Page 24 of Venomous as a Snake

When I yank his shirt over his head, he glances around the room, surveying the privacy or surfaces or something. I’m not sure what he’s searching for, though he doesn’t seem to find it. He stands, twining my legs around his waist as he rushes for the stairs.

“Left.”

Walker grunts in response, storming into my bedroom like he can’t wait to have me alone. He drops me onto my bed before he unbuttons his pants, but he doesn’t push them further than his hips.

Wetness slicks against my thighs as he reaches for me again. My arousal perfumes the air, causing him to release a guttural growl. It vibrates through me, resting like a heavy stone in my core.

Our touches are desperate, uncontrollable, as he slides inside me with no flare or foreplay. Exhilaration fills me as fully as he does, though it’s not the sensational welcoming I had hoped for.

The way he pounds into me is far from passionate.

It’s wild and untamable. Yes.

It’s also barbaric.

Which isn’t the Walker Lawless I know.

My body reacts of its own accord. Muscles contract, my core fluttering around his length from his proximity alone. I knew to expect the frenzy, but not the way he keeps his face turned away from me or the emotional detachment that I sense.

An orgasm is still an orgasm, right?

No. It’s not.

I didn’t want our first time together in two years to be like this, with neither of us really in it for the right reasons. We’re not operating on the same level of need. There is no matching frequency, no tears from my heart being so full it could burst.

I miss him, but I don’t know the stranger avoiding eye contact while I come on his cock, while he releases himself inside me without a sound.

He leans over me, heart thumping in his chest, though it’s not from exertion. I stare at my ceiling, wondering where this all went awry. My intuition tells me I know the answer.

My mind still wants to hear it aloud from the mouth of the man I love.

If he’s even the same person.

“What’s wrong?” I whisper against his cheek.

But he’s already pulling away.

Standing up.

Reaching for his pants… Like I’m some fling, a one-night-stand that he doesn’t have to see again.

I furrow my brow when he still doesn’t turn my way. “Why won’t you look at me, talk to me?”

“We shouldn’t have done that.”

He stays rooted to the spot with his back to me, furiously running his hands through his hair. I just blink in surprise, then frown as the knowledge sets in.

“I won’t be the reason you die,” he affirms, buttoning his pants as he turns so I can see only his profile. “If Clay—”

“Don’t,” I cut him off, climbing to my knees. “He’s not here, not waiting for us. He’s not to blame for… that. It started out fine, but then you vanished from your own body. You’ve never been so cold toward me.”

He tips his head, though he says nothing else as he stalks away.

I jump up to follow him, grabbing the robe from the chair beside my door with shaking hands. My heart crumbles inside my chest, but I don’t let the devastation show on my face. Not yet.

As he reaches the bottom of the stairs, Hooker begins barking. The four-legged lunatic slides across the tile, ready to be let loose in the backyard.

“So, there’s nothing else you want to say?” I call to Walker’s back. “Just, this was a mistake, and then you’re gone again?”