Page 26 of Burn it Down

"Neither have you. Still the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he tells me reverently, and I believe every single word.

My heart twists when he presses a kiss behind my ear and breathes, “Fuck, I missed you so much. You have no idea.”

I let out a laugh, “You’re joking, right? I think I have some idea, big guy.”

I expect him to glower down at me for my teasing tone, but he doesn't. “I can’t stop thinking about taking you inside,” he says suddenly, voice rough with heat and want. “But if I do it now, it won’t be gentle. You deserve gentle. You deserve perfect.”

I blink up at him, startled. I open my mouth to say… I don’t know what I want to say, but it feels like I need to reassure him that I want him in any way that I can have him.

He shakes his head as if he knows what I’m thinking. “I don’t want to fuck you. Not for our first time. I want to take my time with you. Make you comfortable, make sure you enjoy it enough to let me have you again. I want you every hour of every day, baby. I’ll never get enough of you.”

I suck in a breath, heart thudding in my chest.

“I don’t think I’ll know what to do. I haven’t–” I say before I can stop myself, suddenly feeling very insecure that the only experience I have is the whirlwind of what happened between Riven and I today. “You must have found comfort in someone? Someones?” I laugh at how silly the plural sounds, and I hate that my voice is shaking. I don’t really want to know, but the words are already out there hanging over us.

He stops skating and this time he actually does glower at me like I’ve offended his sensibilities in some way.

“There’s something you need to understand,” he says, gripping my jaw gently. His voice is low. “There’s never been anyone else. Not one. I didn’t touch anyone. I didn’t even look. It’s always been you, Lake. It will always only be you.”

His words knock the breath out of me. I don’t have time to recover because he leans in and kisses me. It’s slow and aching, like he’s making up for every minute we lost.

Riven’s lips are warm and hungry, but not rough. His mouth molds to mine, coaxing, claiming. His hand slides around the back of my neck, anchoring me, and his other flattens across my spine.

My knees go weak. My body responds before my mind can. I want to rise onto my toes, to press closer somehow, but my current footwear situation won’t allow it. I let him guide the pace and melt into him because there’s no other option. Riven doessomething to me, and I know with every nerve ending in my body that no one else could make me feel like this.

He groans softly into my mouth, and it rips through me. It’s raw and possessive. Like I belong to him. Like I always have.

When he deepens the kiss, his tongue sweeps across mine, hot and addicting. My skin is on fire. My blood feels absolutely electric pumping through my veins.

If he lowered me to the ice and took me here, I wouldn’t stop him. But he pulls back first, resting his forehead against mine, both of us breathless.

I melt into him even further for a moment, my fingers curling into his jacket. When I pull away, it’s only because I have to. My lips are swollen. My fingers tremble. My whole body feels scorched, rewired somehow in the best possible way.

I’ve wanted this kind of kiss from Riven for so long, but there was always something stopping us. Tonight? There’s no more distance. No more waiting.

I’m his and he’s mine. For the first time in what feels like forever, I actually believe it. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t make him work for it. I smile up at him and then I push off and skate away.

He scowls, making me laugh. God, I haven’t laughed or felt carefree in so long. Have I ever felt this way? I don’t think so.

The cold rushes past me as I skate. I fly to the edge of the pond, toward the bench because I have an idea, and I suspect he’s going to love it. Snowflakes whip across my cheeks and melt into my hair. I feel breathless. Light, almost like I’ve finally outrun the weight that’s been sitting on my chest.

When I reach the bench, I collapse onto it, unlacing and then kicking off my skates with numb fingers. My tennis shoes are stiff, the leather half-frozen, but I manage to tug them on. I probably shouldn’t bother because they’re not going to be much protection for what I have in mind.

I glance out at the pond again. Riven has skated closer and he’s watching my every move. He’s just standing there, silhouetted by moonlight, chest rising and falling. His arms are down, but his entire body is coiled like a loaded spring.

My stomach flips. It’s wild to feel so safe… while being hunted. Because that’s what I want him to do to me tonight, and I can tell he’s going to enjoy it immensely.

I remember the first time we ever wrestled in the snow behind the barn. He tackled me into a drift and pinned my wrists above my head. He grinned down at me, breathing hard. And I’d known then and there that Riven likes the chase.

When he finally starts walking toward me, his eyes are trained on me like I’m his favorite fucking sin. He doesn’t say a word as he sits next to me, taking his skates off and reaching for his shoes.

“Give me a head start,” I say, breathless, as I stand up. “It’ll make it more fun.”

He narrows his eyes. “Make what more fun?” He knows, but he wants me to say it and I’ll give him anything he wants.

“You can’t lie to me, Riven.” I smirk, unzipping the jacket he let me borrow. “You don’t want our first time to be sweet and slow.”

I shrug the jacket off my shoulders and toss it toward him, watching his gaze darken as it hits him square in the chest. “You want to chase me into the woods,” I continue, voice lowering to something silkier, a tone I didn’t know I was capable of. “You want to hear me beg, see me try to escape, make me yours in the most primal way. You told me that, and I’ve decided that I want that too, Riven.”

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