Page 62 of Cruel Hearts

I tilted my head to the side and frowned. This couldn’t be a serious request. “Please don’t be like you were at the end of last term?”

His entire posture slumped. “It’s hypocritical of me to even ask.”

“Then be thankful I’m trapped here with you and wanting a snog before I get arrested.” I ran my hands down the lapels of his blazer before hooking my fingers beneath them and pulling him close.

“Lilah.” His face tightened. “I’m—”

“For fuck’s sake, shut the hell up.” Rocking forward and up onto my tiptoes, I yanked him down for a kiss.

His lips were soft at first. Maybe he’d spent too much time pretending to be a meeker version of himself that he had forgotten how to take control. I drew back and gave him a kitten lick, which made him growl and crash his lips onto mine.

I groaned. He might not have the piercings, the tats, or the slicked-back hair, but this was Maxwell. The sexy bastard I’d toyed with and outsmarted until he had gotten the better of me.

“You’re mine,” he snarled against my lips.

“For now.”

The cheeky git slid his tongue in my mouth and devoured me as though I was his last meal. Pleasure rippled down from our joined lips to my nipples and to my core, which was already slick with want. I squeezed my thighs together and kissed back with equal abandon.

Maxwell’s hands slid down my waist, over my ass and under the hem of my skirt. His fingers settled between my legs and found my pulsing clit.

I could kick him in the balls and leave him crying on the ground. That would even things out a bit, but who wanted to make out with a gibbering wreck? The police would be here soon, and I didn’t want to add assault to a man’s testicles to my list of sins.

Screw that. I grabbed a handful of his hard ass, my core muscles clenching at the memory of those hips, that thick, juicy dick pistoning in and out of me as I held onto those glutes for dear life.

Maxwell groaned into the kiss, the bass in his voice making my sopping wet core vibrate with need. Maybe kissing him was a bad idea. Because all I wanted to do was have him bend me over and pummel me from behind.

My hands slid down from his neck over his broad, muscular shoulders and onto his prominent pecs. Fuck did he feel good. Memories of me struggling to impale myself on his thick cock rushed to the forefront of my mind, bringing with them a new surge of desire.

I moaned into the kiss and pressed my chest against his. Right now, I didn’t care that he had once colluded with Elizabeth to have me arrested. Those lips, that strong, hard body, and the thick erection pressing into my belly erased the last vestiges of my animosity.

“Fuck, Lilah. I think about you all the time.” He pressed kisses against my neck. “Before I go to bed. When I wake. Sometimes I have to go back to my room get you out of my system.”

“Wank, you mean?” I whispered into his ear.

“That, too.”

I ran my palm over his lengthening bulge. “You’re making my mouth water.”

Maxwell groaned. “Suck me.”

“Suck me, first.”

He broke away. “You’re serious?”

“Ask me that again after I’ve sat on your face”

His face went slack. “Take off your knickers.”

A key turned in the lock, and the door swung open to reveal Mrs. Campbell. Her gaze jumped from us to the closed window and back to Maxwell, who now stood a few paces away with his arms folded over his crotch.

Her face tightened with annoyance, and a pang of regret pulled at my heartstrings. She would no doubt tell Mr. Burgh that I’d snuck a boy into the sanctuary, adding to his disappointment.

“Mr. Deloraine,” she said in clipped tones. “If expelling you wouldn’t render you homeless, you would be out of here before you could say ‘lewd conduct.’” She turned to me and swallowed. “Lady Liddell wishes to speak with you.”

Chapter 23

The good thing about Lady Liddell’s arrival was that Mrs. Campbell ushered Maxwell out of the sanctuary without much of a fuss. At the doorway, he shot me an apologetic look but I shook my head. Maybe a conversation with Elizabeth’s creator would reveal something about the girl’s character I could use in my plot to bring her down.