Page 4 of Loving Graystoke's Heir

And before she realized what was happening and the lengths to which they’d gone, she found herself laid back on her bed with Donal bare beside her, face to face.

He’d said such perfect words.

Told her in so many ways that he needed her in his life. Then she’d watched eagerly as he took himself in hand and pressed himself into her body.

The tide.

That’s what it had felt like.

The elemental push and pull of the tide at the edge of the beach, drawing out only to push back in, rocking her back and forth.

But the water had never made her moan.

It was Donal who closed his mouth over the tip of her breast and filled her body with the heavy thickness of his need, and it was Donal who held her as she felt the world collapse in and around her.

He’d held her tightly as she drifted off to sleep, her hands exploring his bare skin, his heartbeat pulsing under her cheek.

And it had been Donal who had left her alone in her bed when she woke up to the harsh sunlight of the new day with only a note occupying the pillow beside hers.

I NEED YOU SAFE

* * *

Turning over in bed, Donal stared up at the ceiling, unable to ignore the odd pressure in his chest. It happened all the time, a slow building ache that meant one thing… Tamsin.

The thought of her appeared in his head regularly. He could never pinpoint what would start it. Maybe it was a scent or a texture.

Maybe it was just the air that he pulled into his chest.

A soft grunt echoed in his head, and he tried to ignore it.

Go away.

If he’d been sitting up, the mental shove directed at him would have knocked him down.

Laid out on his bed it only served to remind him that there was no way to get away from himself. That the animal inside of him wasn’t someone or something he could set aside.

That the reason he left Tamsin behind was because even back then he knew that he was dangerous.

Not to her.

The voice inside his head was accompanied by a slow, narrowed look from the shadows of his thoughts.

We would never hurt her.

He reached over to the nightstand and picked up his earphones. Jamming them into his ears.

I meant it. Go. Away.

The driving strains of some unknown metal band threatened to blow out his eardrums, and he let it go because at least the voice in his head was quiet.

Perhaps he’d even get a few hours of sleep before his animal started in again.

It was always the same.

Go to her.

Touch her.

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