Page 29 of Her Rugged Guardian

And I’d fallen for it. Hook. Line. And sinker. Only I’d be the one sinking in the ocean depths. Her mouth and the kiss defied nature, the taste of her unlike any other woman I’d kissed before. I heard my groan of frustration through our locked lips, could feel the hard pulse pounding in the thick cords on my neck.

A part of me wanted the moment hot and dirty, nothing more than a quick romp, which would allow me to escape the feeling of guilt. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I would sip from her nectar more than once, fucking her as often as my cock would allow, and start all over again after exploring every inch of her delicious body.

And for once, I didn’t give a shit as to the consequences.

I kept my rough fingers tangled in her hair, nearly crushing her body with mine. I was twice her weight easily, yet she wasn’tfrail or skinny by any means. No, she was the perfect handful, a reminder of the way I’d felt when spanking her.

She was soft to the touch against my ruggedness, her skin unblemished where mine was destroyed. The way the beautiful Cassandra had looked at me only moments before hadn’t been out of pity or even sarcasm, two expressions I’d had my fill of from the nosy folks in town. She’d acted as if she was looking at a creation of beauty.

That had broken the spell I’d tried to keep locked around me.

It would seem my best laid plans had been tossed out the window. I swept my tongue inside her mouth, the taste of scotch and chocolate icing igniting something deep inside. But the sweetness of the frosting was nothing in comparison to the woman’s mouth as I drank in her essence.

The way she wiggled in my firm hold was incredible, her body molding against mine perfectly. I wasn’t shocked how much I wanted her, but it wasn’t just about my throbbing cock and aching balls doing the talking. As she slid one arm over my shoulder, I gathered another sense of her desire burning as brightly as mine. The kiss became unsettling, the need to drive my cock deep inside her tight pussy still able to catch me off guard.

In recent months, I’d thought of myself as asexual, but now I knew I’d done nothing more than shut down, waiting for the right jolt of electricity to come along. She had no idea how disturbing yet enthralling the single act was to a man like me. As the hunger spilled into the need to control her, I did what I could to shut down my emotions. This wasn’t about the start of a relationship. That simply wasn’t going to happen, now or ever.

This was about both of us needing intimacy, about satisfying a tense desire that had managed to thread around us like a noose.

Shit. Now I was trying to analyze the reason I was allowing my guard to fall. Fuck it. I was simply going to enjoy spending time with a beautiful woman.

I released my hold on the towel, easing my hand down her spine, daring to cup her bottom. She moaned into the kiss, the muffled sound more like a purr than a whimper. She was sweet putty in my rough hands, and I planned on molding her how I wanted.

There was that Neanderthal side of me that she’d already commented on. As she wrapped her leg around mine, I shifted my hold, sliding my fingers under her tight skirt until I was able to grasp her thigh. Her skin was far too soft, the longing I felt building to a breaking point. When I finally broke the satisfying kiss, I yanked on her head, exposing the long line of her neck.

Cassandra was gasping for air, her lower lip trembling as her long eyelashes floated across her shimmering cheeks. The firelight was a perfect backdrop, the only other light in the room doing little more than adding to the soft glow around her.

And just like that, another rumble of thunder was immediately followed by two flashes of neon blue lightning across the sky. The intensity of light was quickly cut short, including the power going out as if planned by the gods above.

She gasped, trembling in my arms, the firelight allowing me to catch a glimpse of fear. She’d tried to make herself fearless, but I sensed the cause for the instant hint of terror had little to do with the storm.

“It’s okay, Cinnamon Girl. There isn’t anyone in this town who will hurt you.”

“What about you?”

I kept her head at an awkward angle, refusing to answer. She didn’t need to know that in the town of several thousand, I could be the one to hurt her the most. I dragged my tongue from one side of her jaw to the other, taking my time to breathe in her shower gel and a hint of perfume. Whatever she was wearing had an exotic fragrance that had the effect of keeping my cock at full attention.

At that moment, I wondered what it would be like to bend her to my will. That wasn’t like me, at least not normally, but I wasn’t myself any longer, more of a shell than the gregarious playboy I’d been fifteen years before.

Yet I felt possessive about her, as if I couldn’t manage to let her go. It was a ridiculous thought but as I dragged my tongue down the side of her neck, swirling it around her thudding pulse, I was struck by how much I wanted to protect her. The fact she felt right in my arms, as if she already belonged to me should trouble me more than excite me. That simply wasn’t the case.

She undulated her hips once again before slipping her hands around my back, her cold fingers quickly warming from my heated skin. There was something so powerful about the way she touched me, tender yet forceful in an entirely different way. When she raked her nails up and down my back, a growl erupted from somewhere deep inside my system, from a very dark place. Yet the ragged sound didn’t seem to bother her. Her breathing remained scattered, her eyelids still half closed.

When I finally eased her back, she seemed more nervous than the formidable woman who’d nearly brought me to my knees. Her eyes held a mysterious power that lured me in as muchas her voluptuous body. She touched my chest again, the smile curling on her rosy lips turning her into a seductress.

The woman was scintillatingly beautiful and completely off limits. Which was why I had to taste her.

Fuck her.

Claim her.

There was the man I’d known all my life, the asshole breaking free of the self-imposed chains. It was at that moment I tore at her clothes, nearly ripping the buttons off her blouse as I tore it from her tight skirt. When one finally popped, she gasped as if from horror, immediately laughing in the nervous way she’d done before.

I wasn’t in the mood to shower her with patience now that things had spiraled out of control between us. When I ripped off her blouse, tossing it aside, she shoved her hand against me as if attempting to get away. But I was too quick for her, snagging her wrist and tugging her forward. Another nervous laugh was my sweet reward, the lilting sound exactly what I needed to hear.

I’d used the momentum to be able to reach around her with ease, unbuttoning and unzipping her skirt. Goddamn, the woman was perfect, the way her lace-covered breasts crushed against my chest instantly driving me crazy.

“You’re a bad man, aren’t you?” She cooed the question and I had a feeling she’d already come to her own conclusion.

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