Total pages in book: 167
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 164838 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 824(@200wpm)___ 659(@250wpm)___ 549(@300wpm)
Shifting, I attempted to get off her, but she placed her hands on my lower back. Her soft touch kept me from going anywhere.
Our eyes met.
The room, the night, the world all bled away like watercolour illusions.
We didn’t speak for so long, but our hearts thundered to the same chaos. Finally, finally, she studied my mask and whispered a single word.
One word that undid me.
One word that made me hers.
One word that ensured I gave in.
“Please…”
* 29 *
Sailor
Mask Fetish Unlocked
I HATED MYSELF FOR PUSHING HIM TO DO something he didn’t want to do.
I did my best to take my pleading back.
To be strong enough to do this on my own and stop using someone for my own gain.
But…I couldn’t.
For the first time in my life, I really, truly, desperately needed someone. Not sexually. Not physically. But in all the ways he made me feel: protected, cherished, seen. Every fractured piece. Every distorted part. He saw all of me, yet he didn’t judge me or pity me or shame me.
I ought to be petrified.
A man in a mask and baseball cap pinned me to my bed and glowered at me with such intensity, I felt his stare in my soul.
Yet all I felt was safe. So exquisitely safe.
I had no more tears. No more self-doubt or hate or guilt.
I hummed and burned, and even if he said no to helping me, I might, just might, be able to achieve a happy ending on my own if he left me with more memories like this one.
When he hugged me from behind, I’d felt so sheltered.
When he flipped me onto my back and grabbed my chin, I felt so bare, so open, so wanted.
He gave off such a caring, secretive vibe with the occasional explosion of dominating masculinity.
It scrambled my senses, set fire to my system, and left me shaky and achy and…
“Please,” I whispered again, staring at the painted skull covering where his lips would be. The toothy grimace only added to the dynamic that I was the weak one while he was the one in my control.
He willingly gave me every power over him without speaking. I saw it in the way he watched me and felt it in the way he touched me. He told me, loud and proud, that his crush for me was real, that this was real, and everything else didn’t matter.
Tugging one of my arms from under the covers, I reached for his mask.
I managed to tug it enough to reveal a part of his nose before his fingers locked around my wrist and pulled my hand away.
He shook his head just once.
He clucked his tongue.
He doused me with gasoline and struck a match that made fire erupt and heat burn and all I wanted to do was kiss him.
“If you won’t sleep with me…kiss me?” I flicked my stare from his mask to his eyes, once again asking for something I shouldn’t. “Kiss me and you can go.”
With a snarl, he rolled off me and pulled his mask back into position. “You’re definitely trying to kill me.” Propping himself up with his elbow, he supported his head and stared at me. “And nice try, but I won’t remove my mask.”
“Ah, yes.” I nodded seriously. “The boils.”
He chuckled quietly. “Exactly.”
Lying on his hip and facing me, he ran his fingertip feather-soft over my bottom lip. “I need you to know that I’m not denying you because I don’t want you. I do. I want you way too fucking much. It’s taking every ounce of willpower not to take you but…I’m trying to do the right thing and the right thing is…” He bit back a groan-snarl. “The right thing is not giving in to you even though that’s all I want to do.” Narrowing his eyes, he added, “I’m not going to kiss you, and I can’t sleep with you, but…okay.”
The world stopped spinning.
“Okay?” My heart almost leaped out of my chest.
Bending over me, he rubbed his masked nose against mine. The darkness in my room only granted shadowy features even this close. If I hadn’t seen him before with my bedside light on, I wouldn’t have known he had black hair under his hat or the richest, kindest brown eyes.
“Okay…I’ll help you.”
My leaping heart suddenly played dead. “H-How?”
Trailing his fingers from my mouth, he traced them along my throat, between my cleavage, and slowly down my belly.
His eyebrow rose as he felt the silky satin of my nightgown. “I thought you were more of a t-shirt and shorts to bed kinda girl.”
I stretched under his petting, fully invested in the sparkling, tingling sensation he left me with. “A nightgown is easier access than shorts.” I was so breathless, I sounded as if I’d run ten laps of the park.
He laughed again, low and rich. “You’re right, it is.”