Page 87 of They Break Beauty

“In any sense, as I understand it.”

Expecting her to bite back at me or tell me I was disgusting, a pervert, or something along those lines, she defied my expectations as she had been doing a lot tonight and instead stepped up to me with a suggestive glint in her eyes, as she admitted, “In any sense, yeah.”

She was showing me the woman I knew she was, the parts of herself that she’d lost along the way when she’d driven herself into the shadows and reinvented herself without key aspects of her personality.

And I was absolutely here for it.

“Is that something you want to remedy?” I asked, sliding my hands down to her hips.

A soft moan escaped her at my contact, and it was all I could do to leave it at that, holding her at arms’ length. It had to be her decision. Her clear choice, no hesitation.

If not, it would fuck up everything.

It would taint our connection.

Something I would never allow.

I’d already come too close when I’d teased her up against the wall of Nirvana. That hadn’t been the same as going all out with her, though, of properly claiming her as mine where there was absolutely no question as to who she belonged to.

Absolutely no escape for her.

Besides, she’d most definitely wanted it then. She hadn’t just submitted, or been putty in my hands, she’d risen to the challenge of it and given it right back to me.

Good fucking thing. I didn’t want submissive. At least, not from her. Not from something that was so fucking real to me. So important to me.

The women I’d fooled around with—mostly fight bunnies, as Colt called them—had only been a means to an end, to physical release. It had basically been a transaction and nothing more, to all parties involved.

But this, with Brianna Walker, it enveloped me mind, body, and goddamn blackened soul. It was all-encompassing.

Every. Fucking. Thing.

She stepped back, easing from my grip and ran her hands through her hair.

Not in a frustrated way, though. No, in a freeing way.

She let out a peaceful sigh, her beautiful whiskey eyes lit up. “I made myself forget how liberating riding is,” she said in a thoughtful, faraway voice. “How much I really missed it.”

“Well, you were born into it, raised in it. It’s a big part of you.”

“A part I’ve denied for a long time.”

“It’s okay. You’re coming out of it now. It just took a little push.”

“A little, huh?”

“Well—”

She jolted toward me and fisted her hands in my hair, cutting my response to the quick, and sending a shock of twisted bliss through me. Driving my already semi-hard cock even fucking crazier in the process.

“If I wasn’t still high on the amazing ride, I’d slap you for downplaying your bullshit.”

“Then slap me once you come back down to earth.” I winked. “I like it rough.”

Her hands slid from my hair, down to my shoulders, coming to rest on my biceps. I smiled as she felt them up, enjoying all the well-defined muscle I’d worked hard to maintain. “Interesting information.”

“Good to know.”

She smiled devilishly, that look doing a fuck of a lot to me.

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