Mine to Keep (Mine #2)(70)

“Yes!” His eyes were still wild. “Want…more…want…all…”

He took her against the wall then. Her shoulders hit the surface, but she didn’t care. He’d freed her hands, and her nails scratched down his back.

He was holding her hips now, lifting her up again and again. Forcing her to match his rhythm, forcing her to take and take.

She didn’t have the breath to scream when the release hit her this time. She shuddered and trembled in his arms. Then she fell against him, limp, as her heart raced.

He still wasn’t done.

Trace kept thrusting. A fast, hard tempo that she couldn’t match. The tender lover was gone. She looked up and saw that his face was cut in hard lines of need. Primitive lust. Her arms wrapped around him, and that was pretty much all her exhausted body could manage.

His cock was so full. Big and thick, filling every inch of her. Her sex was swollen from her orgasms. With every thrust, she was on the brink of more pleasure…or pain?

The line was there, so hard to determine. Because the feelings coursing through her were so strong. So dark and powerful.

He erupted. “Skye!” His orgasm went on and on, and she was lost as she seemed to fall into the abyss.

Not pain.

Only pleasure.

Only…Trace.

***

Navy Pier. The place was normally a tourist’s dream, but, in the middle of a night-time thunderstorm, the place was deserted.

Drake stood at the end of the dock, staring out at the glistening water. Lightning flashed in the dark sky. Bright strobes that lit the waves.

Anna Jean.

She’d been his worst mistake.

And he hadn’t even managed to kill her.

Drake turned away from the water, hunching his shoulders against the rain that continued to fall in heavy blasts from the dark sky. He’d screwed up back then—when he’d screwed her. But he’d never met another woman like Anna Jean.

She’d had a walk of pure temptation. Eyes that made him think constantly of sex and the pleasures found between lovers. She’d belonged to Tucker. He knew it, and he’d done his best to keep his hands off her.

But she’d come to him. They’d danced too much and drank too damn much in a godforsaken bar in Russia.

They’d f*cked in that same bar.

When the booze had cleared from his head, Drake had hated himself for what he’d done. He’d wanted to tell Tucker about his mistake.

But Anna Jean had said that Tucker would never forgive. Or forget.

“Drake…”

He turned at the faint call. He could just see the outline of a person, walking toward him. He squinted, trying to see better in the storm.

“Drake.”

A woman’s voice. Drifting to him. He took a step toward her, focusing completely on her now.

So when the blow came from behind, he didn’t have time to defend himself.

Something heavy and hard slammed into the back of his head. Then Drake felt himself flying to the side, and he crashed right into the icy water.

***

“Did I hurt you?” Trace stared down at Skye as a fist seemed to squeeze his heart. His body still shuddered with aftershocks of the most powerful release he’d ever had.

He’d gone damn blind there for a moment. He’d only been able to feel—her.

Her head tilted back against the wall, and she smiled at him. A slow, sensual smile that pierced straight through him. “Was that supposed to scare me?”

He’d been too rough. Too controlling, too—

“If so, then I think you should work real hard to scare me again. You know, every night or so.”

The tightness around his heart eased. He lifted her into his arms. Her hands wrapped around his neck, and he carried her to the bathroom.

Trace sat her on the granite countertop. Carefully, he cleaned off the signs of their love-making from her body. And when he looked up, he found Skye staring straight at him.

“Every lover that I’ve ever had…he’s been you in the dark.” Her voice was soft and sensual.

Always tempting me.

He tossed aside the cloth. Trace put his hands on either side of her body. He didn’t touch her, not then. Try to go five seconds without touching her. “No other lover could ever compare to you.” After he’d had sex with them, he couldn’t get away from the other women fast enough. Because they weren’t Skye.

And he’d felt guilty, so damn guilty, for being with them.

Even when Skye had been a world away.

“I never asked you for a list of lovers,” Skye said.

That gave him pause. He’d asked for a list of her lovers, back when he’d been trying to figure out who was stalking her. He’d also been tempted to destroy every man on her list.

“I don’t want to know about them,” Skye said. “Because then I’ll just have people to hate.”

His breath burned in his lungs. “You’re it for me. There can’t be anyone else, not after what we’ve had.”

Her smile grew then and lit her eyes. She leaned toward him. Her lips pressed against his ear. “Good,” Skye whispered, “because I’d hate to hurt a bitch.”

Her words surprised him so much—coming from his delicate Skye—not so delicate—that Trace laughed.

Skye didn’t laugh. She kept gazing up into his eyes. “Oh, Trace,” Skye said softly. “When are you ever going to realize the truth? You don’t love me because you want to protect me. You love because you realize that, deep down, we’re very much alike.”