Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73208 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 366(@200wpm)___ 293(@250wpm)___ 244(@300wpm)
“What, baby? What is it you can’t do?”
I shook my head, trying to clear the lust haze that was settling in and about to take over. He made me so weak.
“You.”
A deep chuckle vibrated his chest. “You can absolutely do me. And you’re going to several times before we fall asleep in my bed.”
I tried to take a deep breath, but it was proving impossible. “You …” I said, then let out a small moan as one of his hands slid underneath my shirt, covering a breast. “You’re going to hurt me.”
He kneaded the breast he was holding. “Yeah, but you like it when I hurt you. That pussy creams like a good little kitty when I do.”
I shook my head, biting down hard on my lip until I tasted blood. “Not my body,” I gasped, letting go of my abused lip. “My heart.” There. I had said it.
I’d been honest. More honest than I’d ever been in my entire life. I had laid it out for him. He could say his cruel words and send me packing.
He stilled completely. My heart was already cracking. I was that far gone. He’d not been after my heart, yet I was so damn needy that he’d taken it without meaning to. He didn’t want my heart, and I knew that. I wasn’t naive. Storm Kingston only wanted women to fuck.
“How am I going to do that?” he asked as his hold on me eased.
As if I needed this to get any worse. The man wanted me to spell it out for him. Blurt out that I was falling in love with him. Or some messed-up version of it. I had never been in love, so how was I to know if this was that exactly? It was painful, agonizing, terrifying—all the things I had imagined love to be.
“Briar,” he said firmly, and then he grabbed my shoulders and turned me around to face him.
But I couldn’t look at him. I kept my eyes down, wishing I had said nothing. Just let it happen and licked my wounds in private. I wasn’t one to show weakness, yet with Storm, I had done a list of things I didn’t do. My survival instinct, which had kept me going for so long, had seemed to shrivel up and die when he walked into my life. Slowly, he’d suffocated it until it was gone.
He grabbed my chin and forced it up, making me lift my head. “Say it, Briar.”
I stood there, looking at his hard, demanding face. He was going to make me do this, and for what? To mock me? Was that what he wanted from this?
A whimper escaped me as another part of my soul seemed to crack. Damn him for this. All of it.
He leaned closer until I could feel his warm breath on my cheeks. “Use your words.” The huskiness in his voice sent a tremor through me.
“You know what I meant by it,” I said, wanting to look anywhere but at him.
He brought his mouth to my ear as he pressed the hard length of his erection against my stomach. I let that detail sink in as my body shifted closer, wanting more of it.
“Just because I know doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear it come from those pretty pink lips. Now, tell me, little siren. Is this your way of taking my soul?”
I blinked and took in a long, unsteady breath.
“What?” I asked.
He kissed my cheek, then pulled back until his eyes were locked with mine. “I won’t allow anyone to cause you pain. Not again. Never again. As for me,” he said, brushing his knuckles over my lips, “I’d rather rip my own heart from my chest than damage yours.”
My eyes stung as a lump formed in my throat.
“Mine,” he whispered.
Before Storm, if anyone had ever said that I’d allow a man to call me his, I’d have doubled over, laughing hysterically.
But then my life before Storm was in the past. No matter where we went from here, there would always be two parts in my story. It was the second half I was ready for even though it terrified me.
Loving Storm Kingston was the most reckless thing I’d ever done, but it was also the one thing I couldn’t control. But even if I could stop myself, I didn’t think I would.
• Thirty-One •
I should get some kind of reward though for not killing every bastard who had touched her body.
Storm
Sleeping meant closing my eyes, and with Briar beside me, I wasn’t willing to do that. Watching her sleep was just one more thing to add to my growing list of obsessions. All of which revolved around her. Every move she made, I wanted to be there. I wanted to be the one to make her smile. I wanted to protect her from every-fucking-thing that would upset her. I wanted to be the one to feed her. If I could chain her to my side, I would.