Page 21 of Bond Strength

Declan sat there brimming with pure seriousness, how he always did. In the dim lighting, his lips looked more carved and plump than ever, his jawline sharper than before. The scent of him, all crisp and pine, drifted toward me, heightening the arousal I overflowed with. He was the most perfect thing I’d ever seen, and I was spellbound.

However, he’d asked me a very real question, one I’d been fantasizing about for as long as I could remember.

I moved slowly, as if wading through a dream, closed the distance between us, and stopped an inch from him. His eyes were wide and rapt, and he drew in a small, hitched breath. He licked his lips again, the quick movement highlighting his lush lower lip, which was my undoing.

I dove in, wanting to taste lips I’d only ever dreamed about.

The storm roared on around the house, static rain and the boom of thunder, but none of nature’s raw wildness could compare to the ferocity rolling through me when we crashed together. It was as if years of collecting static electricity from charge after charge after charge roiled into one gigantic bolt that rushed through me.

I wrapped a hand around Declan’s nape, drawing him in even closer, and licked across his lower lip, tugging it into my mouth. Fuck, he was delicious. His trembled breath puffed against me before I dove in for more, this time deepening the kiss. God, the sweetness there. I drove my tongue into his mouth, tasting him, lapping him up. The way he quivered and melted against me launched signal flares. He was everything I’d dreamed of and more.

Declan didn’t just passively kiss back. No, he almost climbed onto my lap as he edged closer, as if he needed to meld with me. My cock grew hard, my tip weeping. It tented the fabric of my pants, and for the first time, I didn’t bother hiding what he did to me. Kissing Declan unmade me at my very fabric, my mere atoms vibrating from being in his presence. A hunger existed in the way he devoured that took me by surprise, a voracity I could fast become addicted to.

Being the sole focus of this man was a heady thing, which I’d been chasing ever since I lost it.

I tightened my grip around his neck, and his moan vibrated against my lips. Oh, goddamn. If he liked that…my filthy mind was filling in the blanks. What I wouldn’t do to have him bound at my mercy, to be driving into him until he turned into a puddle. My cock throbbed, and I reached down with my other hand to push against the length.

Declan’s lips met mine again and again and again with an inquisitiveness that kept me on edge, that brought me crashing back. Lightning flashed, illuminated the room for a second, but even that couldn’t pull me away. My world consisted of Declan Brannon, his chest a mere inch from mine as he drank in my kisses like he needed them to breathe.

God, the softness of his mouth. He tasted like something sweetly herbal, and each time I slid my tongue against his, sparks flicker-flashed through me. My heart careened all over the place. Indulging in any ofthis was hazardous to my mental health, but like hell would I stop. I surrendered to the heat of his body, to the brush of his lips, to the gasps and moans coming from him. He was enthralling, pure electricity.

When I pulled back, our breaths collided in the space between us. He panted, his eyes were still wide, his mouth ajar.

“That conclusive enough?” I asked, my body thumping with the erratic beat of all the adrenaline rushing through me.

Declan smirked. “Mm, I think we need more testing.”

A sharp bark exploded from me, but I didn’t wait around. I dove back in and slammed my mouth to his. The kisses grew hungrier. More desperate. We were tongues and teeth and as raw and savage as the storm dominating the sky. My mind dizzied, and I lost track of everything but Declan’s mouth against mine and my whole body exploding with life.

When we pulled apart a second time, we stared at each other, shoulders heaving.

Declan wrinkled his brow. “Were you flirting with me all these years?”

The laugh burst from me again, giddy and buoyant. “Yes, I was. Clearly, my game is terrible.”

“You’re aware I don’t pick up on cues.” Declan’s lips curled into a slight pout that was so cute I wanted to lean in and kiss it off him again.

I scrubbed at my face. “I know. Fuck, at the time, I was too scared of rejection to establish what I wanted.”

“Like you won’t set your boundaries with other people?”

Oof.

His words hit me like a thump to the gut, yet I adored that he called me out. So often I wished people would see me, that they could tell I was wearing myself too thin. And he did in an instant. His truths were worth the small sting of delivery when the understanding and carewashed over me. He wasn’t the sort to point out problems to people he didn’t give a damn about. He wouldn’t bother conversing with them at all, so I knew the weight of those words, his concern.

“Yeah, like that.” I sucked in a deep breath. “So, how straight are you feeling now?”

Declan arched his brow, an effortless sexiness that sent a shiver through me. “Not very.”

Holy fuck. He was so damn hot it was unreal.

My whole body grew ablaze with how his careful eyes skimmed over me with an intensity that pinned me to the spot. For years, I’d wished Declan would look at me with even a fraction of this heat. Now that he did, I could barely believe this was happening. With the darkened room, the rain roaring outside, I felt as if we were trapped in this bubble beyond reality.

I’d hold tight to every second of it before the world came crashing back in.

“Why messing with my hair?” Declan asked. “I hate it. Then I have to go and fix it the way I set it originally.”

I didn’t try to restrain my grin. Fuck, having this information—I was seeing everything through a different lens. “Truthfully? I just wanted to touch you.”

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