Page 24 of Cuts Like an Angel: Part 2

“I suppose it’s a little demented that this too arouses me?”

She shot out a laugh, turning to him a little. “That I might gag while…?”

He slid his hands over the steering wheel as though nervous to say.

“Tell me. If it helps, you should know I’m very aroused right now too.”

She watched his face go more serious as his lips parted with his shallow breaths. The mix of timidity with his restrained passion that waited, wanted, begged to be unleashed was intoxicating to see. It gave her a heady sense of… power that she’d never experienced before and really wanted to explore with him. “I might like to feel that,” he said quietly. “Feel you taking me that way. All of it. I thought of it. What it would feel like against… your throat.”

“Oh God,” she whispered, suddenly wanting to find out too in that second.

“I wouldn’t hurt you,” he hurried, sounding worried she might think that.

“I know you wouldn’t,” she said softly, smiling. Her eyes again went to his arousal, harder than ever.

“I think about all the things to do to you, sweet Rosie. With you,” he amended, pulling into a parking spot next to their special place.

“Well, I’m not a virgin. And I don’t always have to be sweet.” She eyed him, wanting him to know she was eager to try things then realized how that sounded. “I mean I’m willing to be… to try things. New things. Different things.” She’d wanted to say naughty but didn’t want to sound like it was the wrong kind of bad. Nasty was another word she really wanted to be with him but didn’t want him thinking of it like the dirty kind he’d want to sterilize.

He turned the engine off and lowered his head a few seconds before aiming his boiling gaze on her. She stared at the brew of secret desires that he hid from the world but wanted to share with her.

“What? You can tell me,” she urged softly.

His lips parted, and she saw him struggle with his fears. She was suddenly the volunteer on the helpline, that first night he called and he couldn’t speak. Only now, he was right there where she could touch him.

She quickly leaned in and kissed him, a soft press of her lips on his. “You’re safe with me William.”

“I know,” he said. You’re just… like forbidden fruit,” he whispered. “I want to hold you. Stare at you. Smell you. Then taste you little by little. And then devour every bit of you and I don’t care that you or I may die from it. You’re this… fuel in my blood and I want to…” his brows drew together as he focused on explaining, “burn you, consume you so that you’re no longer you; you’re just mine. To have and to keep forever all to myself. I want you to lose yourself in me so that you can’t exist without me. It’s sick,” he explained with a pained agony. “But… there it is.”

She swallowed, her heart hammering as she stared into his gaze while desire, curiosity, and fear swirled inside her.

“I … I refrain,” he added quickly. “I always refrain.” The final words echoed with a longing to not refrain. It was an open invitation to Rosie, a setting of something fragile and priceless on the table. That part of himself he worried she’d run from and yet… he wanted so badly to give and share, he was willing to risk it.

“When it comes to you, William,” she said, her words breathier than she meant. “I’m not fragile. Or sweet. I can be… whatever you need me to be. And I want to be. More than you know. Try me. Trust me?”

She searched his volatile gaze, holding her breath as he peered so long into her eyes. He suddenly turned and faced forward, lowering his head. She watched, barely breathing as she waited. “I’ll try,” he whispered.

Her body hummed with a different kind of energy at what she heard in his tone. It wasn’t a promise, it was more of a warning that he hoped she survived.

“Good,” she said, fighting to keep her voice light despite her need to get started immediately exploring everything he’d just said.

“You’re hungry?” he asked, seeming ready to move off the subject.

She returned to her side of the car and smiled with a nod. He was happy, it was all over his face and that meant everything to her. “I’m starving.”

“You’ve worked up an appetite,” he said.

“Yep. And… I do have quite the appetite for anything you,” she blurted, all gaspy, realizing it made no sense to what he’d said.

He suddenly leaned and closed the space between them, pausing when his lips were right at her mouth. The William surge. The William jump and then the William hesitation and doubt at that last second. She waited, staring at his handsome face, gripped in that struggle. Her heart raced as she sensed that hidden part of him she wanted to meet, the hungry, hidden one, right there at her lips. “You have an appetite for me, sweet Rosie?” Almost like he needed to double check he’d understood correctly.

“Very much.”

He pressed his lips softly on hers and she sensed the tidal wave just beyond his restraint. “I want to explore that with you. Your appetite. For me.”

He remained at her lips until she was a mess of oh-my-mercy and tingly lady parts.

“You’re nervous, Rosie?” It was an observation, maybe even curious fascination. She gasped when he slid his tongue between her lips but still didn’t kiss her fully. “I’m sorry…”

“It’s not… you,” she whispered, meaning to say she was not scared of him. Nervous yes, nervous of doing everything wrong, not being what he needed and deserved.

His fingers slid behind her neck and he stroked the skin before pressing with a promise of something unrestrained. “I’m not sorry that you’re nervous. I’m sorry that… I like it.” He pushed her mouth open, his tongue eager along hers. He suddenly pulled back to his side, leaving her panting. “It’s been a pretty day, hasn’t it Rosie?” He looked all around before smiling at her.

She blinked a few times and smiled back, licking her tingly lips. “It has been the most beautiful day, William,” she said, hoping he knew it was all him that made it that way.

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