Hemi kisses a path across my jaw and down my neck, pressing me backward as he reaches my shoulder. I brace myself on my palms, flattened on the table behind me.

“With every butterfly I created, I’d get closer and closer to these,” he says, gently cupping my breasts, “and I’d think to myself that I couldn’t do it one more time. Not one more, or I’d explode.” Hemi brushes his palms over my nipples. They tingle painfully, my br**sts heavy with need. “I don’t know how many times I’ve dreamed of putting them in my mouth,” he says, his lips snaking their way toward the peaks. “Of feeling you shiver when I do.”

Hemi’s hot mouth closes over my nipple and I gasp, the sensation overwhelming it feels so good. As if he made it so, to happen exactly as he’d imagined, a shiver of pure pleasure ripples through me. All I feel is heat—heat from his mouth, heat from his hands, heat from his body where he’s standing between my legs. Even the cool vinyl beneath me feels warm.

“Mmmm,” he growls, the sound vibrating into my nipple, “just like that.”

As he licks and sucks at one, Hemi toys with the other, his fingers rolling and pinching it, squeezing and tweaking it.

“But nothing prepared me for tonight,” he whispers as he brings his hands around to grip mine, loosening them from the vinyl and easing me farther back, onto my elbows. “I didn’t think I could want you anymore until I saw you lying there tonight. I knew then that no matter how hard I fought, I wouldn’t be able to rest until I could feel you coming on my fingers. Until I could take them from inside you and lick the juice from them.”

His hands skim down my sides and slide under my butt, pulling my h*ps closer to the edge of the bed. Hemi wedges himself into the V. His body and his clothes graze me there, making me ache for more pressure, for something to fill the emptiness, for Hemi to quiet the throb.

Then his lips are on mine again, his hands finding their way to the place I crave them most. I feel one fingertip brush the outside before Hemi drags it along the crease of me. I gasp again, unaccustomed to the myriad sensations he’s inciting.

“You like that?” he whispers against my lips. “You want more?”

I can’t speak. All I can do is give him one short, breathless moan.

“That’s right, baby. I wanna hear it.”

His tongue licks at my lips as he massages my throbbing flesh with his finger.

“Holy shit, you’re so wet,” he groans. “I wanna be inside you so bad.”

He slides his tongue into my mouth just as his finger enters me. Slowly, carefully, he licks along my tongue, tasting me deeply as his finger explores my body. I feel the pressure of it as Hemi bends his finger and drags it out, slowly. A tightness squeezes my stomach and tension builds between my legs. I want to beg, to plead, but the words won’t come. Only sounds.

“I’m gonna make you come for me, Sloane. And I wanna hear you when I do.”

He introduces another finger, moving them both into me as he uses the thumb of his other hand to touch the sensitive muscle at the top of my folds. I feel like I’m on the verge of flying apart when he takes my clitoris between his fingertips and tugs.

“That’s right, baby,” he says when my h*ps start to move against his hands. “Look down, Sloane. Watch what I’m doing to you.”

Hemi leans his chest away from mine enough that I can see, that I can do as he asks. Two fingers of one hand are disappearing inside me, his knuckles pressing into my spread folds. His other hand is cupping my hip, his thumb working in tight little circles over my clitoris.

“The next time you watch, you’ll be seeing my c**k pounding into you and coming out slick and wet. And you’ll see me pull out and come. Right here,” he says, flicking the nub of swollen flesh as he drives another finger into me.

His voice gets softer and softer, sounds farther and farther away as my world sharpens to a pinpoint focus. Everything is dim compared to what Hemi is doing to me with his hands.

And then my breathing stops, my breath caught in a tight pocket inside my chest. I squeeze my eyes shut as a loud moan is torn from me. Light explodes behind my lids. Fire rains through me. Liquid, hot and glowing, pours into my core and out onto his hands.

“That’s it, Sloane. Oh, God, that’s it. Come for me.”

His fingers are magic, his words a heady elixir. After a few seconds of nothing but intense sensation, a numbness sneaks into my limbs, making them heavy. My arms won’t support me anymore and I fall back onto the padded surface of the table. My breath is back, expelled from my body in a series of shallow pants.

When I can finally open my eyes, I glance down and see Hemi watching me, a ravenous look on his face. Slowly, as I watch, he raises his hand to his mouth and slides his tongue along one long finger. “Holy fuc—” The expression is cut off when he grits his teeth and closes his eyes. He leans forward, bracing his hands on either side of my h*ps and letting his head hang down again. I hear him growl and feel him pound his palms into the padding of the table. When he speaks, I have to strain to hear him. “I’m stopping tonight, Sloane. I want this choice to be yours.”

“Choice?” I say, confused.

Hemi looks up at me. He looks almost like he’s in pain. “Yes, this is a decision you need to make when there’s no pressure, no one to sway you. When I’m not rock hard with the need to get inside you.”

The heaviness between my thighs recedes and I come back to life with a tingle at his words.

“You’re not pressuring me.”

“I’ve known a lot of different kinds of women. But none like you. Not one. I’m trying to do the right thing here.”

I doubt he means for them to, but his words make me feel like…less. I turn my head to the side, away from his gaze. “It’s not like something I did on purpose,” I explain, trying not to sound defensive about my virginity.

“It’s not a bad thing. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s not a bad thing at all. I’m not exactly sure how you’ve managed it, but I’m actually kinda glad you’re a virgin.”

“Well, I didn’t really have much opportunity. With a father and brothers like mine, guys didn’t exactly feel comfortable pressing their luck. I guess they were all just a little too afraid of the Locke men.”

“Their loss is my gain then,” he says, pulling me into a sitting position, speaking softly in my ear as he rubs his cheek against mine. “Just know this, Sloane, I can’t walk away from you again. You need to be sure this is what you want. And that I’m the person you want it with.”

I lean back, meeting Hemi’s eyes, falling into the stormy blue depths. “I want this,” I admit simply.

“I may not be able to give you breakfasts and promises, but I can give you pleasure like you’ve never even dreamed of. That will have to be enough.”

“I don’t want promises. Most of the time, promises are just pretty lies. They’re words designed to make others feel better. But in the end, they’re still just lies. Disappointing lies,” I tell him in a moment of bald honesty. “So don’t worry about making me promises. I’d rather have your truth.”

For a moment, before he hides it from my view, I see a flash of regret. I’m not sure what it means, and I’m going to do my best not to focus on it. On anything that could take away from this special time. Whatever secrets Hemi has are his to keep and his to share. Just like mine are. We all have our reasons for hiding things. I, of all people, can’t deny someone else theirs.

“Then that’s what I’ll give you. The truth. Starting right now,” he says, taking my face in his hands. “I want you, Sloane. I want to do things to you, do things with you. I want to show you what it feels like to have someone worship your body. I want you to experience the pleasure a man should bring you, so you never settle for less. Just know that, while we’re together, you’re mine. All mine. No one else’s. Do you understand?” I nod. “Don’t get me wrong. I loved seeing this beautiful body in that pose, like the picture of innocence and sin, all wrapped up in smooth, creamy skin. But,” Hemi says, a frown wrinkling his brow, “I didn’t like other people getting to see you that way.”

“It’s not like I was doing anything with any of them. Or even that I knew any of them. Well, except Paul.” My cheeks sting just thinking about facing him again.

“I know. But I still didn’t like it.”

I won’t smile because that would be rude and inconsiderate. But I want to. On the inside, I’m smiling.

“You won’t be doing that again, will you?” he asks.

“God, no!”

I feel his breath fan my cheek when he exhales. “Good. I’d hate to have to come and throw a blanket over you, and drag you out of there.”

This time, I do smile. “And what makes you think that would be okay?”

“Because somebody just told me that while she’s mine, she’s only mine. And that includes looking. I’d hate to have to beat the shit out of a bunch of college pricks because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“You’d do that?” I can’t deny the pleasure his words bring.

“Hell yeah I’d do that!”

“Well then, far be it for me to endanger the lives of others. I guess I’d better keep my clothes on.”

“Except when you’re with me. Instead of an ‘open door’ policy, I have a ‘clothing optional’ policy.”

“Does that go for all your employees?”

“No, just the hot students that look like angels and taste like candy.”

I nod, the thought crossing my mind that I could stare into his eyes forever and never get bored. I could listen to his voice right on and on, and never miss other sounds. For a while—however long that might be—I’m going to throw myself into Hemi. And, as long as I have after it’s over, I’ll never look back with regret.

I think of the drawing he had me pen onto his side, in the hotel room—forever ago, it seems—and I wonder who used to say that. I can’t help but think of Sasha. “What about you? Will you be all mine, too?”

“If you want me to be.”

“What about Sasha?”

Hemi frowns. “What about Sasha?”

“Aren’t you two…? I mean, didn’t you used to be a…thing?”

“We were. But we aren’t now. I’m just doing a favor for an old friend. Nothing more.”

“Does Sasha know that?”

“She should. But if she doesn’t, she’ll find out soon enough.”

“Is she, uh, is she the one that lives, no regrets?”

Again, I see something dart through Hemi’s expression, only to be gone in an instant. This time, it looks like pain. “No, it wasn’t Sasha.”

I pause, waiting for him to continue. Hoping he will. But knowing, somehow, that he won’t.

“Well, it’s a good motto. Maybe I’ll have to get that inked somewhere, too.”

“Maybe we can do each other,” he suggests with a wicked grin.

“I like the sound of that.”

“Somehow, I knew you would. Maybe I should add ‘devil’ to that description of you.”

“No, I think that’s better suited for you.”

Again, I see something odd flit through Hemi’s dark eyes. It’s gone as quickly as it came. I wonder, absently and with a growing sense of dread, how long I’ll be able to ignore it.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - Hemi

I’m still awake when Reese calls.

“Turns out there are a lot of people interested in this bastard. I don’t know how he’s kept his nose out of the shit for so long, but he has. That’s over now, though. I put a call into that friend of mine that works with the Georgia Attorney General’s office. It won’t be long until he’s in touch with the internal affairs guys there at the local level. I hope for his sake that this Locke as**ole hasn’t made many enemies along the way. If anyone else is as dirty as he is, and the word gets out, someone else is liable to clean up this mess. The permanent way.”

I feel the beginnings of a headache. It worsens the longer Reese talks. This is what we wanted. It’s what we needed to do. A matter of honor. And respect. And it’s important to me. To all of us.

But…

It’ll kill Sloane. Of course, it’s not my fault her brother’s a d-bag.

But still…

And if…no when…she finds out I had a hand in it, it’ll be over. She’ll hate me and this will be over before it began.

That shouldn’t bother me. I mean, I don’t even know her that well. I shouldn’t give a shit. She’s collateral damage. The sister to a shitbird bastard, asshole-of-a-human.

But still…

“Just keep me posted, man. I, uh, I wanna know what’s going down. You know, so I can be prepared.”

“Prepared? Prepared for what?” Reese asks.

“How the hell should I know? I’m the one on the front lines here. Who knows what kind of back lash something like this could have? Especially when they find out who I am. They’ll make the connection.”

“By then it won’t matter. It’ll be dealt with. One way or the other.”

I grit my teeth. “Still, I wanna know.”

“All right. Whatever. I’m making the call. Watch your back or sleep with one eye open, whatever it is you feel like you need to do. But I still don’t think you’ll have anything to worry about.”