Allied: A Superhero Reverse Harem Romance (The PTB Alliance Book 3), стр. 25
We wrestled for the top for a brief moment before I won, catching her in an armlock she'd perfected on me all those years ago. I kissed the back of her neck and she stilled, giving in to the inevitable.
"You're a sore winner. What are you going to do to me? Turn me in? Beat me up? Maybe pull out the handcuffs and play bad cop?"
Her voice turned the last question into something out of a porno. I laughed and dropped her. "What if I don't do a goddamn thing and I just let you lay there and writhe? Let you imagine what I might do to you if you were a good girl?"
Wide eyes looked back at me as she turned over. "That's dirty pool."
"You started it."
"Did not."
Her legs whipped up around my neck, but I caught her left ankle with my forearm and spread her wide, laying across her chest-first and slowly rolling up her body. "Did. Too."
She flushed as I crawled up from her groin, empty hands reaching to pull me into another kiss. I slid away and pecked the tip of her nose.
"If you want me so bad," I whispered. "You're going to have to ask for it."
"Jesus Christ, Emb, come on," Cassie shivered.
"Ardent."
"Nishelle."
I grinned. "I missed hearing that from you."
"I missed a hell of a lot of things coming from you," Cassie growled.
She reached for my shirt and I batted her hands away once, twice, and smirked. Frustrated, she tried to take me down again. It was the same game we'd played for years, always a little different but the core of it the same. One of us would attempt to free ourselves while the other wound them up inside. And then? The bliss. The pure, searing passion that erupted between us, leaving us breathless and usually on the floor.
Cassie was hell on furniture, but what can I say? I only torched a bed once.
The past had distracted me long enough that her arm came up around my neck and dragged me into the couch with her. She caught me in a kiss and off we went to the ground, my elbow clipping the coffee table. The surge of pain didn't do to me what it did to Cassie, but it was enough to make things interesting.
My shirt landed on the same table that savaged me. I took my own damn bra off, because ladies can do for themselves sometimes. And sometimes they can't. Cassie's shirt was tossed across the room, but she was too damned slow with the bra and I ripped the little curls of wire off, breaking that damn thing and letting it land wherever it did.
I pushed her back to the ground and kissed her again, skin touching skin after so long apart, like it was welcoming the other back and... and...
She drew her head back and looked up at me, worry in her eyes. "What about the boys?"
"What about the boys?" I asked.
I reached for her right breast and she, gently, grabbed my hand. "Nishelle, I can't deal with this if it's a one-off thing. We've always been all fire and passion, but I need this to be real. If it's not, I need to stop." Fuck, she wanted to talk about our long-term prospects -now-? I tried to kiss her again, tried to get her back in the spirit, but she moved her head away from mine and eyed me. "I'm serious."
"God damn it, Strikes. I don't know. I'm not exactly jealous," I sighed. "I just don't know what they do for you that I can't."
Cassie blinked. "It's not like that."
"It's exactly like that. I was more than enough for you before."
Her head tilted, like a curious puppy. "You're still more than enough for me. I love you. That's never changed. I just fell in love with others, too. This isn't about you versus them. It's just about how you feel. How I feel."
"You love me?"
" 'Course I do, Emb."
I swallowed and lay down atop her, resting my chin just above her breasts. "It's just complicated. And kind of confusing. I always knew you had a thing for Nate, but Edwin? Adam?"
"I didn't expect it either," she said. "But it happened, and I love them, too. It doesn't make me love you any less."
It was like cool water on a burn. I slid my arms around her and just held her for a moment before speaking. "You really sure it doesn't mean that? Because if it doesn't, that changes everything."
"Does it?" There was hope in her voice.
Nestling her collar bone, I closed my eyes. "Yeah, it does. Because it's the difference between just being there and being -yours-."
"Emb, you've always been mine," Cassie murmured, stroking my cheek.
I leaned toward her hand, the heat in me replaced with warm fluff. "Then I don't see any reason for this to be a one-time thing."
"You sure about that?"
"Yeah. I'm positive."
She twisted beneath me, pushing me to the bottom of the pile. Her head lowered, hot lips touching the hollow of my throat and slowly trickling downward. I tipped my chin up, hissing as she paused at my chest to draw my left nipple into her mouth, roll her tongue over it, then release it to the chill of the room.
"Lower?"
Her mouth touched my belly, just above my navel, her thumbs tugging at either side of my belt hooks. I rolled my shoulders back against the couch, just enough to see her, and swallowed. "Me first?"
Cassie narrowed her eyes at me and bit the button on my fly. I stared as she opened it with her teeth, gripped the zipper, and peeled it down. Then she kissed the soft