Page 22 of Catch a Tiger

The fire intensifies in her belly and they’re both moaning so loud that it’s a miracle it doesn’t echo down to the city. She whispers his name over and over again as she continues the climb to her orgasm.

“Come with me, baby,” he says through gritted teeth, his fingers painfully digging into her hips as he holds on to his own orgasm.

The word ‘baby’ has her come undone. She screams his name and tenses as an orgasm so strong takes over her body. Her pussy ripples around his length and her thighs quiver and shake.

He shouts his own release, pumping his hips into her while his cock swells and throbs inside her. He curses when he slows the pumping, and soon, they’re both still, sweating and breathing hard.

Grabbing her neck gently, he brings her lips to his. He kisses her passionately, only breaking away and saying, “I think I could easily fall for you, Maria. No, I don’t think. I know I could fall for you.”

She tenses.

Chapter 9

Mark

While on the drive back to Maria’s apartment, getting her to hold a conversation with him had been difficult. He knows why. He saw her stiffen when he said that he could fall for her. And he was telling the truth, but something about that had caused her to withdraw from him. Completely. Stone cold. Absent from the present.

He knows that maybe it was too soon to admit something like that. He probably should have kept it to himself, but he doesn’t want to start a relationship with anyone, especially Maria, by holding back the truth. He’s never been about the lies and omissions anyway. He wasn’t going to start with her.

However, a declaration of that magnitude caused her to stare out the window the entire way back. He wants to ask her, to talk to her about it, but he doesn’t want to push her. Whatever she’s working through, his interfering won’t help.

He pulls up to her apartment and parks the car. Scrubbing the back of his head, he turns to her. He can’t hold back any longer though, because the look on her face, the blank stare, is killing him.

“Look,” he begins. “I can tell you’re thinking and you’re thinking hard. I don’t know anything about your past besides what you’ve told me, but what I said to you back there has you all worked up and shut off.” She finally looks at him so he plunges in. “I don’t want to lie to you. I meant what I said, even though we barely know each other. So, you have a decision to make. Either you’re all in and you want to explore this, whatever this is, or we end this now before it gets too messy. The last thing I want is for you to get hurt.”

He watches her throat bob as she swallows. “I just don’t know.”

It kills him that she won’t explain further, but he says, “Call me when you know.”

Nodding, she grabs the door handle and exits the car without another word.

“And Maria?” he adds, leaning to call her name. She bends down to look at him. “Take all the time you need to work through whatever is going on in your head. I’m not going anywhere.”

She nods again and shuts the door. He waits until she’s inside her apartment before he drives off down the road, dread churning his stomach.

Chapter 10

Maria

The last thing I want is for you to get hurt.

It’s the words that keep popping up in her head, even a week later. As she sits in the break room at The Brew, she stirs her coffee without much thought other than Mark’s last words.

What he said to her, about knowing he could fall for her, scared the shit out of her. It still scares her. No one falls for her. She’s not the type that someone would just fall for after the second date. She’s dated a lot of guys in her past, and it took those relationships a blink of an eye to fall for one another. And each one ended disastrously and feeling like she wasn’t worthy. She doesn’t want that to happen with Mark, so the fact that it seems to be moving fast terrifies her to no end.

Someone walks into the break room and she doesn’t look up until that someone slides into the chair across from her.

“Darius!” she nearly shouts. He’s wearing a stupid grin on his face. “I haven’t seen you all freaking week. Where the hell have you been?”

He shrugs, his smile turning crooked. “I met someone.”

“Of course you did,” she says drily. “What’s his name?”

“Homer.”

She nearly laughs out loud. “Homer? Did his mother hate him at first sight?”

He frowns. “You’re extra cheerful. Don’t bash on the guy. You haven’t even met him.”