Page 77 of How to Kill Your Rival

‘I just crashed out… We’d drunk a lot⁠—’

I pinch her nipple until she stops.

‘Don’t turn this into nothing. It’s important to me.’

Her teeth catch on her bottom lip in a way that melts me.

‘It’s important to me, too. It’s just something I’m not very good at. The whole letting people in.’

‘Don’t worry about people. It’s just me.’ I lean down and slide my mouth over her stiffening nipple, running my tongue over it until she whimpers.

‘God,’ she moans.

‘James will do,’ I tease, breaking the contact. I want to kiss her, but I also want to brush my teeth and use the restroom first.

‘Back in a minute,’ I say. The little devil watches me get out of bed and dashes for the bathroom first. ‘Oi!’

I wait by the door as she does her thing until she emerges minty fresh and glittery-eyed.

‘Get your arse back in the bed, and I’ll deal with you in a minute.’

‘Maybe I’ll deal with you.’ She swings her hips as she walks, her red hair cascading near her backside, and it takes everything in me not to follow her.

When I finish up in the bathroom, I return to my bed, thrilled that my red-haired love is still in it.

Eliza stretches out luxuriously on top of the covers. She hasn’t bothered getting back under them, giving me a full view of every glorious inch of her.

I lie beside her and drag my fingertips over her skin, tracing the freckles until she’s squirming beneath me. This morning, neither of us has anywhere we need to be.

The Death Council nonsense can wait.

Our families can wait.

There’s nothing I need more than to be right here with my girl.

So I tease her with the tips of my fingers until she grows too impatient to take any more. Then I slide them between her thighs and stroke her so softly that I think she might detonate from need.

‘James,’ she moans as I circle her soaked flesh.

‘Yes, my love?’

‘Fuck me,’ she demands.

‘I will.’

‘Now.’

But I’m not playing to her demands today. To be rough and hard and get it over with. So I tease her more, kissing her throat while giving her just one finger.

Her body quivers, her pulse quickening against my lips. She’s close already, and I want to feel her fall apart while I’m inside her.

‘Please,’ she begs. ‘I need you.’

And hearing that is my undoing. How can I deny her what she needs?

Moving between her thighs, I press the head of my cock at her entrance and watch the divine bliss in her face as I slide slowly into her.

Warmth floods me from my head to my toes as I’m home at last. Right where I belong.