Page 94 of Savage Torment

None of it makes sense at all.

“We’re obviously drawing attention to ourselves,” Tatum states, pulling me from my spiraling thoughts, and I nod.

“I’m just trying to live my life,” I admit, and he squeezes me even tighter.

“They don’t seem to like the sound of that,” he says into my hair, and I scoff.

“That’s true,” I muse before tilting my face to meet his stare. “But maybe we also need to put some distance between us,” I murmur, my statement barely more than a whisper, and his eyes narrow as his jaw ticks with barely contained anger.

“Like fuck.” I gape at him in surprise. “I’ve spent every part of my life that I can remember being sad and lost, using all of my energy to please others, and then there was you.” His words are firm, unwavering, like steel cutting through the air and holding me captive.

“Me,” I repeat in disbelief, and he nods, cupping my cheek.

“You are everything.”

My cheeks heat under his intense stare. “That feels like an exaggeration,” I breathe, half trying to lighten the mood and the other half revealing my insecurities.

“Have I been known to exaggerate?” he persists with a pointed look, and I relent.

“No.”

He shuffles us around so his arm is still under my neck, but now we’re face to face. “You make me want things I never did before.” My cheeks burn brighter at his admission. “I’ve spent as long as I can remember resigned to the fact that when it comes to the blood kin curse, I wouldn’t fight. Why take someone else’s life when mine is so worthless, you know?”

I gape in surprise, my hands clutching at his t-shirt as I shake my head. “Tatum?—”

“Until you,” he interjects, stealing my next breath. “Now I know I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get the chance to spend more time with you. Any means necessary, Polaris. Any,” he insists, and my heart thunders in my chest. “So Whitmore can go fuck himself. Along with anyone else that could have an issue with it. I’ve waited forever for you. I’m not hiding any of that.”

I nod. Just enough to agree while still cautious about the mayhem continuing to unravel around us.

“I need to figure out who swapped it out and why,” I murmur, referring to the journal, and he nods.

“Absolutely, but let me just be in this bubble, me and you, for a little while longer,” he murmurs, running his thumb over my cheek, and I nod, feeling the pounding of his heartbeat against my palm. “It’s beating for you. Only you,” he declares, his fingers finding their way into my hair again, and a shiver runs down my spine.

“I never feel more seen than when you look at me,” I admit, and his eyes darken.

“That’s exactly how I feel. You make me feel… everything,” he states, and I nod. “The good, the bad, and the ugly.” I frown at the negatives, but he shakes his head with a wry smile spreading across his face. “I love all of it. I went from feeling nothing to everything.”

I can’t take it anymore. Curling my fingers even tighter into his t-shirt, I eliminate the distance between us and press my lips to his.

His grip on my chin tilts my head back slightly, giving him better access to the seam of my mouth before he delves inside, deepening the kiss. I fall into him. Every breath he takes is mine too. It’s everything and nothing all at once.

He completes a part of me, but it feels effortless. Like it’s so natural, having it any other way doesn’t seem right.

“Make me yours,” I plead, tearing my mouth from his, and he shakes his head.

“I don’t know if I can, not without claiming you,” he admits, and I’m taken back by his honesty. Not that it should be a surprise, not when it comes to him.

“And if I want you to do that?” I finally ask when I manage to compose myself enough to speak, and he shakes his head again.

“You don’t know what you want.”

I lean back, giving him a pointed look. “That's what you said last time when we were in the maze,” I remind him. “Are you always going to doubt what I want?”

“No, but I always have your best interests at heart,” he insists, and I sigh.

“And what about what I want? Is that important? Because it matters to me.” My jaw tightens, but the dam has broken now. Before anyone can even conjure an answer, I push on. “I want to feel safe, I want to be heard, and I want to belong, even if that’s only with myself, in my own skin, because if you can’t respect me the way I respect myself then it’s not good enough. But more than all of that, my body is screaming for you, I want you more than anything and everything in the world combined in this moment. I want your dick, thick and stretching me to your will, and I want it now.”

My chest heaves, my truth hanging heavy in the air as Tatum gapes at me.

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