Page 46 of The Villain

Couldn’t.

I needed to stop. Back away.Run.

Instead, I remained an inch away from her face—a breath away from her perfect, tempting mouth—and asked, “And what do you want?”

Her full lips parted, and her tongue wet them like an executioner sharpening his blade. My body went taut, and the pulse that pounded in my ears only served to pump blood to my aching cock. This was going to kill me.She was going to kill me.

“To kiss a man who wouldn’t hurt me.”

I let out a soft groan. “Athena…”

Her forehead touched mine, and she breathed,“Are you going to stop me?”

I wish I were that man.

A stronger man.

A better man.

But I wasn’t.

I was nothing more than a man who’d lose his mind if she didn’t kiss me now.

“I couldn’t even if I wanted to.”

The first touch of her lips to mine was the second explosion I’d experienced in her presence, and this one I wasn’t sure I’d survive.

It had been years…so many years. My body went into shock, stilling completely under the play of her soft mouth. She was sweet and forbidden like alcohol on a recovering alcoholic’s tongue—except the desire I felt wasn’t one-hundred-proof, it was bulletproof. Unstoppable and deadly.

Her mouth pressed and played over mine, a gentle but determined exploration.

I never thought it would happen like this. In all the years since Amira, I thought, at some point, I’d weaken and cave. That I’d be the one who reached for a woman despite what the last one had cost me. But I hadn’t reached for Athena—I hadn’t kissed her.She’d kissed me.

And instead of the kiss being part of an injury that wouldn’t heal, her embrace was like a balm over an open wound.

I held steady until the first swipe of her tongue—the soft pink tip I’d tracked so many times over her lip now made its first pass across mine, and there I crumbled. The shield of my restraint constructed of piecemealed strength, that touch tearing away an integral part of the foundation like the Jenga piece that sent the tower toppling.

A deep sound rumbled through my lips, ushering with it my tongue to tangle with hers. I slid my hand to her hair, fisting the damp mass to angle her head and deepen the kiss. Water sloshed in the tub as she roseup to meet me.

“Dare,” she panted, nipping at my bottom lip until my mouth claimed hers once more.

Dammit. I needed to stop.

Her tongue stroked mine, wiping every thought from my mind except how that same motion would feel along the length of my cock. Distantly, I registered her fingers curling around mine, pulling my hand from her face, and I prayed she was coming to her senses because God knew, I seemed to have none when it came to her.

But she didn’t pull my hand from her skin. She moved it. Down her neck…over her collarbone…

“Athena.” I tried to catch my breath—catch the reins of my control again—but I wasn’t fast enough.

The gentle shackle of her fingers lowered my hand to her breast, the soft weight filling my palm like a bomb with a dead man’s switch. To hold her—touch her—risked my life. But to let go…to let go assured sudden death.

“Fuck,”I hissed, black spots striking like mallets in my vision.

“Please,” she murmured, holding my hand to her breast for another second before letting it go—before trusting me to give her what she needed.She shouldn’t trust me.“I dream of you…touching me.”

A curse erupted from my lips, and the world started to tilt as I let desire take me under. My hand moved on instinct, kneading and teasing the weight in my palm. Memorizing every inch of its softness and the feel of its firm peak, storing how perfect she was—how perfectly she fit to me—deep in the caverns of my mind where all my fantasies sprung from.

This would be enough—it would have to be. I wouldn’t let myself take more.

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