Page 16 of Secrets Within Us

“You shouldn’t want me,” I whispered when he didn’t move after turning off the light. “You wouldn’t want me if you knew the truth about me.”

There.

I said it.

I gave him an out.

“You shouldn’t want me.” He said back, his deep voice revealing some emotion other than annoyance and anger for the first time since I met him. “You wouldn’t want me if you knew the truth about me.” He finished, copying what I’d just said to him. “Yet you do. Just like I want you.”

He brought his hand up, slowly, off the arm of the chair next to me. I kept my eyes locked on his, even though I couldn’t see them clearly through the darkness.

I held my breath as he moved closer to me with a painful calmness. He was never rattled or affected by anything. What I wouldn’t give for that same level of control, the ability to hide it all behind a stone mask.

Kip ran his knuckles along my jaw, from my ear to my chin. His eyes dropped from mine to watch the path his fingers traveled, tracing over the bruises that lingered along my skin. They burned under his touch, but not from the pain.

From something more animalistic than that.

He turned his hand, so his calloused fingertips slid down my neck gently before drawing them back up, lifting my chin higher, tilting it towards his.

Goosebumps broke out over my entire body from just the small touches he was giving me. My breaths came rapidly as I tried not to move at all, in fear that he’d stop.

But in reality, that’s what I should have been afraid of; him not stopping.

But I wasn’t.

He closed the distance between us, bringing his body and face closer to mine until the whiskers of his beard ran across my lips with his breath. I tightly clenched the blanket on my lap, making my knuckles turn white.

“You want me. Don’t you?” He asked, his breath warm on my lips. I could smell the bourbon on it and sighed softly at the mixture of the bold liquor and his scent.

For the first time, I didn’t question my answer before I gave it. I didn’t run all the outcomes and next steps through my head before I found my voice. The old me was brave like that. I needed to be like her again, instead of this wounded and afraid little girl that the monster turned me into.

So I was just honest with him and myself.

“Yes,” I whispered.

His jaw locked and his cheek twitched as he swallowed.

But he said nothing else after that. He just closed the distance between us, pressing his warm lips to mine gently.

He pulled away after only a peck but didn’t back up, simply detaching his lips from mine. “I shouldn’t be doing this.” He whispered against my lips as he opened his hand along the side of my face, sliding his fingers into my hair. “I shouldn’t want to do this.” He slid his lips against mine again softly, but only briefly before he licked them with his tongue and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth, where he bit it gently. He was careful of my wounds, but not in a delicate way that mimicked pity. In a caring way, with just the touch of carnal need breathing underneath it, showing me just how badly he wanted to do more.

God, to be desired by a man like Kip.

After everything else.

“Please.” I moaned across his lips. But I didn’t know what I was begging for.

He pulled my head towards his with more force as he deepened the kiss, growling deep in his throat, sliding his tongue into my mouth as he angled his head to kiss me like his life depended on it.

No one had ever kissed me so deeply, with such rawness. Every other kiss I’d had before that moment felt superficial and shallow. They never left me with the emotions and feelings I got as he dropped his other hand to my thigh.

Even through the blanket, I could feel his warmth against me.

Warm like fire.

Flames.

Pain.

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