Page 105 of Hexbound
"I never asked for forever," she whispered, tilting her face up toward him. "Small moments. Day to day. That's all I ask for: the here and now."
He shut his eyes. A look of pure thwarted need crossed his stark face. "Ver. I felt it. I know what you want. There's no hiding anything from me when we're linked."
He might not have been able to promise her a future, but he wanted it just as much as she did. The thought softened the blow of rejection. He wasn't doing this because he didn't want her; he was trying to soften the eventual blow.
And maybe he was telling the truth. Maybe there could never be athem. She'd felt the dark that haunted him, those demons that lurked within his soul.
And she didn't care.
Perhaps taking this step would have scared her a year ago. She knew now what she had to lose in life, but not daring to live it would be a greater tragedy. "Be here with me," she whispered, reaching up to brush her lips against his. "In the here and now. We'll let the future sort itself out."
Hands slid up and down her side, so gently he might have been calming a flighty horse. His eyes were closed, as if he drank in the sensation. Verity kissed him again and slowly closed her own eyes.
Capturing her hands in his, he tugged her firmly against him, the hard press of his erection digging into her stomach. Verity moaned, then drew back. She caught a glimpse of his dark, serious eyes, then she slid her hand behind his neck and dragged him back down for another kiss.
His lips were so soft. He kissed as though he had all the time in the world, as if just tasting her was pleasure enough. "God. I want to take you again, and never stop."
She smiled into his mouth as she slid a hand down his waistcoat. "That sounds more like it. Please ravish me." Her hand dipped between them, cupping the bulge in his pants. "Most thoroughly, if you would."
Hands caught her up under the bottom, lifting her into his arms. Verity flung her arms around his shoulders, meeting his heated kiss with a muffled laugh.
Balls scattered as he shoved at them impatiently. Then she was sitting on the billiards table as Bishop slid his hands up beneath her skirts.
He never broke the kiss. It was as if he drowned himself in the sensation, as if he needed this so desperately, needed to cling to her like a life raft to stop himself from going under.
And she held him too.
She wanted this man. Wanted him now. Forever. Dreams were always risky, but she had finally come to realize that this one was worth going after.
And Verity had always been a fighter.
One step at a time, however.
Verity tugged at the buttons of his trousers. The firm length of his erection strained behind the buckskin flap, and then the flap gaped. Verity dove her greedy little hand inside, fisting the length of him, pumping his cock in small motions. "Yes," she gasped as he bit her throat in reaction. "Yes!"
Her back would have hit the green felt of the tabletop if she didn't have such a stranglehold on his coat collar. Bishop's mouth grazed her chin, then slid down her throat. Suddenly, her breasts were under siege. All she wanted was to get out of this dress. Out of her corset. Too many cursed ribbons and ties. Verity gasped and fisted his cock again.
"I don't want to wait," she gasped as teeth nipped at the slope of her breasts. Grabbing a fistful of his hair, she dragged his face up to hers. "Now. Take me. Please."
Those dark eyes glimmered with heat. She'd thought them cold once upon a time, but the obsidian depths of his irises were like banked hearths, embers smoldering just beneath the surface.
He didn't offer to link with her. Not this time. And she didn't ask for it. The last thing she wanted was for him to know what she was planning.
Instead, she slid his cock through the slit of her drawers, rubbing the head of it through her wetness. A shiver ran through her at the sensation. Her skin drank in the feel of him; the rasp of his trousers against her inner thighs where her stockings ended; the blunt tip of his cock gently parting her; the abrasion of his coat against her fingertips.
Verity let her head sink back as Bishop half thrust. What she wouldn't do to have this man forever.
However, she'd settle for tonight.
"Do you like that?" he breathed, thrusting again as his cock slowly filled her.
"You know I do." Verity slid her hand through the silky hair at the back of his skull. Their eyes met. "No talking. Not tonight."
And then she kissed him again as he finally sank home within her, obliterating every other thought of the world around her.
He'd dreamedof fucking his way inside her. Dreamed of the trace of her skin under his hands, and the silk of her gown abrading his fingertips.
Those dreams paled in comparison to reality.
