It Is A Surprise.

It Is A Surprise.
MARA

I tilted my head back, the shower water washing out all the stress coiled inside my body. I hadn't realized just how much tension I'd been carrying, driving around the city looking for Jaycee.

"All because of a dick I have to suffer like this." I turned the shower off angrily. "I should have ended things with him ages ago after he disappeared on me for months."

I stretched my arms, pausing slightly to stare at my nakedness in the mirror. I squeezed my breasts, eyes catching the bite mark bruise from our last time together, then my gaze dropped to my pussy.

"God." I facepalmed. I have too much going on right now, and the last thing I need is that bastard coming at me for revenge. Or should I just ask Azreal to threaten him into staying away?

The thought dissolved almost immediately. Azreal might actually kill him. I can't trust that man completely… but I can trust Joel.

Thinking of Joel, my eyes drifted back to my reflection, and I caught how flushed my face had gone. I cannot be thinking dirty things about that boy.

"He's probably disgusted with me after everything that's been happening." I covered my face. "God, I'm so stupid."

I dropped my hand and grabbed the small towel, wrapping it around myself and holding the opening with one hand. It barely covered anything, but it wasn't like anyone would be in my room — Liora would have locked it.

I opened the bathroom door. The cold air hit my damp skin like a slap, pulling a shudder out of me. I moved quickly to the small bedside table for the AC remote, bent forward to grab it, pressed the off button — and a shuffling sound came from behind me.

I froze, eyes going wide.

I spun around and nearly screamed. Joel was sitting in the chair at the corner of the room, legs crossed, eyes fixed on me with an unsettling calm. I followed his gaze downward and realized exactly what the towel wasn't covering.

I snapped upright and yanked it closed. "Pervert! What are you doing in my room — look the fuck away!"

Instead of looking away, his eyes traveled slowly down my body. I didn't need to follow his gaze to know where they landed. He uncrossed his legs and stood, walking toward me with that same unhurried calm. I backed up step by step, watching him carefully. I knew he wouldn't do anything — but the way he was looking at me sent heat crawling up my throat and into my face.

"How are you feeling, Mara?" He stopped in front of me. I looked up and found genuine worry in his eyes. "I heard everything that happened with Jaycee. Did he hurt you?"

I shook my head slowly, suddenly feeling very small standing there wrapped in almost nothing. It was strange — I was loud, bold, sharp-tongued with everyone, but a few quiet words from Joel and that look he was giving me hollowed all of that out and replaced it with something else entirely. Something that had never happened with Jaycee.

"I'm fine," I whispered. "He didn't hurt me."

Joel tilted his head back, a slow exhale leaving him, and I caught the shift of his throat, his Adam's apple rolling as the tension released from his jaw. "Thank God." He leaned down slightly, a flicker of amusement crossing his face, lips parting just enough. God, I probably looked like a disaster right now. Honestly? I didn't care one bit.

"Is there something on my face?" He smirked, folding his arms. "Or… did you and Liora actually plan this?"

I blinked. "Plan what with Liora?"

His brow arched, then he pointed toward the door. "She locked me in here when I came to check on you. I figured you two set it up together."

So that's how he ended up inside. Liora. Good job.

This was also my opening to ask him about Jaycee.

I pressed my hands together, then stepped forward and pushed myself against him. "Joel." My voice came out low, and I felt him go still beneath the contact. "Can you take care of Jaycee for me? After what Azreal did, he's going to come back around, and I'm scared." I let my eyes drop away from his. "I only got involved with him because of some old attraction that died months ago…"

I looked back up when silence stretched between us and felt something pressing against me down there.

"Please?" I leaned in harder, blinking up at him with exaggerated innocence, bottom lip just slightly out. Joel scoffed, and I braced for the sharp reply, because he obviously saw right through it.

Instead, his hand shot to my waist and pulled me hard against him. "What exactly are you trying to pull, Mara? I would've dealt with Jaycee without you ever having to ask."

"Oh—" The word stumbled out of me. I'd spent all that time in my head agonizing over how to get rid of Jaycee when Joel had already been thinking it.

I gathered myself quickly, watching the heaviness settling into his eyes as they moved across my face. "Since Liora locked us in here… do you want to have a little fun before she comes back?"

I caught my bottom lip between my teeth, holding his gaze. Joel groaned, his hand sliding down to close over mine where I gripped the towel — and he pulled it free.

Slowly, the towel slipped and pooled to the floor, and I stood bare in front of him, the room air cool against every inch of skin.

"Make sure you don't scream too much," he said roughly, then his mouth came down on mine, impatient and hungry.

He scooped me off the floor, turned, and laid me back across the bed, pressing down over me. His lips moved hard against mine, his hot breath into my skin, teeth catching my lip withurgency.

He broke the kiss to push my thighs apart, eyes dropping to look at me, and I bit my lip watching him heat prickling from my chest all the way down.

He brought three fingers to his mouth and sucked them slowly, then drew them out and brought his hand down in a sharp slap against my pussy.

"Ugh—" My back lifted off the mattress, and my hand flew to my mouth.

He laughed low in his throat, satisfied, then pressed his fingertips to my entrance and pushed all three inside at once. The stretch hit me immediately, a full, aching pressure that dragged a muffled sound out from behind my palm.

"Ngh — Joel—"

He pulled back slowly, every ridge of his knuckles dragging against my walls, then pushed back in.

Unhurried at first, then faster, his fingers twisting on the inward stroke and curling upward, finding that spot inside me that turned my vision soft at the edges.

I pushed up onto my elbow to watch, my breath ragged, and my eyes fixed on the sight of his fingers disappearing into me, my pussy lips gripping around them, clinging as he drew back out, chasing after him before he drove back in.

The wet sounds filled the room, and my face went hot at how soaked I was, how openly my body was giving itself away.

He shushed me, recapturing my lips, swallowing the next sound before it could escape. My legs fell wider, and I grabbed his shirt with both fists, my hips rolling up to meet his hand.

On the next deep thrust, I felt my whole body seize, and just as his fingers slipped free, I surged up and caught his mouth again, kissing him hard while the tension snapped. Heat pulsed out of me, my thighs shaking against his hand.

"Ohh… mmngh…" The moan broke into his mouth, and I bit down on his lip to keep from being louder.

He pulled back just far enough to rub his thumb hard across my clit, wringing out another shudder, more warmth spilling down my thighs as my whole body locked and released in waves.

He squeezed the soft flesh of my pussy in his palm, and I twitched; then he broke the kiss.

"T-that was fucking good," I gasped, my chest heaving. He chuckled and stood up, leaving me sprawled and boneless on the bed, still trembling.

"Do you have a belt?" He crossed to my wardrobe and pulled it open, his hands moving through.

"Y-yes, at the bottom." I forced myself upright, my legs barely cooperating.

“Okay.” He crouched, rummaged, and finally stood holding something, then walked over to the chair, moved it to the center of the room, and set everything down on the seat.

"Why do you have two belts and a cloth?"

He looked back at me with a slow, easy smile. "It's a surprise.”