Page 114 of Power Shift

“I want you, Landon.”

Four words.

They rip through me, tearing through flesh and blood and imbedding themselves into my bones. Briar’s name joins them, a permanent brand like the one my teeth ache to give her throat.

“Don’t tell me that right now,” I half snarl, half beg.

The wall next to her doorway meets her back as I slam us against it, rattling the boring, cheap paintings hung close by. The harsh movement has her jostling against me, her thighs tightening despite the way she slips down my front. The length of my stiffening cock presses against the thin material of my workout shorts, and I know the moment she feels it digging into her.

I bite down so hard that my gums pulse as I press myself flush to her front and adjust my hold higher up her thighs. The backs of my knuckles meet the curve of her ass.

She gasps, her scent ripening until it’s so sickly sweet I pick it up over the chemical de-scenter.

“It’s true. I want you, and I know you want me. Whatever it is that’s keeping you from accepting me, I want to know so I can help convince you how wrong you’ve been. We’re meant for each other, Lan. Biology doesn’t lie,” she declares fiercely—so fucking beautifully.

“You can’t rely on biology for everything,” I argue. It’s a pathetic attempt at it.

She touches my face, palming my scruffy jaw with a gentleness I’ve never felt before. “Not everything. Just this.”

“I admire your loyalty.”

“Stop that. Don’t try to diminish what I’m saying. Whatever it is that’s keeping you from trusting fate, let me change your mind.”

“How do you plan on doing that?”

Her lashes flutter when she leans in close and murmurs, “Kiss me.”

I nearly choke on a moan, knot throbbing. She wiggles her hips, encouraging our middles to meet, her leggings hot in the centre. I’m trapped in her hold, fully aware that I could set her down, but with limbs refusing to do just that. One thrust and I’d be grinding against her pussy.

“What will a kiss prove?” I ask, voice full of smoke.

“Everything.”

She pulls my face close until the rounded tip of her nose rubs along the bridge of mine. I can taste her perfume in the air, and my head fogs, an intense drive to give in to her poking and prodding at my brain.

“One kiss will do that?” I ask.

“Maybe.”

It’s enough for me. Fuck, is it ever enough.

I grab two handfuls of her ass and press her harder against the wall before slanting my mouth over hers and tasting her lips for the first time.

The world keeps turning, but it’s different. The air brushing my skin is crisper; every sound is louder, clearer. My heart beats the same, but it’s steady, like for the first time in nearly three decades, it’s finally figured out the perfect tempo, and while it’ll thrash again, it won’t be as out of control, searching for a person who I hadn’t found yet.

Briar tries to pull me closer, but it’s impossible. The only way we could be closer is if we were naked, my cock inside of her and my knot?—

A low grumble spills from my mouth into hers, and she’s ready for it, swallowing it immediately.

My ears prickle, an awareness there and gone as I pin her against the wall with my hips. She nods in response, nails digging so sharply into my shirt that they pierce through to scrape at my skin.

“Inside,” she whines.

I sink my teeth into her bottom lip, balls pulling up in pleasure. “One kiss.”

“Not anymore.”

No, not anymore. I’m not sure it’ll be one kiss ever again.

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