Page 43 of Property of Legend

He pulls me in, slow but sure, our bodies fitting together like we’ve been carved that way.My breath hitches, nerves sparking like live wires, but I don’t pull away.

"Sophie…" His voice dips lower, rougher.His mouth hovered just over mine, ghosting my lips, almost close enough to taste.“I’ve wanted this for a long time.”

“Me too,” I whisper.And I mean it with every jagged inch of my heart.

The moment he kisses me, the world spins off its axis.Fire.Thunder.Soft lips, rough hands, and the kind of hunger you don’t fake.I curl my fingers in his hair, dragging him closer like it was the only thing keeping me upright.

He lifts me like I weighed nothing, pressed me back against the hallway wall, and the whole world tilts around us.There’s nothing delicate about the way he holds me.It’s fierce, possessive, consuming, like he’s waited years and can’t wait one second more.

But even with the heat between us, my mind drifts, tothatnight.

We were teenagers.Barely.I’d stolen that bottle of Pappy from my father’s study, tucked it under my coat like I had something to prove.Legend was already at the stables, sweat on his brow, hay in his hair, and shadows in his eyes.

“I stole something,” I’d said like a dare, pulling out the bottle like a prize.

We’d passed it back and forth on hay bales, knees touching, breath catching.I remembered how his gaze burned through me, like I was the only thing he could see.I remembered the way he leaned in when I called him out for looking at me like I wasn’t real.

I remembered the kiss.

It hit like lightning.Sweet, hot, and over far too soon.Because his father’s voice had cut through the barn like a blade.I ran like a coward.I never forgot.

Ineverforgot.

And now, here we were.

That kiss, the one that had haunted me all these years.It lives again in this moment.But now there’s nothing innocent about it.No more pretending we don’t want this.No more excuses.

“You’re mine,” he growls against my lips, the words so raw they burned.

“Yes.”My voice comes out breathless, honest, real.“I’m yours.”

And God help me, I mean it.

Right here, right now, wrapped in danger and memory and the scent of bourbon and leather, I’m his.

And he’s mine.

The past doesn’t matter.The fear didn’t matter.Because this?This is real.

And there’s no going back now.

Chapter 24

Legend

The kiss still burns on my lips when Oaks knocked like the damn Grim Reaper, coming to kill my boner.

I pull back from Sophie, breath ragged, her body still flush against mine.Her fingers linger on my chest like she ain’t ready to let go, and neither am I.Not for all the bourbon in Kentucky.

But then, three sharp knocks.That club knock.Urgent.

I pull away slow, already missin’ her warmth.

“Legend,” Oaks calls through the door.“We got movement.”

I look down at Sophie, her lips swollen from our kiss, eyes wide, still dazed.I brush my thumb across her cheek, soft, quick.“Stay inside.Lock the door after I go.You armed?”

She nods, silent, trusting me when maybe she shouldn’t.I don’t want to leave her.Not after what just happened.But the world ain’t gonna stop spinning just ‘cause your heart finally catches fire.

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