Branded: You Own Me & The Virgin's Night Out by Shiloh Walker Page A

he was, buried inside the woman he loved, and he hovered on the brink of both heaven and hell.
    • • •
    He took her home.
    And then he took her again.
    Elizabeth might have lost track of how many times they came together, except…well, up until that night, she’d realized she’d only thought she understood what a climax was.
    She’d used her hands, the showerhead, the occasional vibrator and found pleasure.
    She’d thought she had good sex with Noel.
    The two awkward encounters before that were too embarrassing to think about.
    But she had thought she understood what a climax was.
    Now, thanks to six mind-blowing orgasms from Decker, she realized just how wrong she was.
    She fell asleep in his arms, her mind half-focused on those thoughts she’d refused to let herself linger on for so long.
    That day she’d gone to the ramshackle house where he’d lived with his dad—not for much longer, though. He’d won a scholarship and was heading to Alabama soon.
    He’d leave and he’d never know…
     
    The back door wasn’t closed, but then it never was. It hadn’t closed well for a long time, Decker had told her and then, in a rare fit of openness, he’d told her why.
    His dad had been drunk on the porch. Decker had gone outside to help him in and the bastard had hit him—or tried to. They’d ended up tumbling into the door frame, knocking the door uneven and it hadn’t shut right ever since.
    That had been when Decker was fourteen.
    “When I’d started to get bigger,” he’d told her. “It wasn’t much longer before he finally started to leave me alone. Once I could kick his ass, I wasn’t worth the effort to him.”
    She hated his father.
    Hers was a cold man, more concerned on appearances and propriety but
    he wasn’t violent. He’d never hit her before. She didn’t have scars on her. Decker
    did.
    Easing inside, she darted a look around. Austin Calhoun wasn’t likely to be here. He’d managed to land a job—whether or not he could hold it was a different story. But Decker was here. He didn’t go in to his shift at the YMCA until three.
    She heard a noise, soft, low…
    Her face flamed. Instinct whispered, Get out…
    But she couldn’t.
    Gripping her purse, she eased down the hall, and there, she froze. Stared. Horrified.
    She should have backed away. Immediately. But she couldn’t.
    Decker stood over the brunette, his hands holding her thighs wide. She lay on the rickety table and it squeaked with every thrust. Mesmerized, Elizabeth stared, watched as his cock disappeared. He was thick. And the girl moaned, reaching down to stroke herself.
    Elizabeth’s gasp lodged in her throat.
    Decker’s head flew up. Through his bangs, his eyes locked on her and he froze.
    “Lizzie…”
    “What the—” The girl on the table tensed.
    Decker shoved away, fumbling with his jeans.
    Elizabeth turned and ran.
    He shouted her name.
    She ignored him.
    She couldn’t get away fast enough. And to think she’d come to tell him that she loved him.
     
    I love him…
     
    The thought was there, in her mind, even as Elizabeth stretched her way into wakefulness.
    That truth she’d hidden away for so long.
    “What were you doing with Hamilton, Lizzie?” Dark blue eyes staring at her from behind a thick plate of glass. “Why were you with him? I warned you about him.”
    Guilt lodged in her belly liked a stone and nausea churned, a brewing storm that was determined to break free.
    Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She had to tell him.
    Every time he’d tried to talk about that that night, she’d shied away. It was one of the things they never talked about. Oh, he would try. But she never would, pulled back every time he tried. Because she was afraid, and because the guilt still haunted her.
    She’d ruined his life, had cost him a scholarship, the chance to play ball, to find something better. And she’d done it for stupid, petty reasons.
    Sliding a hand out, she reached for him. One more touch, she