Page 29 of Tick Tock, Boom!

He took a step closer. “You’re fucking innocent, Natalia. Barely used.”

“I’m still a woman.”

He shook his head, dragging his hand over my cheek. “Too fucking young for someone like me. Fuck, I could be your father.”

I slid my cheek into the palm of his hand, his thumb catching my bottom lip. "Isn't that what you asked me to call you the other night.Daddy?"

"Fuck," he muttered, pulling away and turning his back on me. "That was before I knew you were my best friend's kid."

“I’m not a kid! And I’m done living byhisrules. I’ve always lived by them, his world, his choices. I took care of him, Jose. When he was too drunk to remember my birthday. When he brought home women who barely remembered my name. I stayed quiet. I cleaned up the pieces. But I’m done being quiet. I want to be free.”

He spun back around, eyes narrowing. "So this is what that is? You being rebellious? You using me to get back at your old man?"

“No!” I cried out, the word sharp and raw in the air. “It’s not like that.”

“You sure?” he snapped, stepping toward me, his voice rising. “Because it sure as hell feels like it. Like I’m the big ‘fuck you’ to your father. You think I’m gonna be part of that little game?”

Tears burned behind my eyes, but I held them back. "I’m not playing games. Iwantyou. I wanted you the moment you touched me. Even before I knew who you were. And I didn’t stop wanting you, even after I found out."

He looked at me like he didn’t know whether to grab me or run.

“I don’t do this,” he muttered. “I don’t fall into traps. And you? You’re a fucking landmine, sweetheart. One step closer and I’ll lose everything.”

“I’m already yours,” I whispered. “You just haven’t claimed me yet.”

The silence that followed was thick and I could feel the heat pouring off him. He was still breathing hard when I crossed the space between us.

My mouth crashed onto his, desperate, aching, breathless and unexperienced. He didn’t kiss me back at first, not for a second. Then suddenly his hands wrapped around me, lifting me up against him as his kiss became fierce.Hungry. Like he’d been dying for this.

He wrapped his hand in my hair, fisted it tight, and yanked my head back, baring my throat.

“I’m going to get killed for touching you.”

I whimpered softly as his mouth trailed down, tongue dragging hot and slow across the side of my neck. My skin shivered under the wet stroke, my breath catching just before his teeth sank into my shoulder.

It was a bite meant for me to feel the next day.

“Please,” I begged. “Don't stop, Jose.” He groaned as I mentioned his name.

"You're a fucking tease," and then his mouth was on mine again. Hard and claiming.

His tongue slid over mine, the kiss deep and demanding, tasting me like he was trying to erase every other man who might have dared to kiss me before. His hands gripped my hips, squeezing hard, dragging me flush against him until I could feel the thick, growing length of his cock pressing into my stomach. My breath caught, he was already so hard for me.

I gasped into his mouth and wrapped myself around him, my thighs tightening at his sides as he held me up like I weighed nothing. My breasts ached, nipples brushing against the thin cotton of my tank top, so sensitive they pulsed with need. He groaned into the kiss, like he shared every shiver that rolled down my spine.

He kissed me like he was starving. Like I was the only thing keeping him alive.

And in that kiss, I knew he wasn’t leaving tonight. Not without tasting what he’d already started to own.

Not withoutme.

TICK TOCK

There was a moment where I hesitated. One small, fragile fucking moment where I almost walked away. Where I almost did the right thing and almost played the honorable card. Almost remembered that she was my best friend’s daughter, nineteen, innocent enough to still believe in a world where men like me wouldn’t sink their teeth into something so soft.

But the second her lips landed on mine, the second her hips rolled against me, molded to me like her body was made for me, every good intention I had was fucking dead.

Gone.

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