The instant Miranda knew my wings were more devilish than angelic, and she didn’t press on the brakes, this train moved forward at a dangerous speed.
I refuse to give her up for anything or anyone—even men I’ve known over half my life.
“You heard me,” Miranda spits out, still fighting, still drawing me in with her grit. “That’s why you showed up at my doorstep, isn’t it? You arrived looking for the missing cocaine and thought,What the hell, what’s one more pity fuck?”
I let her go, happy to face the wrath of her fury if it gives me her eyes. They are the only things capable of displaying her true feelings. They show the woman behind the shield her fuckface of a husband forced on her years ago.
Miranda spins on a dime and whacks into my chest, too enraged with anger to pay attention to the caution in my tone.
Nothing will stop her onslaught—except a warning she knows I will uphold to the letter.
“Every whack, bite, scratch, and nick you do to me, I’ll do back to you. That’s how we operate. That’sour thing.”
“Our?” She scoffs as if disgusted. It is a pity her scent announces differently.
She is as turned on right now as I am, and one step from waving the white flag.
“Yes.Our.”
Before she can respond with the fierceness I’ve craved from her since the day I laid eyes on her, I snake my hand up her back, fist her locks, then seal my mouth over hers.
There’s nothing tender about my kiss. Nothing friendly. It is possessive and claiming, a kiss that speaks my intentions better than words ever could.
And Miranda is defenseless to its onslaught.
“Does this feel like the reaction of a man pity fucking?”
I grip her ass and rock my hips forward, dragging my erection against her heat, drawing out her sultry moans.
“I stayed away at the start because Iknowyou deserve better than both the douche youoncecalled your husband and me. But don’t take that as disinterest on my behalf. I had eyes on you more than on my job. That’s how they were able to play me for a fool.Again.”
Conflicting timelines removed the nooses from Roy’s and Tasha’s necks for the missing cocaine, but something isn’t adding up. There are too many missing pieces to this puzzle, but not enough hours in the day to find them.
The number of bullets I’m dodging should have my cock hanging limp, but this, my butterfly’s final metamorphosis, is more important than insolent idiots too dumb to remain hidden forever.
They’ll start acting flashy and will talk shit like all unaccredited drug mules do, and then I’ll take them down. It will only beafterthey’ve announced who suggested Miranda’s business name should be dropped into the dirt with them, though.
After reacquainting our lips, I kiss Miranda with everything I have.
Several long minutes pass before I pull back to marvel at the life firing through her pretty eyes.
“Every time I have you, I want you more.”
My tongue lashes her kiss-swollen lips, still craving more even when she is right in front of me.
“The first time I saw you…fuck.Your beauty brought me to my knees. Then, as I watched you more and more, I realized your attractiveness goes much deeper than skin deep. Everything about you is perfect. Your smile, your kindness, your ability to make it seem as if you’re happy even when you’re dying on the inside.”
I kiss the edge of her mouth for each statement, tinging their honesty with a smear of deceit, but too desperate to touch her to hold back for a moment longer.
“But you weren’t mine to do with as I pleased. Both on paper and in your eyes, you belonged to another man.” She tries to interrupt me, so I speak faster. “So I kept my distance and bided my time, knowing one day you’d eventually break out of your cocoon and be free of him.” Again, I inch back, smirking when she groans. “I couldn’t force you to do that, though. Your metamorphosis had to be your own doing. It made you that much stronger.” The lust in her eyes announces she is aware of my next sentence before I articulate it. “Strong enough to know you could stop this if you truly want to.”
I use my grip on her hair to force her to her knees, and then I use my opposite hand to raise her chin and lock our eyes.
When I drag my thumb over her lips, softening them to be stretched, she whimpers. It drills through the last of my resistance and has me speaking as honestly as I have the past forty-eight hours.
“The only person about to be pity fucked is me. But fuck if I can stop this, butterfly. I crave you enough to watch you from afar for a year and keep my hands to myself. There ain’t no way I’ll achieve the same now knowing I can have you. I crave you more than my lungs crave air. You’re my drug of choice.”
With her wings fully expanded, Miranda gets on board with my plans rather quickly. One second, she’s wetting her lips. The next, she’s tugging on the fastener of my jeans and pulling my cock out of my pants.
