Page 88 of Bishop

“You need to think before you act, Abri.” He tightens his grip. “We both know you shouldn’t be fucking around with a man whose most valuable skill is murder.”

17

BISHOP

She stiffens.

Good.

She’s playing a dangerous game. We both are. And I’m the pitiful fuck who can’t walk away. I’m caught here. Trapped in those eyes.

She swallows again, and this time her tongue snakes out and moistens her bottom lip. It’s more than enough to make my dick stir.

“Do you warn all the women you’re with?” she asks.

“I don’t need to.” I drag her arm down to her side and release it. “I’ve told you I don’t kiss any of them.”

“How long has it been?”

“A while,” I grate.

Her gaze searches mine. “Tell me how long.”

“I was seventeen, Abri. I haven’t wanted that sort of contact since.” Until she walked into my life, her beauty mind-fucking me while her sweet scent poisoned my lungs.

“Seventeen?” The whisper of her voice is my undoing. “Now it makes sense why you’re so cold and abrupt.”

“Being a murderous son of a bitch isn’t a good enough reason?”

“I guess it is, but—” She shrugs.

“But what?”

Her brow forms the cutest furrow. “Nothing. It doesn’t matter.”

She stares at my mouth, her gaze holding the power of a caress. She’s in my head. Pulsing through my goddamn veins, the tainted blood pooling in my groin.

I need to walk away, but my legs won’t move. I want to taste her. To steal her breath.

“Will you hate me if I kiss you?” she asks softly.

No, worse—I’ll hate myself.

Fucking loathe and detest.

She’s a job. One I’ve already messed up on numerous levels.

She’s also Langston’s sister. Lorenzo’s niece.

She inches toward me, her exhales becoming my inhales. Those mesmerizing eyes blink up at me, cautious and inquisitive, while my limbs turn rigid.

“Don’t fucking do it.” My palms sweat with the need to grab her again, this time ruthlessly.

After years abstaining, I want to fuck this woman. To sink into her so fast and hard she screams for me to stop.

“Why don’t you back away?” she whispers.

She knows I’m stuck here, tethered to her beauty like a dying man nailed to a cross.

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