Page 123 of They Break Beauty

He smiled. “Just like you taught me.”

I stroked his fingers in my hair. “You didn’t tell them everything that happened in that place.”

“We agreed we’d tell them enough to explain our connection. That’s what I did.”

“You held back for me, didn’t you?”

“I wasn’t sure if you were ready for everything to be put out there. I mean, you’ve never talked about her, even when we’ve referenced the kidnapping. It’s like that part was erased to you.”

“It was. At least, I tried to make it so, to pretend she’d never been there, that I’d lost her another way entirely. Not… not like that.”

“I understand.”

I pulled away and shoved my hand through my hair, pacing back and forth in front of him.

He didn’t say anything, just watched and waited patiently, something I was well aware from his initial pursuit of me didn’t come easy to him.

Once again, he was doing something all for me.

The least I could do was fully step out of those shadows and do him the same courtesy.

So, I forced the words I’d long-denied breath past my lips as I came to a halt and faced him. “My mom… they brought her into that hellhole too… beat her down, then… then they killed her… right in front of me.”

As the words left me, the awful confession, so did a weight I’d been carrying for so fucking long that I’d actually forgotten what it was like to exist without it.

Levi pushed off the bed and came to me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me in close as he stroked my hair. “My Wildflower… so brave. I see it… I see you becoming freer, embracing the real you. I feel you, I feel you there with me now. Don’t slip away again… I can’t go back to the cold.”

Oh my God. His vulnerability was staggering. And it hit me beyond bone deep.

I clung to him and buried my face in his bare, chiseled chest. “Me neither.”

Now we’d crossed that line, all barriers down, I couldn’t imagine going back on it.

I didn’t want that emptiness anymore.

Letting go and coming together the other night had been a fucking revelation, an epiphany of epic proportions.

The moment took me over, his warmth seeping into me, his hands on me, his hard body pushed up against mine, the raw intensity coming off us both… God, it was a heady experience.

And I let it engulf me.

Lifting my head, I slicked my tongue over his jaw, then nipped at it.

A carnal groan reverberated from him, sending sparks of need to my core.

In the next second, Levi snagged me around the waist, then had me yelping with excitement as he tossed me on the bed.

As I bounced on the mattress, he was there, pouncing on too, then crawling up the bed toward me, a predatory look rising to the surface that basically had me melting into a puddle of liquid desire right there.

He straddled me and growled like an animal, before slamming his palms down either side of my head. “Let me see you, baby.”

I didn’t even hesitate, I just pulled off my strappy tank and tossed it God knew where across the room. I shuffled underneath him and shucked off my pants too, just my black lace panties left remaining.

His hot gaze flicked over my body, traveling up and down, taking in every inch of me “Fuck.”

A zap of pleasure hit me as he trailed his thumb over the front of my panties, feeling my wet warmth through the barely-there barrier to my pussy. He hissed through his teeth, and then he went feral, unleashing his tongue and teeth all over me, trailing down my neck, sweeping across my collarbone, teasing my breasts and making my nipples pebble.

He was all fucking over me, growling, grunting, and rutting, as I undulated beneath him and fisted my hands in his hair, tugging painfully, and just ramping him up all the more with the bite of pain. Moans and cries of succumbing pleasure spilled from me almost involuntarily, as he utterly consumed me.

---