Page 54 of While She Sleeps

“Is that supposed to scare me, Orion?”

I chuckle. “No, Little Flame, but I don’t want us starting this relationship with any misguided notions that you can lie to me, and I won’t see straight through it.”

“Relationship?” She stutters the word, as if the four syllables are the scariest thing she’s ever uttered.

A smirk tugs at the corners of my lips as I flex my fingers around her throat. “Yeah, Ember. Relationship. You can push me away all you like. You can fight and hiss and spit until the cows come home, but I can take it. I can take anything you throw at me.”

She stares at me like I’ve lost my mind, but little does she know my sanity went out the window long ago, and I’m comfortable with the man I am today. Unhinged and obsessed with the woman in my arms.

Ember’s tongue darts out to wet her lips, and I track the movement, the tether of my control stretching to the point it’ll snap any second. I’ve always been the kind of guy who took what I wanted, not giving a fuck about the people around me or what they wanted. But that’s not how I win my little flame’s affections, and that means swallowing down my urge to steamroll her like I would anyone else.

“I don’t think—” Before she can get the refusal out, I slam my lips down on hers, stealing the words before she can say them. I’m not above getting her drunk with pleasure so she’ll agree to seeing things my way.

That’s not steamrolling her, right?

Her lips are impossibly soft beneath mine, pulling me in closer until my body pins her much smaller one to the table, my hand still bracketing her slender throat.

A soft moan escapes her, the sweetest sound I think I’ve ever heard in my miserable fucking life, and it only makes me kiss her deeper. My tongue swipes across the seam of her swollen lips, and they part for me immediately.

Her tongue is more tentative than mine, but she gives as good as she gets, nipping at my bottom lip and dragging groans from my chest.

Fuck, she’s going to destroy me.

There’s not a fucking doubt in my mind that Ember is going to wreck me every bit as much as I’m going to ruin her.

But what’s more romantic than being each other’s eternal damnation?

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

EMBER

This is not going to plan at all.

I thought I’d be able to say goodbye to Orion out on the street. Tell him dinner was lovely, thank him for the meal and the gifts, and then tell him I wasn’t interested in taking things further.

A lie, of course. What woman in her right mind wouldn’t want to have a relationship with this man? But that’s not in the cards for me. Not because I don’t want it, because I do. Fuck, do I want everything he’s offering. But I’m too broken. I’m nothing but shattered pieces of the woman I was before the accident, and I don’t want him to cut himself on my jagged edges.

And yet here I am, trapped between Orion’s hard body and the edge of my dining table, being devoured in a way I’m not sure I’ll ever recover from.

Yeah, this did not go to plan.

A moan slips from my throat as he flexes his grip around my throat, restricting my airflow enough that the heat in my core intensifies to the point I think I’m about to spontaneously combust. That’s not a thing, right?

His tongue drags along my bottom lip, giving me enough of a reprieve to drag in a frantic breath, but then he’s staring down atme with haunting dark eyes, searching mine for something I’m not sure he’s going to find.

I swallow, and his eyes flare, dropping to where his hand is resting.

“You’re too fucking tempting, Little Flame,” he murmurs, almost to himself, and my breath catches. I’m as scared he’s going to walk away as I am that he’ll continue. Because if we take this step, if I let him have my body, I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to walk away from him.

My resolve is wavering with every second he touches me, and I’m certain no woman is immune to his allure.

“Maybe we should slow down,” I force out, but each word is like ash on my tongue.

His eyes flare with amusement as a deep chuckle fills the space between us. “I don’t think so, Ember. Not before I show you all the reasons you shouldn’t run the way I know you’re desperate to.”

My eyes widen in surprise. Normally, I’m pretty good at hiding my emotions. The wall I’ve built between myself and the rest of the world is sky high at the best of times. So…how the hell does Orion see straight through it?

He dips his head and nips at my bottom lip. “Now we can do this one of two ways. Either you can walk your sexy ass over to the bed and strip for me, or I’m more than happy to slice that pretty dress off your body.”

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