I lean my head against hers. “Fuck.” She’s wet. She lets out this whimper that almost pushes me to come right here and now.
That’s not gonna fly. So I put a nix on what I was planning and glide my hands around her waist, lifting her up. Not a complaint is heard when she wraps her legs around my hips and her arms around my neck.
Let’s be fucking honest for just a second here. I don’t have to work at getting hard at this point. I’ve been hard since she walked in the door.
Our lips meet as I thrust into her, and everything, fucking everything between us comes crashing down on me.
“Jesus,” she moans.
I assure her, “He’s got nothing to do with this, Green.” When I push again, she buries her head into my neck and holds tight.
With every drive, she lets out a whimper, and I make every effort to drown it out with my own thoughts because that shit’s about to turn yours truly into a sixty-second man.
Not acceptable.
Baseball stats usually help, but thoughts of Green’s skin against my skin keep fucking that shit up.
All I see is her. All I think is her. All I am right now is her.
Shit just got real.
I don’t know if that’s a good thing, and I don’t really fucking care. I want to make this woman understand the torment she’s been putting me through since the day we first met.
When she tightens, her whimpers change, and she’s breathing in short, urgent breaths, I know she’s there.
“Emma.” I don’t know if it’s a demand or a plea bargain at this point, the way I say her name like that. I hadn’t expected it. It just fucking happened.
Like inhaling and exhaling.
Her nails dig into my shoulder. She pushes herself against the wall, and I follow her lead, thrusting, pushing, and driving until she spills onto me, and I’m fucking bursting at the seams.
“Jesus.” It comes out like I’m desperate.
Hell, maybe I am.
In the midst of this moment, she lets out a small laugh.
“He’s got nothing to do with this, Stiles.”
“A-fucking-men to that.”
She laughs out in a full-blown, I’ve never heard her so happy, kinda laugh. I can’t help but join her.
We stay there for a minute against that fucking wall, catching our breath. When I finally let her down, her knees buckle, and I catch her.
“You all right there, Green? I didn’t hurt you, did I?”
Her eyes are closed. She licks her lips and shakes her head.
“So good.”
We both use the wall as a crutch and slide down to sit on the floor next to each other. I let my head fall back until I can breathe normally again.
Green leans into me, and I put an arm around her. Her fingers trace up and down my midsection, and she twists her head around to take a better look at the ink just above.
When she nuzzles back into me, I feel the rise and fall of her breathing. Contentedness oozes out of the two of us, and I’m not complaining one single fucking bit.
“You know, there are theories out there.” I assume she’s referring to the corruption that’s been invading Redemption since the dawn of time.
“Yeah?” I close my eyes and enjoy the bliss between us. “Do tell, Green.”
“Some people believe the Joker is the hero.”
My heart stops, momentarily, when she says it. I’ve never really discussed Mikey with her in depth. There’s no reason for her to go there, but Green’s a smart cookie. She knows how to put two and two together. Or rather the drawing on my wall and the tattoo on my chest.
“He was such a good kid.” The words fall out of me before I can stop them. The pain in my gut regrets it, but honestly, it’s easy giving Green a piece of me like this.
“What happened?”
She’s not interrogating me like my parents did that night. She isn’t demanding I flush my feelings for the sake of a certificate like Lana does. She genuinely gives a shit.
“I know this is gonna be hard to believe, Green, but I haven’t always had the healthy, healing relationship with my dad like I do today.”
She lets out a silent giggle and vibrates against me.
It helps. A little. But I can still hear my dad’s voice the night I told him I was quitting the academy. It’s angry and cold.
“You’re going back in there tomorrow, and you’re apologizing to Walker. Then you’re gonna suck it up and finish the academy.”
Dad didn’t give a shit what any of us wanted. He’d put up with me because I was giving it a go, because of Nick. But I refused to take his bullshit any more. Even if it meant being on the receiving end of his wrath for the rest of my life.
“Stiles?” Green looks up at me, worried.
I shake it off.
“Long story short, I was a dick to the one person in my family who didn’t deserve it, and he died because of it.”
I remember everything about that night like it happened yesterday.
“I’m not in the mood, Mikey.”