Page 20 of The Weight of Love
I instinctively raise my arms and reach for him, but he catches my gaze. That smirk, his raised eyebrow, and his message is clear—stay still. I instantly freeze.
This is his game. Torture by proximity. He’s so close, yet off-limits. My frustration spirals, a mix of need and defiance. The room spins, heartbeat is loud in my ears. His chest, his abs, they draw my eyes down. I want him. More than that—I need him to take me, claim me.
“Please?”
“Show me you mean it, fuck me like you mean it, and there’s more to this…”
He pulls me to him roughly, crushing his lips to mine and pulling my legs around him. I wrap my arms around him, nails digging into his shoulders.
There’s a fierceness in how he’s kissing me, a need there I hadn’t seen before, and I’m matching it with my desire. He slams my back against the wall as he thrusts into me, his cock thick and punishing but in a way that just fills every bit of the ache I have for him. I don’t know how to show him I mean it, but my body is responding to his roughness.
I grind my hips hard against him, matching him for each thrust. I reach up, bracing myself against the towel bar that’s above my head and can’t help the moans escaping my mouth.
“Clark, harder…please, don’t stop.”
A low groan rises in his throat as he grips hard at my ass, burying himself in me, pounding into my pussy relentlessly. My hands drop down to his shoulders, running up into his hair and pulling hard to bring his face up to meet mine.
I claim his lips and pour every ounce of the want and need that’s preoccupied me since our last time into it. I’m losing the ability to hold my legs up as the tension of my orgasm builds. He spills into me with one last strong thrust, and my name slips from his lips. I shatter, crashing into pieces around him. My body has lost any ability to hang on as the small aftershocks hit me, clenching around him as he pulls out of me and tries to set me on my feet.
He holds me in strong arms to keep me from slipping slack to the floor. His chin rests on my head.
I can feel that shift in his mood happening again. It’s like as soon as he has an orgasm, his guilt switch is flipped. I can feel him pulling back mentally, even if he isn’t physically.
I brace my hands on his chest and pull back enough I can look up at him and catch that sad look lurking behind his eyes.
“Please, don’t pull away again…”
“I don’t want to, but I don’t know how to keep myself from wanting more of you than you can give.”
My chest feels like someone just carved a hole in part of it.
I’m pushing him away just with how I am…Awesome.
Weeks have passed since we hooked up in the gym. He barely responds to texts. I am miserable, and I can’t figure out what to do about him for the life of me. He’s plaguing my thoughts constantly.
I don’t know how it happened, but I’ve totally caught feelings for the guy, and now he’s actually crushing them. This is why we are supposed to avoid adopting puppies, Dummy!
“Stella, where are you over there? Daydreaming about your Puppy?” Johnathan throws a balled-up paper across the conference room, bouncing it off my head.
It isn’t the first time he’s caught me zoning out. It was becoming a bad habit. I just can’t seem to quit thinking about Clark.
“Sorry, what were we talking about?”
“The usual, Leslie.”
Emily sighed, looking back from Johnathan to me.
“It’s the same conversation we have every time. His compulsions are worsening, but he is also a genius with the code. Can we afford the five developers we would need to get close to matching his productivity?”
Johnathan grumbles, knowing she’s right.
“Can we legally require him to get help, Em?”
“Not really.”
“Damn. Honestly, I am worried that with help, he’ll lose his version of The Shine, so maybe no help after all.”
“You’re awful.” “Totally, but I’m also factual. His brilliance comes from how close he flirts with insanity. They go hand in hand with his worst moments. Did I tell you what he did yesterday?”