I scrubbed the floorboards while Moffy was with Jane. Farrow came in and helped me.
In dead silence we cleaned the attic room and threw out the shredded mattress. Hauled in a new one that Quinn went out and bought.
So it looked like nothing ever happened.
It was our responsibility, and we’d do it all over again. In a heartbeat.
Jane sits up to see me better, and I follow suit, my shoulders against the headboard. My arm stays around her waist.
“I think about that night often too.” She rubs her lips together, her bloodshot eyes on me, and she’s close enough where her fingers trace the gold chain around my neck.
I have to ask her. “What was the worst part?”
Her eyes immediately flood. “The feeling. So painfully invasive. The break-in tonight reminded me of it.” She motions to her body. “My skin crawling and an eeriness lingering around me, and the only thing that seems to make me feel better are people I love.”
She pauses on that.
And then speaks even faster. “And he wasn’t just a stranger. He was someone I trusted with everything in me, and I let him in. I let him in. ” Her face twists in pain, chin trembling—tears dripping down her cheeks.
Instantly, I hug her against my body. Strongly. Protecting this girl with everything inside of me, giving her all that I fucking have.
My hand on the back of her head, she cries into my chest, “I had sex with him.” Her whole body shudders in a sob. “I never told anyone, the night where he came over—we had sex before he destroyed Moffy’s room.”
Something wrenches my stomach. Pain.
Rage.
Guilt.
And what I feel for her—it’s suffocating. I press a kiss to her temple, and I whisper, “He’s never going to hurt you again.”
There is no way in hell I’ll ever let him near her.
I finally unclip my radio. Just got word that Nate doesn’t have a substantial alibi. I’ve been ordered to keep him on my radar. Regardless if he was a part of tonight’s break-in or not, he’ll always be in my line of sight.
Jane and I are quiet in the next hour. We have to be.
Wax-dripping candles lit on the vanity, firelight flickering. Our shadows dance along the walls while our hands travel. While we undress one another, while our lips skim, and I have her bare and soaked beneath me.
Coated in sweat, I support my weight on my forearm, my other hand between her legs—and I kiss her strongly, each one welding our bodies. Our tongues tangling, and I feel her explore my build like we’re on day one.
All heat. All visceral desire torching us in the night.
My muscles tighten as she grinds up into me. Our movements are somehow slow and scorching but combustible and urgent. I pulse my fingers inside her tight warmth.
Pleasure tremors her limbs, and she tries to shelter a gasp. “Oh…God. ”
“Softer,” I whisper against her lips. My cock is begging to fill Jane. Throbbing. Blood blistering.
She bucks upward again.
Fuck. I stifle a guttural groan. Gritting down. My muscles tighten while her heat clenches. She’s been riding more than one orgasm to shore, and I need in.
I break apart her legs even more. Spreading her open so I can thrust inside her pussy. Her head falls back in a whimper. “Yes .” She grips my hair with eager fingers.
I run my hand along the softness of her thigh, and we stare deeper, deeper and my mouth moves to her ear.
“Jane,” I breathe. “I’m going to push into you. Tell me if you’re not ready.”
“I’m ready, please. Please ,” she pants, squirming beneath me in want.
I grip my rock-hard erection, veins bulged with hot need. We keep our eyes on each other as I carefully slide into her heat. Watching her reaction.
Her lips break apart in a short gasp. She clutches my ass with two hands—and I begin to add friction. Rocking between her legs, the pressure around my cock is fucking heaven on Earth.
Involuntary high-pitched sounds erupt out of Jane—I muffle the noise with my hand, covering her mouth.
Her back is already arching.
She speaks against my large palm. I lift my hand just a bit to hear. “Thatcher. Deeper, deeper .” I cover her mouth again as she cries in ecstasy.
My nose flares, arousal pummeling me. I could watch her come for eternity.
I’m not all the way in yet. I hoist her leg higher, hooking my arm underneath her knee. And I shift slightly.
Deeper. I go deeper.
And deeper.
Christ. My muscles contract, my nerves lit, and I reach a place inside Jane that causes her back to bow, toes to curl. Eyes to roll. I split my fingers apart on her mouth, afraid she’s not going to fucking breathe.
I hold her tighter and push into this spot in deep, slow strokes. Hitting this sensitive area in hypnotic succession. She’s almost completely gone.
I’m hanging on to a throttling edge.
Sweat drips down my temples, and tendons pull taut in my neck. Thrusting, thrusting , bringing her further into a mind-altering, levitating climax.
And then cats scratch at the door. Wanting in her room. Meowing incessantly—and I hear footsteps and creaking stairs. All while I’m fucking Jane.
Goddammit.
I turn my head and hawk-eye the door. The footsteps stop on the second-floor landing. Too early. This is why I usually sneak here later in the night. When everyone is already asleep or in their rooms.
I distinguish Maximoff’s voice. Hushed, his words inaudible. He must be speaking to her cats.
Right now, Jane is in another realm. Out of it, and I stop moving inside of her. But I don’t pull out.
A fist lightly raps the door. “Janie,” Maximoff calls, concern hardening his voice. “You want me to let them in your room? They’re all here, except for Toodles.”
I slide my hand off her mouth and cup her cheek. Her eyelids are fluttering, coming down from a fucking tidal wave. “Honey,” I whisper against her ear. “Jane . You need to respond to him. Breathe, breathe.”
She inhales a lung full, blinking repeatedly.
Almost there.
If Maximoff senses something’s wrong, he’ll smash down the door. Especially tonight when a break-in has already happened.
He knocks harder. “Janie, are you okay?”
She swallows a pant and turns her head. “Yuh…yes, yes .”
“You want me to let them in?”
“I…” Confusion bunches her brows.
She didn’t hear him ask. I mouth, your cats.
Realization bathes her face, but she’s too late to reply. Maximoff is worried, and the knob jiggles as he tries to come in. “You locked your door? If you’re scared, I can sleep in your room tonight.”
“No.” Her voice spikes, and she takes a breath to level the tone, then looks at the door while she speaks. “I’m fine, really. I’m actually having…personal time.” Her eyes flit to me. “And I’d rather my cats not watch.”
“Sorry,” Maximoff says fast. “Text me if you’re afraid later on.” He speaks in French, and I think he’s saying goodnight.
She replies back in the same language. Footsteps drift, and he manages to lead the cats away from the door.
Too close.
Other things are taking precedence than talking about that near-encounter. Jane stares down at my cock that’s disappeared between her legs.
Her voice is a gentle whisper. “I love how you feel inside of me.” Her hips arch against my pelvis.
I smother a grunt in my lungs, and I dip my head down more. To kiss her reddened lips and knead her breast, my thumb teasing her hardened nipple. Huskily, I say, “I love being inside of you.” I rock again.
Quiet.
Careful not to let the bed squeak, and she hangs on to my back. Building her up to another peak after some minutes, and I find a spot that sends her over. Deep.
Deep.
Again.
She cries against my palm, sounds deadened, her thighs quaking, and I fist her pink sheets with my left hand. Doing everything in my power not to make a fucking noise as a mind-exploding, blistering sensation crashes into me and ignites me on fire.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuckfuckfuck. I come hard with Jane in total silence.
34
JANE COBALT