Page 107 of The Broken Note

“You’ll look good in white,” he says and then he pushes me back, grabbing my knees and prodding my legs apart.

A surge of adrenaline pounds through my veins. I thought once was enough. I thought the night couldn’t get any hotter, but the blaze that roars through me as he turns his attention to my pleasure cannot be doused.

I feel that chaotic need again.

Energy unfurls through me as his eyes gleam with dirty promises.

“I won’t stop until the whole damn world acknowledges that you’re mine, Cadey.”

My head falls back into the rug as Dutch seals his promise with his tongue and then his fingers. Filthy. Bloodthirsty. Obscene. He doesn’t care how messy it gets, lapping at me with an abandon that takes over my brain. In a second, I snap over the edge.

My whole life is flashing before my eyes. Bright lights. Stars.

No one has ever made me feel like this.

I dig my fingers into his blond hair, barely catching my breath before he climbs over me again.

“Dutch,” I cry, but he grabs my jaw and kisses me. I taste myself. I taste disaster and destruction. And yet I fall deeper. Even though it’s foolish. Even though it will definitely wreck me. Even though he was the beast who made every day at Redwood hell.

I’m pulling at him before my better senses can take over. I wrap my legs and then my body around him, his heart beating against mine while we both erupt into flames. All movement, heat and friction. All groans, lips to neck, teeth on shoulders.

And when I think I’m done, when my body pulses and I’m about to roll away and find what pieces of me he hasn’t shattered, he pulls me on top of him. Fingers working. Hips thrusting despite his instruction to take over.

I don’t think I’m going to survive the night.

Dutch Cross is trying his best to kill me.

But I don’t die.

After the last snap of a crescendo, after the last cry of pleasure screams through the room and echoes into silence, I find myself back on earth. My body is limp. I lie on top of him, rising and falling as his chest balloons with each pant.

My face sinks into the crook of his neck, tasting the sweat, tasting the essence of me. Dutch shifts his head to the side and kisses me like the world is ending. Like it’ll never be enough.

And maybe it won’t.

Just like there seems to be an everlasting fountain of hate between us, there will always be a persistent and unmistakable desire drenching us both. Drawing us back to each other when nothing about us together makes sense.

Dutch rolls me on my back, dropping whisper-soft kisses against my face and down my sweaty, naked body. His fingers slide between my thighs with unmistakeable intent.

My body zings and I arch my back off the rug.

“Dutch,” I moan, already hyper-sensitive. “I can’t marry you if I’m dead.”

He laughs and keeps going. “Is that a yes?”

I realize what I’ve said, how it sounded, and I blink rapidly. “N-no.”

I’m punished for my defiance in a way that sets all the shadows on fire.

“You want to fight, Cadey?” Dutch taunts, looking down at me drenched in sweat and the evidence of my satisfaction.

My eyes glint at him.

He smiles. Cruel king. Depraved ruler. Despicable beast.

Putting his lips to my ear, he warns me, “You’re my girl. My fiancée. My wife. Did you think I would let you walk out of here before convincing you?”

I look up at his menacing face and the music starts in my head again.

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