Page 13 of The Stalker
I don’t want to protect her.
I want toownher.
“Do it,”Thomas growls inside me, his voice sharp and hungry.“She’s cornered.She’s waiting.Stop pretending you’re noble.You’re not.You’re a predator, just like me.”
My blood surges.The church bell above us tolls once, echoing through the night, and it feels like a signal.Like the veil itself is urging me on.
I drag my finger slowly from her lips down to her chin, tilting her face up.Her eyes are wet, wide, and terrified, but blazing with something else.Something I never thought I would see.
Desire.
She doesn’t want me to see it, but I do.I’ve always seen it.Even when we were teenagers, when she’d look away too quickly in class, when her laugh caught on my name.It was there.It’sstillthere, buried under fear and scars.
“I told you,” I murmur, my thumb stroking the ridges of her cheek.“You can’t hide from me.”
She shakes her head, but it’s weak, half-hearted.Her breath hitches as I lean in, closer, closer, until our mouths are a breath apart.
“Take her mouth.Take her breath.Make her yours.”
Thomas’s voice is a snarl now, pounding in my skull, but I don’t need him to tell me.Every muscle in my body is already screaming for it.I press closer, caging her against the stone wall and my thigh nudges between hers, forcing her legs apart just enough for me to push my thigh against her covered sex.Her gasp cuts through the air, and it’s sweeter than any prayer.
“You’ve been mine since the beginning,” I whisper, my lips grazing hers.“I was just biding my time until you were ready.”
Her eyes flutter shut on a soft moan as she grinds against my thigh.It’s just for a second.Just long enough.
I crash forward.
But at the last moment, she jerks her head aside, and my mouth lands on her jaw instead of her lips.The taste of her skin—salt, fear, and heat—explodes across my tongue.I groan, pressing my mouth to her scar, licking the edge of it like I can erase every memory of pain she’s ever carried.
She shudders.Whether from fear or want, I don’t care.It’s reaction.It’smine.
“Griffin, stop,” she gasps, her hands pushing weakly at my chest.But her body betrays her, her hips still rocking against my leg chasing the pleasure she knows I can give her.
Thomas surges inside me, turning her plea into fuel for the fire burning through me like a wildfire.“She doesn’t mean it.She wants to be taken.Show her what only we can give her.”
My hand clamps around her left wrist, slamming it above her head against the stone.She cries out, writhing, but it only makes me harder.
“Stop?”I growl against her neck.“You think I can stop now?”
I nip at her throat, not hard enough to break skin, but enough to make her whimper.My free hand grips her hip, fingers digging into the softness I’ve dreamed of for years.
Her body betrays her again.She arches, just slightly, against me.A soft, involuntary sound slips from her lips, and it makes my vision blur.
“There,” I murmur darkly.“That’s the truth.You want this.”My hand slides up and I palm her full breast through her sweater, testing the weight in my palm.I lick my lips at the thought of sucking on one of her nipples.
Her tears sparkle in the dim light, but her mouth stays shut.No denial.No rejection.Just silence.And silence is just as good as permission right now.
I drag my lips back up her cheek, closer and closer to her mouth.My breath mingles with hers, heavy, desperate.I’m an inch away, a heartbeat away, from claiming the kiss I’ve been starving for since we were teenagers.
An inch away from breaking her.
