Greed

chapter 16 🔞

Sky's POV

I DIDN’T KNOW HOW IT HAPPENED OR WHAT MADE ME do it. One second, I was watching P'pai walk away. The next, my hands were fisting his shirt, my tongue was tangling with his, and my world had blurred into a haze of heat and sensation.
Alcohol and a roller coaster of emotions dragged my inhibitions past the point of no return. In half an hour, I’d experienced a full range of human emotion—fury, shock, desire, and a thousand shades in between—and I was tired.

Tired of feeling uncomfortable in my own skin. Tired of making small talk and wondering if the other person liked me. Tired of fighting against the tide when I just wanted to sink into oblivion.
So for one night, I did.

P'pai’s tortured groan ignited deep in my core and spread outward, setting tiny fires ablaze until I was consumed with knee-weakening, mind-numbing lust.
I hadn’t had sex since the night before he signed our divorce papers. It’d been almost three months, but his earlier confession, that P'petch had been planning to take me home and sleep with me, made me realize that I wasn’t ready to be with anyone except him. At least not like this.

I stumbled backward, dragging him with me. Hands searched and fumbled before we finally opened a door along the hall and staggered inside for a breath of privacy.

His grip was tight on my waist as we moved through the room. I caught a glimpse of leather books and stained glass when I came up for air; we must be in the library.

Reason. Words. All of it had disappeared, leaving only need and desire behind.
Nothing between us was real, but it was all the truth we had. Our bond tugged at me, even as the jagged pieces of my heart worked to tear me apart.

My knees hit the back of a leather chaise. P'pai pushed me back, his body covering mine as he kissed me with toe-curling intensity. I was already wet from the first taste of his lips, and need pulsed heavier between my legs at his tortured groan.

“You have no idea what you do to me, ky.” Warm, strong fingers curved over my hips. “I would destroy the world if it would please you. I would ruin every man who thought he could have you.” His stubble scratched against soft skin; his breath skated across my cheek, sending shivers down my spine.

In that moment, I was desperate, needy, and so very his.
“Fuck me like you mean that, phi.” It was a weak taunt. An arrow that was too blunt to hit the center, but it was enough to get what I wanted.

“What makes you think I don’t?” Fire and fury ignited his eyes.

“Our divorce papers.” The words felt bitter on my tongue. The ugliness that had poisoned the well of our love was always there. Neglect. Disregard.
Complacency. Apathy. But I didn’t feel the emptiness tonight that I’d felt so many nights before.

His voice dropped to a deadly whisper. “Do you think I couldn’t tear those papers apart? That ink on a page means anything to me?”

“All you’ve ever cared about is contract after contract. Why would ours be any different?”

His jaw clenched and a growl tore through him. There was nothing more to say. Tonight was about need. My need for him. My need to forget the future he saved me from and the past he’d destroyed me with.
He grabbed my hands and pinned them to the arms of the chair. “Don’t let go.” Or else. A throbbing ache in my lower stomach flared at the implied words.
My palms gripped the smooth leather surface as he ran his hands up my thighs,  stealing my breath with every slow inch he moved up my bare skin.

For an instant, I saw him as he was on our wedding day, in an unguarded moment when he thought I wasn’t paying attention. And he looked just like this—hungry, reverent, and in awe of the prize he’d won.