Free Sweet Recovery (Ex Ops Series Book 4) by Jessie Lane

nothing came out. It didn’t seem to matter, though, because he read my lips.
    The side of his mouth tipped up in a sad smile. He ran one of his thumbs over my lips and then said the words that would ruin me for life.
    “Nothing compares to you.”
    Tears stung my eyes, and I sucked in a startled breath at his words. I opened my mouth to say … something, but nothing came out. What could I say? I feel the same?
    I did. But I couldn’t. Only, Lucas didn’t know that. He couldn’t comprehend that he could stick his claws into me, pulling me to him, but eventually, I would have to unhook those claws and walk back to a much more dangerous monster than the man in front of me could ever be.
    So what was I going to do? Be selfish, just for a little while.
    I was going to soak up every second I had with this man because, even though I couldn’t tell him, I felt the exact same way. Nothing compared to Lucas, and nothing or no one ever would.
    He must have taken my silence for reluctance, because he gripped the back of my head again to hold me in place as he broke down and pleaded with me.
    “You have to believe me, Gin. I know it sounds crazy, but I mean it. For me, it’s always been you, even when I was too blind to see it.”
    The unshed tears that had been building up finally spilled over, running down my cheeks. He wiped them away.
    “I’m so sorry for hurting you the way I did, angel. I’ll say it every day for the rest of our lives if you want me to, but what I don’t want is to live a life without you in it.”
    I couldn’t take it anymore. He had to stop. If I let him keep going, I would break down and tell him everything, beg him to take me away from all of my problems and keep me with him. As much as I wanted that, I couldn’t have it. I wouldn’t leave my mother behind. She might love my father, but I wouldn’t trust him to keep her safe if my life depended on it, or Lucas’s for that matter.
    Close to bursting with words that couldn’t be spoken, I did the only thing I could think of to shut him up. I kissed him.
    It took him by surprise, but it didn’t take him long to respond, kissing me back hungrily. That was okay. It was exactly what I needed. I couldn’t give him the three words he wanted, but I could show him how I felt.
    Deepening the kiss, stroking my tongue against his, I savored the taste and warmth of him. Then I pulled myself up to straddle his hips, and I continued dancing my tongue with his while bracing my hands on the rails of the headboard behind him.
    Lucas moved his hands from my face until one was fisted in my hair and the other was cupping my neck, his thumb sweeping over my pulse point.
    My core was now lined up with his hard cock, and I started gyrating my hips to rub myself up and down his length. He moaned into my mouth before taking his hand out of my hair and grabbing my ass, trying to control my movements. That thumb that had been lazily moving across my throat stopped and tightened in a hold that didn’t cut off my air flow, but collared me to him, nonetheless.
    The move shocked me into stopping on a gasp, and I pulled away as far as his hand would let me, then looked at him uncertainly.
    “This moment is almost perfect, angel, but something is missing. Do you know what it is?” When he spoke, his purr was gone; now it was a dark rumble.
    My mind was racing, but I couldn’t seem to think straight.
    “No,” I whispered back.
    He swept the rough, callused skin of his thumb over the fragile skin of my neck again before he moved his hand, holding the front of my throat in his grasp. “My necklace. It belongs on your neck, hugging that pretty throat, so it can show everyone who speaks to you that you belong to someone. This moment would be perfect if you were wearing it now, sitting on top of my lap so prettily while you silently begged for my touch with your body.”
    Lucas
    Ginny gasped as if my words were scandalous, and I wanted to laugh at the innocent look she wore.