Page 65 of Souls and Sorrows

A bitter, surprised laugh comes from my mouth. “Not as badly as I hurt him.”

Blinking down at me, Cash raises his eyebrows. “You really are a bit of a nightmare, aren’t you?”

Snaking one of my legs out from under him, I glide my foot up the back of his calf, hooking it around his waist and forcing us closer together. My top slips down slightly, revealing the top of one of my nipples, and I arch into him, reveling in the bite of friction against my sensitive flesh. He grunts, his ensuing swallow audible, and I wonder if he can feel how hard my heart is racing.

“Ifeellike a dream though,” I tell him in a husky voice, fluttering my lashes.

His lips brush mine, the softest, most ethereal of touches. “Is that so?”

I nod, my body growing warm and wet the longer he lies still on top of me. He grips my wrists like iron, shackling me in and refusing to let go.

“Kiss me,” I whisper when his eyes dip, and I can feel his stare on my lips. It’s raw and intense, and I need to feel it in other places. “Please.”

For a second, I think he’ll reject me again, and I’m caught somewhere between craving the feel of his mouth on mine and also wanting to keep up the charade of not being able to stand him.

If he rejects me, I can keep on pretending.

If he rejects me, I’m not sure my ego will be able to weather the insult.

“It is a crime that I haven’t before now,” he says after a beat, igniting something forlorn in my chest, lighting it up like a starry night sky.

He releases me and skims his fingers up the side of my jaw. My tongue feels thick, sticking to the roof of my mouth as I slide my hand over his chest and around the back of his head, threading my fingers in his soft hair.

“We can discuss your punishment later,” I say, lifting myself off the mattress, straining for him.

Maybe I should be embarrassed—it’s just a fucking kiss, for Christ’s sake—but I’ve never felt like this before. Like this kiss might be the last breath of fresh air I get before an angry sea takes me asunder.

I want Cash to kiss me more than I have ever wanted anything. More than I want my mother dead, or my father’s respect, or my life to stop feeling like the season finale of a bad soap opera no one is sure will be back.

He tilts my head back, angling it as he leans in. Warmth spreads through me, pooling between my thighs as his lips graze mine—

A knock on the closed bedroom door causes us to freeze. His head whips to the side, staring as he tenses.

My pulse grows erratic, beating against my rib cage as a dozen different possibilities floods my mind about who could be on the other side. Vitus, the police, one of the Barbieri men. I’m not sure how much time we’d have if it’s someone who means harm, but I dart my gaze to the nightstand anyway, trying to plan a way to extract myself from Cash’s human barricade to grab the dagger inside.

I start to move, and he comes down harder on me, grabbing my hands and shoving them to my sides.

“No.” He wrenches my head forward. “Whatever you’re thinking, do not do it.”

“I’m not going to sit here and not be able to defend myself.”

Scoffing, Cash pushes off me, slipping from the bed as the knocking begins again. He strides over to the dresser across the room, reaching into the top drawer and pulling out a 9 millimeter. Checking the magazine, he shoves the clip back in and walks to the door, tossing me an indignant look.

“Not a very convenient spot for it,” I say under my breath, scrambling up and retrieving my knife anyway.

When I come up behind him, he scowls. “Get your ass back in that bed, Ariana.”

I snort. “Make me, Counselor.”

His eyes glow, warm in the shifting moonlight, but he doesn’t say more. Instead, he grips the doorknob and steps so he’s partially shielding me from whatever’s on the other side.

The knife is heavy in my palm, and I press the side into my thigh, bracing myself with steely breaths.

Cash pulls the door open slowly, then raises his gun and points as the dark figure is revealed.

“Mr. Primrose.”

I blow out a breath, my body sagging forward as Ronnie’s voice filters through the air.

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