Page 49 of Reckless Hearts

Over everything else, I want her to choose me.

“Do… do you want me to go?”

Fuck.

She sounds broken, cracked, just like me.

I take her face in my palms, holding her steady, making sure she knows I mean it.

“Never.”

She tastes like heaven as I crash my mouth into hers.

Nothing I imagined, no dream, no fantasy comes close to how soft she is.

How sweet the sounds she makes are.

In the back of my mind, a voice yells that I shouldn’t have kissed her without asking.

That I’m a greedy bastard, taking advantage of her guilt.

But the way she’s kissing me back, nails digging into my shoulders, her other hand yanking me closer by my hair. Callie needs this just as much as I do.

She takes from me.

And I give her everything she needs.

No holding back.

I’d give her everything if she let me.

Each brush of her tongue stitches me back together.

Her whimpers better than any painkiller, numbing my shredded heart.

We part just long enough to breathe, then crash back together again.

I eat her whimpers like a starving man, pulling her onto my lap, the sensation of her slippery skin shorting out my brain.

Nothing else matters but the feel of her in my arms.

I let her wash everything else away.

The door beeps open.

A startled grunt cuts through the moment. As much as I want to keep making out with Callie, I force myself to look.

Maverick’s standing there. His mouth opens, then shuts. His fists clench at his sides as he takes in the scene.

Callie’s straddling my lap.

Her hands in my hair.

Mine wrapped around her, possessive.

The sour taste of guilt burns my throat.

The way Maverick stiffens, stepping one foot back like he’s been punched.

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