Lies & Lullabies by Courtney Lane Read Free Book Online

this?”
    “Two months ago,” I told him. Shortly before my first fight, I wandered into a tattoo parlor. I had no idea what I wanted at the time. I was torn between two birds: a raven and a crow. The look of the raven helped me remember a piece of beauty when my life was drenched in ugliness.
    “Why did you get it?”
    “It’s personal,” I answered in a soft undertone to my audible breaths.
    The heat and pressure of his presence receded, leaving me shivering in the wintry chill. “Get on the bed.”
    I crawled up in bed and settled myself into position, folding my knees, pushing my heels toward my ass, and readjusted the towel to cover all the private pieces of myself.
    Hovering over the side of the bed, he brushed his hand across my collarbone, tickling me with the light touch of his textured fingertips. “Legs down, flat against the bed.”  
    I slid my feet down until my legs rested on the mattress.
    Unfastening the towel from my chest at a leisure pace, he unwrapped it from around my body like I was a present whose contents he’d expected to receive. The back of his fingers traced a straight line down my sternum and stopped at my belly button, circling the not quite flat surface. He placed his palm flat against my stomach, allowing it to rest on my damp skin. His hand might as well have been doused in a searing flame; it heightened my self-consciousness to a level beyond normal.
    I had my ass and my tits to thank for my thicker size. I inherited my mother’s classic Coke bottle shape and was cursed with a waist to ass proportion that meant jeans were my arch nemesis. I didn’t love my body, but I didn’t hate it, either.  
    With Catch, my body became a battleground. I fought to detach, and he demanded the opposite with his touch. I wasn’t used to feeling anything with anyone. While I’d only had sex with one man in my life, none of the men I’d been with outside of the single experience touched me the way Catch had. It was rough, if they bothered to touch me, and it involved the only places they thought I’d reap pleasure: tits, ass, or pussy.  
    I jerked at the sensation rifling over my skin when he raked his fingers down my pubic bone. I sucked in a breath, releasing it slowly and unsteadily.  
    “I don’t think a single word you’ve said to me since we met has been the truth.” The tonality was seductive and mild in volume, worsening the affect he had over me. A hand crept lower, stopping a few inches above my clit. He circled the area with a feather-light touch.  
    The sizzle burned my skin raw, increasing the sensitivity. Looking into his eyes worsened the sensation. My fists clenched into tight balls. My nails dug into my palms. Every muscle in my body clenched.  
    Seeking a little reprieve, I kept my eyes on the ceiling instead of Catch’s face. “I thought you didn’t want to fuck me.”
    His fingers brushed against my chin. “You can’t seem to follow directions, and you definitely lack in reading between the lines.” His occupied hand continued its descent. When his fingers slid down the lips of my pussy, my mouth fell open, releasing a sharp hissing sound.  
    His attention slipped downward, and he drew his hand up. Rubbing his fingers together, he separated them in front of my view, presenting his dripping wet fingers as a source of my shame. “You’re soaking wet with the truth, sweetheart,” he drawled. “It’s not about what I want, but what you want. Do you want more? Are you aching for me to fuck you, Sugar? Is it the reason you continuously broach the topic of sex between us?”
    I didn’t answer.
    He crept on top of the bed, sliding up my body, pressing me down onto the mattress with his weight. Pushing his legs between mine, he directed them to spread around him. The gap in my thighs widened. The lips of my pussy stretched, opening to reveal more of what Catch’s presence did to me. The seam in his jeans rubbed against my clit, provoking and teasing me. My body