Free Beyond Ransom (The Ransom Series) by A.T. Douglas

toward the wall with no intention of moving.
    “Tell me,” he implores.  “What did he
do?”
    Tell me, Morgan .  Mark’s words creep back into my head when Leo says this, and my
whole body shivers.
    “Fuck.  Morgan, talk to me.”
    “That’s what he did,” I say quietly.  “He
fucked me with his fingers.  And he sucked me.  Here.”  I nod downward toward
my chest before turning and pushing myself up some to
meet Leo’s gaze more directly.  “And I let him do it.  I’m a horrible, fucked - up person who let him pleasure me.”
    I don’t notice the tears falling from
my eyes until Leo’s hand is there on my cheek to wipe them away.  I see the
compassion in his face and something else.  Maybe regret?
    He pulls me up to him so that my head
is resting against his shoulder.  We sit for a long moment like this, silent
tears working themselves out of me as I cry away my shame.
    “I thought about you,” I admit to him. 
“Every day, and even while it was happening.”
    I don’t know why I’m saying this.  Maybe
it’s to move even more of the guilt off my shoulders.  Maybe it’s to let Leo
know that every day I wished he would make an appearance, that it was him I was
thinking about when I got so worked up that Mark heard me, that I imagined it
was his fingers and mouth pleasuring me instead of Mark’s.
    “I’m sorry.  I should have been here,
but I ’ve had to stay away.  When I saw Mark went from
pissed off to pleased in the ten minutes I hadn’t seen him , I knew I had to check on you.”  He pauses, seeming to consider his
next words carefully.  “Nothing has changed, though.  We still can’t do this.”
    Leo’s hand is in my hair now, working through the tangled strands.  His touch move s to my arm , and he rub s the skin lightly.  I can tell by the way
he’s doing it and holding me that he doesn’t believe a word he’s saying.
    “Bullshit.”
    Leo stops moving and looks at me,
surprised.  “You have a bit of a mouth on you, don’t you?”
    I can’t help smiling in confirmation of
his observation.  It feels good to smile.  The muscles in my face feel out of
practice at it, like they haven’t smiled in ages.
    The smile is euphoric but also has a
secondary effect as I look up at Leo holding me in the limited light coming
through the small barred window in the door.  I feel a reemergence of
everything I’ve felt in thinking about Leo since our heated kiss.  My body’s
selfish desire is back and building to a raging force within me the longer I’m
in his strong arms.
    At this moment I’m grateful there isn’t
more light coming into the room from the hallway.  I like that he can’t see the
blush in my cheeks.  It’s exciting to know that he’s not going to expect what
I’m about to say.
    “I want you to erase what he did,” I
suggest as Leo stills behind me.  “Replace it with your own version , t he way it should have been.”
    “Morgan…”
    “Don’t say it.”  I take his hand from
my arm and place it directly on my breast, compressing it slightly.  “Tell me
you don’t want this.”
    A deep groan emanates from Leo’s
throat, and I love the sound.  This is no boyish reaction to my advance.  This
is a sound from a man’s primal core.  It’s natural and raw, and it only makes
me want this more.
    I reach behind me and unclasp my bra
before lying back down on the cot and pulling my shirt up as I go.  My breasts
are exposed to him in the direct path of the subtle glow of light coming from
the hallway.  My nipples are perked and ready, and Leo seems eager to receive them.
    “God, you’re fucking perfect.”
    He gently holds each side of my bruised
torso while engaging my breast with his mouth, pulling, sucking, and licking me
until I’m about ready to become undone.  There’s a subtle intensity in his
movements, something that almost amounts to admiration.  He keeps me just on
the edge of pleasure and pain, careful not to cross that