Page 88 of When Hearts Collide

Then, his head dips toward me, his nose skating to my neck, and he takes a deep inhale.

“Fuck,” he rasps. “Millie?”

Chapter 35

With a few strides, he turns me around and pins me upright against the cement wall. He grasps my chin and tilts my head up before peering down at me under the faint moonlight. His eyes darken, widening as shock flashes across his face.

I twist harder in his arms, and he tightens his hold on me automatically.

“Surprised, Professor?” I spit out. “Didn’t expect to see me here, did you?”

Seeing him inches before me, a looming god against the haunted moonlight, his hair disheveled, his muscles flexing, his face twisted in shock, has fury racing through my insides, joining the party. He is fine with fucking a random woman who looks just like me and to deny everything between us.

The chaos. The storm. The whirlwind. Our hearts beating as one.

“You wanted to fuck a brunette who can pass as a college student. Well, here I am.”

He flinches at my words and releases his hold around my waist, and I sag against the wall.

He rakes his hand over his hair and clenches his jaw. “I don’t know how you got in here, Millie. But I’m not doing this with you. You’re leaving.”

Ryland reaches out and grabs my wrist and I shake him off. “No. I’m an adult. What I do in my own time is none of your business. You can either stay or you can leave. I’m sure there are plenty of patrons who want to have a kinky rendezvous with a college coed in the dark.”

He snarls, his eyes turning feral. “You wouldn’t dare.”

I get up on my tiptoes and whisper, “Watch me.”

A vein pulses on his temple and his nostrils flare. He pants heavily, his breath fanning across my face, and the air thickens with tension, a heavy accelerant only missing the tiniest spark to combust. I watch his eyes snake to my mouth as my tongue swipes my parched lips. A muscle flutters on his jaw.

“You staying or leaving?” I rasp, my eyes snagging on his beautiful lips.

I feel his body heat enveloping me, blanketing me in warmth. His scent is like an aphrodisiac and with each passing second, my breasts feel heavier, more tender, my nipples beading into hard buds, saluting him, inviting him.

I want him. So much. My heart pounds in response.

He’s so still. Quiet. Lethal like the hunter inside him. He doesn’t move a muscle, almost blending into the night. The seconds pass by, ticking like a timer on a bomb.

But nothing happens.

It’s anticlimactic.

Disappointment snakes through me and I shake my head. Again. He’s saying no, again. “Coward. You’re a coward, Ryland Anderson.”

I step to the side to get out from under his grasp, my eyes burning, and I feel the telltale sign of incoming tears. My heart splinters, the frissons widening with each step I take away from him.

I won’t beg him to be with me. I have my pride. I’ve done all that I can.

A shaky sob slips out from my lips as I head in the direction I came from, my steps feeling heavy on the ground. The night didn’t turn out the way I thought it would. What did you expect? Him to give up his morals for you?

I murmur to the darkness surrounding me, “I’ll find someone else. Someone brave enough. Someone who deserves me.”

A few more seconds pass by, the forest eerily quiet except for the sound of crickets and the occasional chirping of birds.

With a roar, he reaches me in a flash, grabs my arm, and spins me around to face him. “Don’t. You. Fucking. Dare.”

He reaches up and curls his hand around my neck before hauling me to him and crushing his lips on mine. His kiss is savage and possessive, each suction and swipe of his tongue melting my defenses, my hurt, my tears. Our tongues duel with each other as I drink in his poison, his antidote, his elixir, all in one. It’s violent, it’s aggressive.

It’s heaven.

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