“You know why I said it,” he growls. “And you believed it so easily. Fucking Christ, Mercedes. Why would I go to the Cat House when I can have you?”

His words warm me, even though they shouldn’t. It doesn’t make it any better. It proves he’s not only a liar but also a hypocrite. Saying he can have me when all he does is push me away. Those thoughts are almost enough to douse me in cold reality, but Judge’s hot tongue lashing against me makes everything else evaporate.

“Fucking say it,” he commands. “This pussy belongs to me and only me.”

“For now,” I remind him, throwing the words he loves to use back in his face. “And only because of forced proximity.”

Without warning, he yanks me against his face, burying his tongue inside me so deep I see a glimpse of heaven. Oh Jesus, he’s good at that.

Any other smart-ass remarks I might have had are lost to the sound of him eating me out. He’s feasting on me like a God, and I can’t help but give in to it.

“Lawson,” I whimper as he tortures me.

He freezes at the mention of his real name, and I freeze too. Our eyes lock and something passes between us, but I can’t identify it. It’s too powerful. Too intense to be constrained by words.

“Say it again,” he murmurs.

“Lawson,” I repeat in a breathy voice.

“Yes.” He hums his approval against me and returns to his task.

I squirm against him, closing my eyes and panting all while I hold him by the hair, a desperate heat crawling up the base of my spine and soaking into every nerve ending in my body. That heat builds and builds as I watch him devour me, and there’s no question in my mind I’m hungry for more. So much more.

But all too soon, the pleasure reaches a peak, and I fall hard, jerking against his face as I come. Judge gives me one last lingering lick all the way up the seam of my pussy before he nuzzles his nose against me with a sigh. And I know he’s trying to gather his strength. A war I refuse to fight him on anymore. If he wants to get on his knees and pleasure me, so be it. I won’t beg him for his cock again no matter how much I might want it.

He leans back on his haunches, glances up at me, and licks my come from his lips. Heat curls in my chest, flushing my skin as my eyes move over him, hot and hungry. This thing between us feels out of control, and I know one of us needs to be smart enough to put a stop to it. So I decide it’s going to be me.