Page 68 of The Villain

“Then what is it?”

“You deserve better.” His lips were close, the rush of warm air that carried each word caressed my own.

My head swayed a little. He didn’t understand. Not at all.

I might be blind, but Dare was the one who couldn’t see.

“Better?” I murmured, tipping my head and moving my hands to frame his mouth. “There is no one better than you.”

His lips were parted in protest when mine pressed to them. He wanted to keep fighting for his own guilt—his own villainy—but I wouldn’t let him.

He stood so still, like a stone tomb resting above the ground, housing the soul of a man who deserved to live rather than bury himself alive.

I whimpered and slanted my mouth, pulling closer to him.How could someone have used him that way? To take the trust of a man who was so willing to give everything and then use it against him?

There wasn’t any room for jealousy of the woman who’d captured Dare’s heart so strongly, only disbelief and pity.She’d forsaken one of the very best of men, and in doing so, had wounded him in a way he wouldn’t let heal.

“Athena…” Dare murmured, the whole of him rippling with restraint.

I wished in that moment not for my own sight but for his. For him to see that I wanted him…and that he was deserving.

And so I dragged my tongue along his lips and murmured, “All of your broken pieces, I see them. I see them, and it doesn’t change the way I want you.”

The groan he made was the sound of stone cracking. Shattering and then crumbling. His tomb breaking open and setting him free.

His arms snaked around me, holding me as the kiss deepened. Now, it was tongues sparring and twisting, the bold strokes painting desire in vibrant shades of red all through my body.

“Dare.” I shivered when his hand cupped the back of my neck, letting my head fall back so his mouth could settle on my throat and the thump of my pulse.

I angled toward him, needing to be closer, and shivered when his other hand found my ass and held me tight to the hard length at his waist. My hips rocked forward, and he tensed like I’d just brought him to the edge of a cliff.

His heavy breaths rushed against my neck as he drew back with the painful precision of a man who was defusing a bomb.

“Athena, I can’t,” he croaked. “I shouldn’t?—”

“I’m not asking you to,” I murmured. “I’m asking you to let me.” I reached between us and felt for his cock.

“Let you—” He broke off with a hoarse groan that melted into a hiss, pain and pleasure coming together in the most exquisite way, like rain and sunshine into a rainbow. “Jesus…”

The long ridge filling my hand swelled even thicker, and his arms released me. “You shouldn’t?—”

He meant to let me go—to push me away and punish himself. But I wouldn’t let him. At least, I was going to do everything I could to prevent it.

He’d saved my life, and now I wanted to show him there was no guilt for him to live his.Or to want me.

So, I lowered to my knees, the grass cool beneath me.

“What are you doing?” He took my wrists, imprisoning them at his waist, but he couldn’t bring himself to move them away.

I tipped my head, staring into darkness as I slid my tongue over my lips. “I want to taste you.” I’d never been so bold. Never used words to paint a picture of exactly what I wanted. But there was a comfort in being around him…and a kind of freedom in this cognitive blindfold.

“No, you don’t.” He ground out, but he still didn’t move my hands.

“Why not?”

I could easily distinguish his forced exhale from the soft rush of the breeze.

“Because you don’t know what you’re in for.”

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