Page 92 of Untamed

But only for a second.

She recovers fast and steps closer, too fucking close.

“I already told you, Bestia, I’m not built for a kept life,” she murmurs, her chest brushing mine.

That word.

Bestia.Beast.

Even though it’s not the first time she’s called me that, it still lands like a blow I don’t see coming.

She says it softly, but it’s not tenderness, it’s a reminder. A name spoken like a curse and a truth all at once.

Her breath is warm against my jaw. I can feel every syllable echoing down to my bones.

“I don’t just want to be someone’s possession,” she breathes. “Something fragile that’s tucked away, polished, protected, admired from afar, but never touched.” Her hand lifts again, soft fingers skimming over the buttons of my shirt, slow and deliberate.

“I want…” she breathes, her lips graze my chin, just a whisper of skin, but it roars through me like wildfire. Her other hand drifts down, knuckles brushing the hem of my belt.

I catch her wrist before she can go lower, and I don’t let go.

Her head tilts up, lips parted just enough for my gaze to drop to them without meaning to. I clench my jaw and force it back up.

“Jordyn.” Her name rasps out of me, rougher than I intend. I catch her jaw in my hand, tilting her face up to mine, holding her there like I’m trying to remember the feel of her before I lose control completely.

“You don’t know what you want, bambina,” I murmur, voice low and deliberate. My thumb drags over her bottom lip, slow and possessive.

“And as much as I’d love to pin you against that wall and teach you what it really means to play with fire…” I lean in, just enough for her breath to catch, “…you’re not ready for the kind of heat I’d bring.”

I pause, let the weight of it settle in the air between us. “Do you understand?”

She doesn’t blink. Doesn’t back down. Instead, her eyes lock on mine, and then her lips part. She leans in, slow as sin, andpresses a soft kiss to the pad of my thumb, and shelicksit. Her tongue drags along the curve, warm and wet, and then she sucks it into her mouth like a goddamn promise.

Fuck. My entire body goes still. Heat flares under my skin, sharp and sudden, and I feel it,everywhere.

She releases me with a breathy pop, eyes gleaming with challenge.

“I’m not afraid of playing with fire,bestia,” she whispers. “You’ll learn that soon enough.”

Something splits open in my chest.

I curl my fingers around her throat, not tight, not rough, butfirm. I can hear her gasp, her pulse flutters against my palm like a live wire. Without a word, I walk her backwards.

Step by step, until her spine hits the wall with a soft thud.

I lean in close, mouth brushing her ear, my breath a warning.

“I’m not built for games, bambina,” I murmur, voice dark and steady. “You keep pushing me... and you’ll learnthatreal fast.”

Jordyn’s breath hitches, but she doesn’t move, and neither do I. Because if I so much asbreathewrong, I’m going to lose every ounce of control I have left.

“And if you ever storm into a place with my name on it again like you own the fucking right… I won’t be so lenient next time. Capisce?”

When I draw back, I expect to see some form of fear in her eyes, but do you know what I find staring back at me?Defiance.

Fucking Christ. This girl is going to be the death of me.

It would be wise of me to pay heed to his warnings and stay away, but I don’t. Even though I know he was the one responsible for burning down Eden and killing Rocco. Not even after witnessing the bloodied carnage he left behind that night he rescued me from Nicolai Moretti.

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