Page 70 of Never Forever

Except him feeling something made me feel something.

And it wasn’t triumph.

It was fear.

From inside the cabin, I caught someone holding up their cell phone, taking a picture of this extremely private and unprecedented moment. Another thing I didn’t need. Tabloids with pictures of Matt Sullivan and me about to kill and/or fuck each other.

“Matt,” I breathed, cocking my head to the left. “Please.”

Matt turned and glared at the woman taking the picture. She quickly ducked out of sight and I took the opportunity to step sideways, eager to get away.

Except Matt grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the closet that jutted out from the inner cabin.

“The buoy closet?” I said, as he shut the door behind us. “Really?”

It was dark and close in the closet. It smelled like the ocean and Matt. Faintly of rubber. There was a wide crack under the door that let in a bright slice of light that cut him across the legs. Everything else was shadows.

“I’m going to ask you, one last time, when are you leaving Calico Cove?”

What was I supposed to tell him? Not until I got pregnant. Not until I had my baby. Not until I felt like I could raise a child on my own, knowing my family would have my back.

Stubbornly, I said nothing.

“You win, Carrie,” he breathed. “Is that what you want me to say? If this was a game of chicken, then I give.”

“I’m not playing any games with you,” I said, even though, really, I knew I was lying.

“That’s all you’ve been doing since you got here,” he hissed. “Pushing every last button. But I’m telling you, I’m breaking. Do you get that?”

His hand grabbed mine and I was filled with sparks. Electricity. It was now, but it was then, too. It was when Iloved him so much, so dangerously. Now, I hated him just as dangerously.

“Fuck,” he breathed.

“You,” I breathed.

And then he did it.

Matt Sullivan kissed me. Claimed me. He wrapped me up in his arms like I was his and he was going to do whatever he wanted with me. I should have held myself stiff and unwilling. I should have slapped him across the face.

But if he was breaking, then I was breaking too. If he was going to take what he needed, I was going to do the same.

This opportunity might never come again.

I wrapped my hands around his neck, pulling him closer. Tighter. Every muscle in my body was invested in getting as close as I could.

Our mouths were open against each other. Hungry and angry. He growled. I moaned.

More, I wanted to say.

Stop, I wanted to say.

He swallowed every word.

This was Matt Sullivan undone. Unhinged. Feral. A side of him I only saw once and then never again. After the first time, Matt Sullivan never lost control. No matter how much I teased him.

But he was losing it here. Now.

It shouldn’t have been so exciting, but I was wholly swept up in it.