Page 83 of Kiss the Dawn
She chews on her cheeks. “I’ll have to go back soon…to the Isle…”
Damn that place. Damn those people. “Like hell you will. They can’t have you. I’ll demand retribution for the crime against you. The witches’ heads on silver platters.”
“Ezekiel!” She stares at me with wide eyes, but I see the gleam buried beneath her shock which tells me that she would like that. My little vixen. “You can’t do that to them,” she says.
“Why not?”
“Because that will make us as bad as they are.”
“Fine, I won’t take their heads, but I will demand retribution. Their lives in exchange for them relinquishing their claim on you. In fact, the consortium should have already done that.”
“I’m sure Lorenzo is sorting something. He said he would.”
“Have you been able to speak to him today?”
She shakes her head. “I left him a message, though, letting him know the curse is broken. I’m sure he’ll call as soon as he can.”
I don’t like the way her gaze softens when she talks about him, but I swallow my irritation and remind myself of my vow. “Good, because you belong here. With me…with…us.”
Her gaze flies up to meet mine, searching.
I pinch her chin and lift her face to mine to drop a soft kiss on her delectable lips.
“I want you to have your heart’s desire. To love freely. I will never cage you, Orina.”
She rests her forehead against my jaw. “I never expected you to say that.”
“I wouldn’t have…before. But when you broke the curse, you freed me from a phantom cage of numbness. I hurt people, pushed them so that they would feel pain or rage or any emotion so that I could experience it through them. There was a rage inside me all the time. A frustrated yearning for the thing that had been taken. The ability to truly connect with the world, to feel. I would have kept you for myself. Mine to enjoy. Orina, I would have caged you and justified it to myself. I could have convinced you it was what you wanted. But that man is gone. That was never truly me. But make no mistake. If anyone you choose to share your heart with hurts it in any way, I will end them.”
She exhales softly. “This feels so surreal. As if it’s a dream.”
“It’s not a dream. This will be our life now. Whatever you want, Orina. Whoever you want.”
She plucks at the throw. “Right now, all I want is you.”
Now that I can give her. She squeaks as I scoop her into my arms, then clings to me as I carry her into the bedroom.
I want her to have a four-poster bed and silk sheets, but crisp cotton sheets will have to do.
She looks up at me with dark eyes as I lay her down, chest heaving behind the thin T-shirt she’s wearing like armor.
Not for long.
I brace a knee on the bed and undress her, peeling away the fabric that hides the delights of her body.
I can smell her arousal, see it in the hard peaks of her nipples and the rosy tint to her areolas. I drag my gaze down to the juncture of her thighs to the neatly trimmed triangle that will be my playground soon enough.
She gasps when I kiss it, and I pull away to look up at her face. Her eyes are bright with anticipation, my eager little vixen.
I don’t want to rush this. I want to savor her. Every inch of her. So I take my time undressing. The rustle of fabric as it slides off my body, the snap of my belt as I release it, seem to heighten her arousal. Her breath quickens, and her scent spikes. My body responds with a tightening at the base of my spine, and I reach downto grasp my cock, my gaze locked on her. She follows the motion of my hand, mouth parting.
“Fuck…”
I run my hand up and down my thick length, and she sits up, mesmerized. “I want to feel you.”
“My body belongs to you now, Little Silver.”
She crawls across the bed to me, naked, bare, and vulnerable, and it takes every bit of willpower I have not to pounce on her and bury myself in her heat.
