believed in so strongly.

If she had a baby, I’d give it my world. In return, all I’d take from her would be the battered yet still strong heart in her chest.

She let go of my wrist and one of her hands moved on my chest, sliding lower and lower. Her hips were restless, her body constantly moving against mine. I let go of her lips and pulled my shirt off so I could feel her hands on me.

Breathless from my kiss, she didn’t even hesitate before taking off her own.

“Lucy,” I growled softly as I took her in my arms again, her nipples hard against my chest.

“I want you,” she whispered. “I want your cock inside me again. Stretch me wide open, Adam.”

Her dirty, dirty mouth…

“You can have me, anything you want, Lucy.”

“Now,” she whispered, her hand sneaking in between us, her legs tangling with mine as if she wanted to make sure I’d stay.

She quickly worked my pants open and her hand was on my hot flesh, pulling my dick out. Stroking. Moving.

“I’m seriously in love with your cock,” she murmured, her eyes closed, her teeth biting on her own lip. “You’re not even in me and my legs are already shaking.”

“Good,” I managed to say roughly. “Mine is the only one you’ll have for quite some time as far as I’m concerned.”

She laughed, a beautiful sound. “Always so sure of yourself. You’ve barely learned how to kiss. I wouldn’t be so sure of myself if I were you.”

My hips moving on their own, I let her play with me, pet me. She tilted her head down and watched her hand move on me as I closed my eyes. It was dark, but I knew she could see enough. My cock pulsed in her hands, growing and hardening. When she swiped her thumb around the head, I leaked onto her fingers, more than ready to get inside her tight, wet pussy. I roughly pulled her head up and kissed her until she was out of breath again. Her hand tightened around me, her fingers not quite closing around the girth as I growled into her mouth, kissing her harder.

When she was drunk on my lips, I pulled away and bit her chin. “I thought you wanted to take me inside you. Are you done playing with me?”

She let me go and reached down, sliding off her underwear. As soon as she was done, I reached for her leg and pulled it over my thigh.

I palmed the curve of her ass, closing my eyes and memorizing the feel of her under my hands.

“Adam,” she groaned impatiently.

I dropped my head against her chest.

“Lucy. I didn’t plan for this. I don’t have a condom with me.”

Her groan caused my dick to twitch.

“Are you…clean?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“Well…I am too. If you want to…that is…because…I want to…”

My forehead resting against her chest, I pulled on her hips and pushed the head of my cock into her.