Page 51 of Gluttony

Fuck, this was definitely not the time. But later….

“Doesn’t what I think and what I feel matter?” he asked, pulling back to meet her gaze.

She furrowed her brow, her eyes filling with regret. “Yes, of course, it does.”

“Then listen to me when I tell you that you are the most beautiful, sensual, attractive woman I have ever met. That when I look at you, I get hard. When I hear your voice, I get hard. When I simply fucking think about you, I get hard. I want to be with you more than I want anything else in this world, so please—” he kissed her lips, one—two—three times— “ignore that voice. Hearmyvoice, seemyface,feel me.”

She sighed, melting into him.

“I’ll try,” she murmured.

“So…am I forgiven? Will you give me a chance to make it up to you?” he asked, a plea in his voice.

Her autumn eyes peered into his and he waited for her to answer; to either kill him or give him life.

Finally, she said, “I forgive you, Damian, and I’m sorry, too, for letting my fear get in the way of what we could have.”

Relief filled him, making his body loosen. And suddenly, his focus was no longer on making the woman in his lap listen and hear him. Now, his entire focus was making up for lost time; they should have done this weeks ago, but they’d both dropped the ball.

Dropping his voice, he nuzzled her jaw, placing a soft kiss right beside her mouth.

“So, does that mean you’re mine now?” he asked, his voice hitching on the word “mine,” because, fuck, it made his beast roar.

“Only if you’re mine,” she breathed, her voice husky. Trembling against him, she sucked in air, then admitted, “I’ve been dreaming about this for months; being in your arms, your scent all around me…you whispering filthy things in my ear as you take off my clothes….”

He smiled, the need to strip her naked burning through his blood. “Well then, my Daisy, I guess it’s time to make your fantasies come true.” Every. Single. One.

“O-okay,” she spluttered.

Sliding his hands down her back, he stopped them just shy of that juicy ass. “And what else did you fantasize about, baby?”

“That…that you took my clothes off but…but you didn’t care about the scars. You kissed them.” Her voice was heavy, asthough they were forced through a tight throat, as though she was scared of the words themselves.

He growled, kissing her neck, then running his nose along her jaw to kiss her collarbone. “Yeah?” She nodded, moaning. “There isn’t an inch of your body I don’t love, my Daisy. There isn’t a single line or curve or bump or hollow that I won’t worship, memorize, kiss, and adore. And there never will be. You don’t seem to understand yet, but you will; if I can’t touch you, I would cut off my hands. If I can’t kiss you, I would sew my mouth shut. If I can’t see you, I’d pluck out my own eyes—there is no purpose, no meaning, no reality in which you are not everything to me. You just have to believe it.”

Tears burned the back of her eyes as his words settled into her chest, wrapping themselves around her heart.

You just have to believe it….

And, God, she wanted to…more than anything.

That means trusting him after everything he’s done. It means forgiving him, learning to move on, and putting it behind you.

Could she do that? Again, she really wanted to.

Over the last week, her heart was battered, bruised, torn, and run through a woodchipper. After overhearing Red at Cool Hands, she never thought she’d recover, that that was the end of all she’d ever wanted; her dreams of an undying love, of a family, of growing old beside a man who was devoted to her. After watching the videos and seeing the hair ties, then the revelation of what that meant, she’d been numb and yet devastated, angry and yet dejected, humiliated and yet defiant—“How dare hefuck other women?”was quickly followed by,“he fucked other women because I’m not good enough.”Hell, she’d been a mess, and she was still struggling to make sense of everything, but one thing she knew for certain, in that moment, something extraordinary had happened.

Red was hers. She was his.

And he had that look in his eyes that said she was about to know what a diesel engine felt like after a long, hardrevving.

But….

“I want this with you, Red, but…there’s one last thing I need to get off my chest.”

His gaze filled with understanding, his expression softening.

“What is it, my Daisy?” his voice was gentle, coaxing.

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