Page 25 of While You Sleep

She tried to take a step back, and I tightened my hold on her, grinding my fucking teeth. What I wanted to do was order her to strip and bend over the bed. I wanted to work out all the need that had been riding me since I first saw her a year ago. A driving hunger for her that had only increased when she’d walked toward me, trembling and wide-eyed, and stood opposite me in front of that priest.

This alliance was the only thing keeping Brennan alive and that old fuck knew it, but instead of fighting and dying with honor, he’d offered up his precious only daughter to the O’Rourke monster. He deserved to suffer.

But Sophia did not, and I’d do my best to avoid that.

I studied her again. I was going to have to find some patience because fucking her while she was this terrified wouldn’t be good for either of us.

I was going to have to work for it, something I’d never had to do before.

Tilting her chin up, I brushed my thumb over her full lower lip, back and forth, letting a little of Dean slip back in, into my eyes, my voice, into someone I wasn’t. “In your apartment, did you like the way I made you come, Soph?”

Her eyes widened, and I could see she wanted to say no. She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t. There was no hiding how hard I’d gotten her off. Rather than saying yes, she didn’t answer, but her breath quickened. She was scared, but she was also turned on.

“It’s okay to want me and hate me at the same time, pet.” I brushed my thumb over her lip again. “Maybe you’ll grow to like me a little?” I made my lips twitch, giving her what I knew others interpreted as a self-depreciating smile. “Maybe you won’t, but out there”—I pointed to the door—“I’ll protect you with my life. And in here, when we’re alone, I’ll worship every inch of your body. I’ll make you feel good, Soph, because I’m your husband, and that’s my job.”

“I do…I hate you,” she said, fiercely.

I swept my thumb over her jaw, her chin, tilting her head back. “Yet you still want me to kiss you.”

Her face flushed pink.

I loved the way she blushed so easily.

I took her silence as an invitation and closed the space between us. And as much as I wanted to own that hot fucking mouth, to take it hard and deep, like the rest of her, I forced myself to dip my head slowly and gently press my mouth to hers. I’d never kissed anyone this way. I didn’t do soft or gentle. I plundered. I fucked hard, then I walked.

But Sophia wasn’t some random piece of ass. She’d be here in the morning, and the next, and the next after that. She’d keep on being here, and I needed to remember that. So I thought about all those movies I watched as a boy—learning what I could so I didn’t scare people, so they’d believe I was like everyone else—and kissed her like the men in those movies kissed their wives or girlfriends. Imitating others was easy, I’d been doing it my whole life. I knew exactly how to be a good husband, a good father—I knew how to fool people into believing I was warm inside and not cold as ice. If that’s what Sophia needed, then I’d give it to her.

Her lips were full and warm—

And completely still under mine. Frozen, like the rest of her. Her breath puffed from her nose like a frightened rabbit, her tits the only part of her moving, shaking against my chest from those panted breaths.

My terrified new wife was about to fucking hyperventilate from a kiss. How the fuck was she going to handle the full force of my hunger?

I touched my tongue to her upper lip, tasting her, trying to ignite the same fire I’d gotten from her the last time I’d kissed her…the first time Dean, kissed her. She made a strangled noise that was pure fear.

Fuck.

I had no plans of fucking around on her, I would never be like Seamus, but there were things I needed. I had thought…hoped, what I saw in her, the stillness, the overt submissiveness, would come out in other ways if I showed her, taught her what I liked, if I coax it out of her—

Her lips moved—ever so slightly.

“That’s it,” I said against her mouth. “Now let me taste that sweet little tongue again.”

She shivered as her tongue tentatively swiped over my lower lip.

“So good, Soph. Now open your mouth wider for me.”

She did, and I threaded my fingers through her hair, sliding my tongue into her sweet, hot mouth, showing her that I owned it, that it was mine. It was probably too much, too soon, but there was only so much a man like me could take.

I held her tight to me, maybe too tight, but I had no control over that either. Only she made me this way. I let the iron grip I had on that part of me slip, and I took more. I couldn’t get enough. I barely resisted tugging the delicate gown off her shoulders and dragging it off her body, stripping her bare.

She pushed against my chest, trying to pull away.

I wanted to fucking snarl. “It’s okay,” I said, then sucked on her lips, squeezing one of her tits.

She pushed at me again.

I took her chin and opened her mouth wider, kissing her deeper, demanding more.

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