Page 68 of A Taste Of Darkness

I suppose time really did change everything.

“Now I can fight your family alongside you,” I said.

“You’re not quite there yet, but I love your enthusiasm.”

I leaned back in his arms, knowing he wouldn’t let me fall no matter what. When I looked at Milo, I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.

He was right. I wasn’t ready to fight with him against his family, but if it came down to it, I’d throw myself into that war zone anyway.

I placed my hands on Milo’s face and leaned in for a kiss.

His kisses were so different from everyone else’s. Milo’s kiss consumed me, turned my blood into lava. He kissed me with so much passion and fire that every nerve in my body was sizzling with anticipation for more.

His tongue pushed into my mouth like the first time we kissed, deepening our kiss just to make my soul leave my body.

I was convinced his kisses were witchcraft, could cast spells upon me, and signed the contract to sell my eternal soul to him. But if selling my soul felt like heaven, I’d gift it to him.

Just like today’s morning, warmth pooled between my thighs, and I had to focus not to grind against him to feel some kind of friction.

This was so strange and new, but so exciting at the same time.

It wasn’t the first time I was turned on or anything, but it was the first time I didn’t feel like I had to be afraid. It was the first time I wasn’t disgusted with myself.

“Milo,” I gasped as we pulled away for a moment for some oxygen. My chest was rising and falling heavily as I tried to catch my breath. “Can you…” My eyes moved over to the glass doors where Michael stood with his back toward us, watching the entrance of the building.

Was this too risky?

I didn’t know if the shooting range had any more entrances, and if it did, then all ten security guards were spread around the entire building to make sure there weren’t any surprises headed our way. If there weren’t any more entrances, all of the security guys currently stood in the lobby and could easily see Milo and me if they wanted to.

“Can I?” The tips of his fingers grazed the very top of my thighs, and all I could think about was that I wished he moved his hands farther up.

What his hands would feel like if they touched me. Really touched me.

Would I still feel as confident if he touched parts of me nobody ever had before? Would I still enjoy myself if he saw what was underneath all my clothes?

Would he still want to kiss me?

Milo suddenly stroked a hand through my hair, then leaned in as he pressed his lips to my forehead. “You were gone again, cuore mio,” he said. “Where’d you go?”

He sat me down on the counter next to the revolver, and I was expecting him to step back, but he didn’t. Milo stood between my legs, hands on my waist.

“If I asked you to touch me, would you do that without…” I sighed, averting my eyes to the glass doors again but this time to avoid his gaze.

“Without?”

“Without feeling disgusted by me?”

He turned my face toward his and looked right into my eyes with a heavy yet soft stare. “Sterlie, you could never disgust me.”

“Even if you didn’t like what you saw?”

Now both of his hands were cupping my face. His eyes looked a bit glassy, like he was going to cry, but I knew he wasn’t. It had to have been something different.

“You are quite literally my definition of perfection, Sterlie Adams. There could never be a single part of you that I wouldn’t like,” he said. His thumbs stroked over my cheeks and then he leaned down and laid his lips on mine. “I want to know every piece of you like the back of my hand. I’ll love each of those pieces like no one ever has and ever will. I’m incapable of disliking anything that’s connected to you, Sterlie.”

Slowly, I felt a soft smile replace the sad frown on my face, and the longer Milo looked at me like I was truly something special in his eyes, my heart began to create a whole new rhythm. The world around me faded into the background as I got lost in Milo’s warm presence, his words, and how his eyes crinkled at the corners when he smiled at me.

No one had ever looked at me like he did.

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