“Definitely drawing you like this,” he vowed, grabbing up a condom on the night table and rolling it in place. He eased her back against the pillows, his mouth lowering to devour hers while he settled himself into the cradle of her thighs. “You’re a masterpiece come to life. My masterpiece.”
“Loki.” Overwhelmed by how utterly desired he made her feel, she wrapped her arms around him and held on as he entered her. He thrust into her with a savage rhythm, yet so very gentle she felt like the most precious thing in his universe. She wasn’t special in any significant way, she knew, but when she was with Loki, that didn’t seem to matter.
It was enough that he believed she was special.
At that thought, joy blazed through her like an all-consuming wildfire. She closed her eyes as mounting pleasure melded with that joy-filled fire, catapulting her into a realm of dizzying ecstasy faster than she could have imagined. Whispering his name with each soul-shaking thrust, she gave herself over to that madness he spawned in her so easily.
With Loki, everything came easily.
Joy.
Wildfire.
Her.
Yes.
Definitely her.
Her interior walls contracted around his cock with the force of her sudden climax, and she couldn’t help but cry out at the enormity of it. It wasn’t just physical, this sweet release. It was so much more, touching every facet of who she was and making her feel brand new. And all the while, that fire burned in her, consuming her body and soul.
The heat within her didn’t stop even as he came, driving deeply into her and giving her that moment of not knowing where he ended and she began. As long as she had Loki, that flame would never leave her.
As long as she had Loki.
How insane she had to be, to place her happiness in the hands of someone else.
What the hell was happening to her?
Chapter Seventeen
“Call me crazy, but it’s almost like Felix did us a favor by lying through his teeth about Loki.” Sitting at her gleaming kitchen island with Alice, Joelle patted the flat jewelry box with a happy sigh. It had been a few days since Loki had surprised Alice with the recovered Tiffany set. In that time, three portraits of her wearing the jewels—and nothing else—had been done. One of them had been done on a large canvas, her wrists secured over her head in the fuzzy red cuffs, and the rubies and diamonds glittering at her neck and ears with the same kind of fire that Loki had portrayed in her sultry-looking eyes. That particular canvas now hung over his bed, and Alice couldn’t help but blush—and get turned on—every time she saw it. “If Felix hadn’t done that, you never would have been inspired to go down to House Of Payne to kick that man’s ass.”
“Hey, let’s be clear. I didn’t go there to kick Loki’s ass. I just wanted to talk to him.”
“Right. With your feet.”
“Well, whatever happened, I can’t say I’m sorry about how things turned out.” Alice reached for her coffee cup and did her best to ignore the deep rumble of male voices a couple rooms away, as Loki, Gus and Marvin exchanged notes. Twice Marvin and his fellow bodyguard had had to shield Joelle from unfamiliar men attempting to approach her. According to Joelle, her private security had seemed to take profound delight in making it clear that she was not only well-protected, but also not worth the medical expenses piling up in trying to get to her. “Life with Loki has been nothing short of phenomenal. Every day is better than the last, to the point where I’m almost afraid to believe how perfect we are together.”
“Afraid?” Brows raised, Joelle reached for a bag of Milano cookies, Alice’s one true weakness. “You’re going to have to explain that one to me, hon. Why be afraid of something that’s so good for you?”
“What if I find out he’s got a wife and seven kids tucked away in Waukegan?”
“That’s ridiculous. An urban dweller like Loki would never live in Waukegan.”
“That wasn’t the point I was trying to make, Jo.”
“I know the point you were trying to make. It was an absurd point, so I decided to not take it seriously.” Since Alice didn’t take a cookie for herself, Joelle plucked one from the bag and nudged it toward her. “Come on, now. Tell me why you’re scared that you and Loki mesh so well together.”
“Nothing is perfect,” Alice said before she had time to think about it. “I know this through practical experience. Hell, I’ve had it rubbed in my face for as long as I can remember. So since nothing is perfect, I try not to hope for anything…better. But Loki is way better than anything I’ve ever dreamed of. He makes me believe in perfect, because he’s perfect for me.”
“So what’s the problem?”
“What am I going to do when he realizes I’m not perfect for him?” Alice said, at last voicing the fear that had been gnawing at her for a while now. “I’m not perfect, period. I don’t know what I’m going to do when he finally realizes just how screwed up I am.”
Joelle slow-blinked. “Hon, you can’t be serious.”
“What?”
“Take a moment to think about how you two met. He knows you’re not perfect, trust me on this. Eat your cookie, so I can have one and not feel guilty about it.”
“You haven’t seen how he draws me, Jo. And you never will,” she added hastily as she picked up her cookie. Her face went nuclear as she recalled how Loki had posed her against a small mountain of pillows, wearing nothing but the necklace and earrings. At the time, she’d teasingly told him to paint her like one his French girls, certain he wouldn’t get the Titanic reference. Her jaw had dropped when he’d promptly announced that Jack had been a pussy for not trying to get up on that door and keep his woman warm. They’d spent a delightful time debating whether or not there had been enough room for both Jack and Rose, until Loki decided to prove his point by setting his sketchbook aside and lying on top of her.
By the end of the night, they hadn’t figured out who was right and who was wrong, but it didn’t matter. They’d had one hell of a time keeping each other warm.
Her foster sister’s brows did a slow rise and she munched on her cookie. “How he draws you? Do you want to explain that?”
“I mean…” Frustrated, Alice groped for the right words. “When Loki draws me, he makes me look beautiful.”
“That bastard. Want me to punch him?”
“I don’t look like how he draws me,” she gritted out while Joelle laughed. “He draws an idealized me. Or maybe he draws what he wants to see in me. But it’s not who I really am.”
“Uh-huh.” Eyes trained on her so they could throw spectacular shade, Joelle sipped her coffee. “So…let me see if I have this straight. You’re involved with a man who’s seen you at your worst right from the beginning, and he didn’t run for the hills. Instead he found you a job, where he works, so he could see you every day. Then he dealt with your slug of a landlord so you’d have a roof over your head. Now he’s drawing you in a way that makes you look beautiful. Right?”
Um. “Right.”
“And here you are, determined to turn all that goodness into a problem.” With an eye-roll that could have cut down a redwood, Joelle took another sip. “FYI, my sister. Most women on this planet would happily give up a kidney to have that kind of problem.”