“What do you see?” His voice was nothing more than a growl.
“Y-you,” I rasped. “Fucking me.”
Preston gripped the edge of the desk. Without breaking pace, he leaned over me, propped one knee on the surface, and used the entire weight of his body to slam home.
I choked on a scream.
It was official. This man was a beast.
He drilled me savagely. The force banged the desk into the wall over and over. I feared it would shatter into pieces, but that fear wasn’t strong enough to tell him to stop. On the contrary.
“Yes, Preston, harder!”
“Your wish is my command, Cinderella.”
I was slick with sweat, nipples rock hard and body sliding up and down the desk in the most satisfying noises to go with our sex symphony.
Heat pooled in my middle, tightening me around him and deepening his groans. “Fuck, Belle. I’m close.”
I was already there. I locked on to the mirror, desperate to see my orgasm for the first time.
It burst through my body, sending wracking waves of pleasure that threw every muscle into spasm, and all Mirror Belle could do was hold on to the desk, her mouth open in a silent scream. Seconds after I went boneless, Preston stiffened. He spilled himself inside of me, filling the condom, and dropping down on me.
His damp locks tickled my cheek. “Damn,” he croaked.
“Understatement.”
Preston gathered me in his arms and carried me to his bed. We lay on top of his sheets, sharing kisses and, I hoped, conserving strength for round two.
“What were those other guys’ names?” he asked.
“Hmm. Was it Mattias? Casper?” I clicked my tongue. “Look at that. You did fuck them out of me.”
“Then my work here is done.”
“Not yet.” Our fingers threaded together between us. Locked. Bonded. Unbreakable. “We should do it again to make sure it sticks.”
Preston nipped my nose. “Best idea I’ve heard all day.”
“So the mirror,” I began. “Having a girl watch you jackhammer her like a sidewalk. You’re kind of a freak, Desai.”
He smirked. “Thought you didn’t have judgment to spare.”
“Who’s judging?” I traced his lips. “I’m into it. Show me more of your freaky ways.”
“Tonight?” he asked. “Or am I going to see more of you?”
“It’ll cost you a lot of secrets, but it’s a price I’m willing to let you pay.”
I kissed him mid-laugh.
Preston got the full bang for his buck out of the first secret. He put me on my knees on his comforter. On my back in front of his fireplace, and then completely off my feet in the shower. The niggling voice warning that my parents would be searching for me faded into the background.
The world had gone mad. Mom and Dad lost their minds. My future was on its head, and the shadow that stretched over my life darkened every stray thought or fleeting moment of peace.
None of that touched me in Preston’s room.
I lingered under the spray, eyes closed and secure in his arms. Preston licked my wet shoulder, neck, and arrived to nibble on my ear. We lay on the bottom of his grand tub. At some point, we stopped fooling around and started talking.
“How did your mom get the title dame?” he asked. “Isn’t that a British thing?”
“Yes. Our family is like most in the community. We trace our lineage back hundreds of years, but the Lewises kept in better touch with their relations across the pond. When Mom was ten, she was sent to live with cousins over there. She came back and forth after she turned eighteen, earned her damehood, and eventually chose here for good after meeting Dad.”
“How’d they meet? Was it at the cove?”
I smiled. “No, it happened the way it should. He bumped into her outside an ice cream parlor and got chocolate on her new dress. He felt terrible, offered to take her home to change, and they got talking on the drive. Mom said she knew as she waved him out of the driveway that England wasn’t the place for her anymore. She had to stay and get to know that clumsy charmer.” I stroked his arm. “What about your parents?”
“The cove. Dad dresses it up in romance when he tells the story. Says out of all the women there, the moment he laid eyes on Mom, he knew it would be her.”
“Did she feel the same?”
“Actually, she thought he was a goofy idiot with hair that wouldn’t lie flat and oversized dopey eyes.”
“What?” I giggled. “Then how are you here?”
“Because of that.” He traced my smile. “Dad made her laugh. On her worst days. Even when she was her meanest to him. He’d steal a smile from her. She said that in the end, if the only husband she could choose were the men at the cove, she wanted the man who was patient, kind, and made her smile.”
“That’s a sweet story too.”
“It is,” he agreed. “My whole life she’s been using it to convince me I should go the same way.”
“I very recently have come to understand how you feel.”
“God save us from mothers who know best.”
I burrowed deeper in his arms. “I’d drink to that, but then we’d have to go downstairs.”
“We should go,” he whispered.
“Why?”
“Because the carriage is about to turn into a pumpkin.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re seriously committed to this fairy-tale thing.”
“My mother will come looking for me. Strong assumption that my room is the first place she’d look. Either way, we can’t stay in here all night.”
No matter how much I want to.
I left Dad holding my purse when I went off for air. On top of me going missing, they can’t call me. They would be going frantic, and as angry as I was at them, I didn’t want those thoughts going through their heads.
With more willpower than I knew I possessed, I dragged myself out of the tub and we got dressed. I stood before Preston’s mirror, returning my hair to its perfect bun while he did up the buttons on my dress. I lowered my hands and he clasped my necklace, kissing the nape of my neck as he did.
Sweet, kind, and makes me smile.
Maybe I found the last beautiful boy worth breaking the rules for.
“How do I look?” I asked. “Can you tell I’ve been ravaged for the last hour and a half?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I like that look on me.”
“Ready to go?”
Nodding, I let him take my hand. We left our haven, walking into the brightly lit hallway. I took two steps and was stopped by Preston. Mimicking our earlier position, he pressed me against the wall, resting his forehead on mine.
“Let’s not do another two years, Belle.” He brushed a stray strand behind my ear. “Dinner on Friday. Say yes.”
Yes rose to my lips. I caught it in my throat and shoved it down. “I can’t. I don’t date, Preston. But if you want to skip dinner, we can go straight to dessert.”
“My body is really all you’ll take.” Though he said it with a grin.
“It makes the most sense. You have Europe this summer and I have everywhere. After that, it’s different colleges. Why start something we can’t finish?”