Tainted Black - Williams Shanora. Страница 49

Minutes passed. I forced my eyes shut. It didn’t help.

My phone buzzed on the bed beside me. “Mr. Black” appeared once again, and for a split second, I started to answer, but quickly changed my mind, muting the buzz and placing it beside the clock.

The screen went black, but something rapped on my glass as soon as it did. Gasping, I sat up, looking towards the window and spotting a shadow behind it. The knocking broke the silence again, and I shot to a stand, rushing to the window because I knew exactly who it was.

I pulled the curtains aside, and there he stood—Mr. Black, sporting all black. A baseball cap was fitted on his head, his dark brown eyes pinned on me. I opened my window in a hurry, whisper-hissing, “What the hell are you doing up here?!”

He ignored my question, climbing through the window and landing with a gentle thud. I stepped back as he stood tall, turning and shutting the window. He didn’t lock it, which was a good sign. He would be leaving soon.

“Theo, what the hell are you doing up here? Why would you climb through my window?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “It’s obviously the only way I can see you.” His eyes flickered beneath his cap. “Got me acting like a sixteen year old boy again.”

I tried hard not to smile, and it worked. Inside, however, I was beaming. Folding my arms across my chest, I took another step away, one eyebrow cocked in his direction. I could see part of his face from the streetlight filtering in through the slit between my curtains.

He looked fucking amazing. If I wasn’t so upset and working so hard to maintain my composure, I would have salivated at the mere sight of him.

A solid, black T-shirt hugged his body, black basketball shorts around his waist, and black Nikes to match. His tattoos were definitely a bonus, the ink beautifully sketched along his toned arms. As he stood there, I wondered how I stayed away for three whole days. Three days just seemed way too long to be away from Theo Black.

His body was solid, chest clearly defined beneath that shirt. And the bulge in his middle gave a clear idea of what a woman should have expected—and what I knew—when she made the decision to get into bed with him.

Stepping forward, Theo asked, “Why have you been ignoring me?” His voice wasn’t sweet or earnest, like how I pictured his unanswered messages to be. It was slightly irritated. “I’ve called you for days, trying hard to fucking explain myself, but you won’t allow me the chance.”

I straightened my back. “Like you said, I was being too emotional. I realized it and backed off. What you wanted, right?”

“Did I ever say that?” His voice was dark. He stepped forward again, nostrils flaring with a mild edge of frustration.

“You didn’t have to say it.”

He frowned. I expected him to say more, but instead, he finished his long awaited walk to me, pulling me in and leading the way to my full-sized bed. “Listen to me, baby,” he murmured, lips touching my ear. I shivered but listened, deciding a protest was pointless. “I’ve thought long and hard the past few days, and you know what I came up with?”

I pretended to ignore him, avoiding the panty-melting kisses he placed on my face and the center of my chest when he softly laid me down.

His head tipped up, eyes meeting mine. “How much I enjoy being around you,” he continued. “And how, even though you may not think so, I care about you. Shit, I love you, Chloe. And if you can’t see that, then I don’t know what the fuck to tell you.”

His smile was slanted, but my eyes were intense on his. He… he loved me? Theodore Black loved me? I never thought I’d hear those words come out of his mouth. We weren’t supposed to love... or even care too much.

“No, this shit didn’t happen overnight or even this past week,” he explained. “I have loved you for nearly ten years now. Back then, it was a simple kind of love. The kind you’d give anyone you spent so much time around. But that day in the park, when you allowed me to take you for the second time and looked at me as if I was the perfect and greatest man on earth, I fell, Chloe. I fell so fucking hard, and all these years I’ve been trying to pretend I didn’t because it happened too soon—too soon after Janet’s death and in the midst of my grief. I thought surely it was my grief and abandonment that made me feel that way about you.” His head shook as he sat up. “But no… that feeling was real. And it has been mutual. We said love couldn’t come into this but, fuck, it’s been here all along, Knight.”

My heart stumbled over its beats, trying to grasp and cling to every word. “You… love me?” I whispered, sitting up with him. I looked him straight in the eye and kind of hoped he’d look away, falter—anything to show he didn’t truly mean it, but he didn’t. He stared right back at me with eyes so full and brown my tummy fluttered.

“A lot.” His smile was boyish. Innocent.

I don’t know what it was, but it set me on fucking fire. I stared at him in awe, and before my mind could comprehend my actions, I pounced forward, wrapping my arms around his neck and clashing into him.

He fell on top of me as I tugged him toward me, returning the kiss with the same burning intensity I held. God, I felt like the best girl on earth. Those three days of loneliness meant nothing. His words, and the fact that I had considered him a true asshole, were easily replaced with his confession. All negativity and hurt vanished, and my heart filled with a positivity that radiated to him.

I couldn’t get enough. The bulge in his shorts prodded through, poking right at my sex. I assisted him with his shorts as he focused on mine. Our breaths mixed and mingled, lips brushing.

His cock was at my entrance, and he sighed before entering me, tensing as if three days was way too long not to have me.

I sank and rocked with his large frame, holding on tight as he quietly took me, mouth crushing mine, one hand cradling one side my face. Every part of me wanted to collide with this man, merge into one, because that was exactly what we were when alone. One.

Nothing could replace my feelings for Theo. I’d loved him since I was twelve, since I was a little girl. And he knew that, but he never took advantage of it until the timing was a combination of wrong and right.

I didn’t blame him. I didn’t even blame myself. This was never supposed to happen, but how could we fight it? It was extremely difficult to stay away from the predestined. This was bound to happen, and though it terrified me to think of its outcome, I just couldn’t imagine my life without him in it.

But I also couldn’t imagine it without Izzy.

I hated when she crashed through our moments. The urge to push him away was strong, but not as strong as my need to pull him close and never let go.

The thought of her was brushed aside, the guilt replaced with a large fill of this glorious man. His hips stroked evenly between my legs, and he continued the same, quick thrust for several seconds before releasing and groaning as quietly as he could. His head fell, and he kissed me where his mouth landed.

A deep sigh filled the room as he rested on my chest. Forcing his head up and meeting his mellow brown eyes, I whispered, “I love you too, Theo. I have loved you for so long.” His arm tightened around me. “My love for you has been irreplaceable. No one has ever made me feel the way you do. I know it’s wrong,” I said, “and I know we shouldn’t be sharing feelings like this, but it’s all true. I hate lying to myself. I hate fighting it. I hate being without you.”

He looked me over and then licked his lips, pulling out and moving up to my side. Gripping my chin with his thumb and forefinger, he tilted my head, allowing our mouths to press. I sighed as his tongue parted my lips, wrapping around mine, before he pulled away, grazing my bottom lip. “You are my little knight,” he murmured. “My rock. My savior. I love you.”