Corrupt (Devil's Night, #1)

by Penelope Douglas

“That’s it.” I gripped her ass, pulling her into me again and again. “That’s it, baby. This is what you were built for. Me.”

“I don’t know what to do with her,” I said in a low voice. She was in my body, in my head, and . . . I looked down at her, my heart aching at the way she pushed her hair behind her ear. And she was creeping into other places, too.

“Rika,” he whispered against my neck. “I need you. I need you every day, every hour, every minute . . .”

“I love you, Michael.”

“I love you, Rika.” I’ve always loved you.

After all the years and all the times when I should’ve known, it took her nearly getting killed for me to realize what she meant to me. For me to realize how ingrained in every moment of my life she was and how she’d always been there, right in front of me. Her, riding her bike around my driveway when she was five. Her, learning to swim in my pool. Her, running around and doing cartwheels in my backyard. Her, biting her nails when I entered the room. Her, sitting next to my mother at every basketball game in high school. Her, refusing to even look in my direction when I hung out with a girl. And me, barely able to hold back the smile at the little looks she stole and how nervous she was when I was close. She was always there, and it was always us.

“You really love me?” I closed my eyes, breathing her in. “I love you so much,” I whispered, tightening my hold on her. “This is where I live.”

“It means that I want to keep playing,” he said, his voice deep and filled with heat. “It means that until the house is done and we’re ready to settle back here, my apartment is your apartment, my bed is yours, and my eyes are only on you.”

He kissed my neck, his hot lips sending shivers across my body. “It means that I’m going to do my best to piss you off every chance I get, because there’s nothing hotter than you when you’re mad.” I could hear the grin in his voice. He dipped his hand down to the inside of my thigh. “And then I’m going to do my best to remind you of how nice I am, so you can’t stop thinking about me when we’re not together.”

“It means that you’re going to finish school, but I respectfully request that, when you come home, you do me before your homework,” he continued, brushing his thumb over my clit through my panties. “And it means that you’re going to have to constantly look over your shoulder for what I have up my sleeve next, because I’ll always be coming for you.”

I stopped breathing as he slid the ring on my left hand and continued to whisper in my ear.

“And you’re going to want every second of it, because I know what you like, Rika, and I can’t live without you.”