When his focus returned to her, there was a hard question in his eyes. It would go unanswered. She never planned on telling him, regardless of how much she wanted to beg him to keep going. She owed this man—any man—nothing. He obviously thought otherwise, since he dropped his mouth to her ear and said, “You will tell me the truth.”
She never got to respond. He dropped a kiss on her mouth that stole every single thought right out of her head. All the heat that had vanished was back with the intensity of his kiss. With each powerful move of sheer seduction, she began to forget. Forget why she’d come there tonight. Why she’d spent the last year tracking Jake’s and Scott’s emails and text messages to find a way to get justice. To prove to them, and herself, that she was not the whore they’d made her out to be. That she was, until a moment ago, a virgin. And that they never broke her. That she could be this bold, this brave, and that no matter what they had done, they didn’t destroy her.
No matter what everyone on campus thought, she knew the truth. And now they did too.
The masked man’s mouth moved with intent, his finger stroking over her clit until her eyes rolled back into her head from the hot pleasure. His kisses and sizzling touches were beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. They weren’t to take; they were to give. Obviously, he enjoyed pleasuring a woman, and she’d never felt so wanted, so beautiful…all the things she’d never felt before in her life. A sudden gasp was pulled from deep in her chest when he took hold of her knee, sliding it up a little as he shifted his hips. His cock felt impossibly huge, stretching her until a whimper escaped her mouth.
The noise only made him deepen his kiss. Then his mouth slid to her neck, her breast, her nipple, sucking and playing until her body was lit up. Every touch rocked through her and to her core. Every stroke tickled in all the right places. His body felt like a beacon of light, and she felt consumed by the warmth of him.
She sensed the crowd watching, but she couldn’t find shame. In fact, she liked that she held their attention. That she was the reason they were likely turned on. That they were enamored by her. The masked man broke the kiss with a low groan that rumbled in her belly, and he cupped her face. Holding her pinned, he moved faster, and the pleasure…oh, the pleasure was endless, making her curl her toes and arch her back. But she wasn’t meant to enjoy this, to need this, to fully let go. She bit her lip, struggling against where he took her, not wanting to give him everything.
His fingers tightened in her hair. A low growl rumbled beside her ear. “Don’t fight me.”
She snapped her eyes open to his burning gaze beneath his mask. Trapped in the power of that stare and enduring thrusts that sent never-ending pleasure coursing into every molecule of her body, her breath hitched. He drove in harder and grinned when she shuddered.
He brought his mouth close to hers then nipped her lip. “That’s right, sweetheart, give me what I want.”
What happened next was completely unexpected. He thrust once, hard enough to make her scream again, and any pleasure she thought she’d had before this moment, was incomparable to the sheer force that stormed over. Wave after wave of penetrating euphoria blasted across her senses until there was no man, no crowd, no Phoenix, only the intensity erupting deep in her soul.
Sometime later, a round of applause forced her to reopen her eyes. She wiggled her toes, but her legs were heavy. Far too heavy to move. She found herself staring into the masked man’s gorgeous eyes, his softer cock still buried deep inside her. Her first surprise was that the fire in his gaze hadn’t lessened. The second was that the protectiveness she felt emanating from him seemed stronger now.
Tonight, she did what she’d planned to do, and suddenly, the weight of the last year slammed into her. Her throat squeezed and chin quivered. The masked man above her held her stare, almost like he knew she was about to break apart, and yet, he didn’t look bothered. No, he looked…ready.
“Breathe,” he told her gently.
She let out the air stuck in her tight throat. A moment later, the crowd began to leave the room, talking and laughing like they hadn’t just witnessed her having sex for the first time. Maybe this was normal for them, but it certainly wasn’t normal for her. And with Jake and Scott gone, her heart had a moment to ask…what did you just do?
When she heard the door click shut, the masked man, still deep inside her, did the most unexpected thing. He gathered her in his arms until she was sitting on him, and then he put a hand on the back of her head to hold her close.
He said absolutely nothing, but his hold tightened, and the warmth he exuded shattered something inside of her.
The tears she’d fought broke free. The pain of a year, spilling out. The loss of her dreams, of what never was, emptying into this stranger’s arms.
Only when her tears dried did he shift and cup her face intimately. He held her stare like he owed her something. And then he gently kissed her, almost like a thank you for what she’d given him. She became just as lost as she’d been before. Taken to a place where her heart could nearly believe all men weren’t bad.
When he finally broke the kiss, he lifted her until he set her on her feet. She felt the heat of her blush rush over her cheeks, now reminded she was naked and not nearly as brave as she’d portrayed earlier tonight. He grabbed the black silk robe from the tray and dressed her. With a gentle look in his eyes, he fastened the robe and said, “I’ll give you a moment. Then I expect to hear exactly who you are and what the hell game you were playing tonight.”
Instead of lying, since she was never very good at that, she simply nodded. Naked, with the full condom still wrapped around his gorgeous cock, she watched him leave, his solid, muscled ass and flexing back, holding her full attention. How easy it would be to believe men could be good. That she could trust them. But men lied. They destroyed lives. She didn’t owe any man a damn thing, certainly not a stranger who thought she owed him her pain.
Chapter 3
When Rhys returned home later that evening, hot irritation licked through his veins. After dressing at the end of the show, he’d returned to talk with the woman he learned from Archer was named Zoey Parker, only to discover that she’d snuck out and took off. Rhys lived by strict rules. It kept Phoenix safe. He only slept with a woman once. No star appeared multiple times at the club. Only members were allowed in the building, except for the stars of the show, who went through Archer’s grueling vetting process. And finally, Rhys didn’t ask for any personal information about his stars. He didn’t know the names of the women he slept with. He kept things strictly professional. Zoey had him breaking his ironclad rules, and that didn’t sit well.
To rid himself of his mood, he showered off his frustration and prepared his house for poker night. He lived on the Lower East Side, enjoying the energy of the neighborhood. The trendy bars, nightclubs, and music venues gave him life when he needed it after Katherine, his college sweetheart, passed away from cancer. While his income had grown substantially since he bought the one-bedroom condo ten years ago, he never felt the urge to move. But he had done some renovations, adding modern gray slate kitchen cabinets. An up-and-coming painter had created a woman’s face on the kitchen wall in black and white. Her eyes had always looked haunted to Rhys. He realized now that he’d seen those eyes earlier. Zoey’s eyes were the same, and he couldn’t get them out of his head.