Page 46 of The Fighter

“So you fight for Devlin Walsh.” I lathered up a cloth with soap and began to rub Tav’s chest gently, mindful of the bruises.

Tav’s body jerked. “How do you know who Devlin is?”

“Why do you fight for Devlin?” I asked.

His eyes stayed on my face, and he didn’t answer. That wariness had bloomed to full-blown alarm in his gaze.

“Does it have something to do with your sister?”

He didn’t move. He kept his breath even, his face carefully blank. He had no tell, not one.

I dropped the cloth into the water and eased closer, gripping the back of Tav’s neck. “Do you trust me?”

Tav swallowed but kept his lips pressed tight. That was a no. He didn’t trust me about this. This was bigger than me, bigger than how hard I made him come. This was everything that made up Tav, and he wasn’t going to give it to me unless I carved it out of him. Which I would. Because until that was out of him, I couldn’t put him back together.

The annoyance simmered in my blood, but I didn’t let it show. I wasn’t annoyed at him, I was annoyed at the situation. I was furious at whoever was responsible for Tav being distrustful. Which was likely Devlin.

“I won’t tie you up anymore, but I want you to reach behind you and grip the towel bar over your head.”

He stared at me before tilting his head just enough to get a glimpse of the bar behind him. There was a pause. Then Tav raised his hands out of the water, wrists together. The drip of the water from his fists was the only sound in the bathroom. I waited as he lifted them until his fingers gripped the bar.

I ran my fingers across the underside of his arms, over his elbows, and down his triceps. He watched me with his two-toned eyes. I reached under the water and gripped his hard shaft. “You trust me with this. Your body. Your pleasure.”

His hips flexing into my grip was my answer, and his eyes lost some of that alarm as they softened with arousal.

I stroked him once. “But you don’t trust me to know about Husk?”

“Isn’t it enough you have Tav?” he said through gritted teeth. His arms tensed, but he didn’t let go of the bar.

“Do IhaveTav?” My hand drifted down to roll Tav’s balls under the water.

His eyes fell to half-mast. “You know you do. You had him the minute I stepped in your car.”

I kissed him while soaking my fingers with lube from a pump bottle on the side of the tub. Then I dipped my hand back underwater, going lower than his balls this time to circle the entrance to his body. He jerked in my grip, moaning into my mouth.

“Well, I’m a greedy bastard because I want it all,” I said against his lips.

“Husk isn’t mine to give.”

“I don’t need you to give him to me. I’ll take him away from the man who has him now.”

Tav snapped his head back. “You don’t understand?—”

“Devlin Walsh and I…” I had to think how to word this, “…are old acquaintances.”

Tav stared at me like he’d never seen me before, his gaze darting all around my face, his brow furrowed. “Wait, you…you said something last night…” His voice trailed off as his eyes went unfocused for a moment as he tried to sift through his hazy memories. He shook his head. “I can’t remember, but it doesn’t matter. This isn’t a game, Con?—”

His voice cut off on a strangled gasp as I breached him with a finger. “Shit,” he muttered, letting his head fall back. His triceps bulged as he strained. “Fuck.”

I leaned in, lapping up the rivulets of water running down his neck. “I can spend all day in this tub. And that’s what’s going tohappen. We’ll stay here, with me inside of you, and you won’t come until I get the whole story. Do you understand?”

He was breathing hard, his chest red from the hot water and his arousal. “Not…playing fair,” he gasped.

“Never said I’d play fair. That guy in your movie dipped his fists in nails to fight. I’m using my fingers in your ass. You tell me which is most effective?”

He chuckled and then abruptly grunted as I placed a second finger into his ass along with the first. I pumped in and out slowly, staying away from his prostate. “Tell me why you’re fighting for Devlin.”

Tav lifted his head, his eyes swirling with colors. “No one knows the truth but me and Devlin. I kept it that way to keep people alive.”