Page 101 of Hearts Of Darkness

His face creases in confusion, and that’s when it hits me. He doesn’t think he’s deserving of love. Not now. Not ever. He hurts people because that’s all he’s ever known. He’s never been shown an alternative.

I walk over to him, take him by the hand, and lead him into my bedroom. He follows willingly, meekly, but as soon as we cross the threshold, he’s pushing me up against the wall and taking back the control, wrapping my hair around his fists and pressing his body against me.

“How can you love me? How is that possible? I’ve stolen from you, kidnapped you, hurt you, showed you my true self…”

“Maybe I see more than that. Maybe, despite everything, I still think you’re worth loving.”

He stares at me before tugging away my throw, scooping me up in his arms and placing me gently on the bed. Undressing quickly, he settles between my legs.

“I wish I could be the man you see in me.”

“You will,” I say, easing some of the burden in his voice with my certainty. “Because I refuse to see any other.”

Our tongues fall into a delicious swordplay that leaves me squirming against the mattress. I run my hands across his back as he rises up on his elbows. Wrapping my legs around his waist, I open myself wide for him.

He slides in easily, nipping at the hollow of my neck, andstinging my cheek with his stubble. There’s a gentleness to his touch that I’ve never known before. He’s trying hard to give me what I asked of him.

We settle into a temperate rhythm, his downward thrusts driving so deep that it’s skin-on-skin, shifting position constantly so that his lower abdomen brushes against the tip of my clit. At the same time, I can feel his body straining as he holds himself back. His hand leaves my hair to grip the nearby pillowcase so tightly, his knuckles turn white. His groans fill the silence of my room.

“Look at me,” he gasps suddenly.

I gaze up at those dark irises with their seldom-seen flecks of gold, so evocative of this man’s soul. Like guiding lights in a sea of darkness.

“You are everything, Eve. If I thought myself capable of those three words, I’d give them back to you, I swear it.”

“It’s okay,” I whisper, tightening my grip around his neck. “Until that time, I’ll love enough for the both of us.”

He bows his mouth to mine and keeps on driving into me, making love to every part of my body with his words, his cock, and his tongue—intensifying the pleasure until neither one of us can hold back any longer.

We come together to the sound of my soft cries and his animalistic roars, my nails ripping a jagged red course down his back as he moans my name, over and over, into my hair, only shuddering to a stop when he’s emptied every last part of himself inside me.

In that moment, there are no broken rules or compromised morals. No complications or sin.

The only thing that matters is us.

30

EVE

“Too many goodbyes,” I tell Dante with a sigh, watching him dress for the third time today and rewarding me with a reverse striptease that is equally as erotic.

“It won’t be like this forever,” he reassures, sliding his gun into the waistband of his jeans. He straightens up with a strange expression on his face. “I had a vision about making love to you like that the night we first met.”

“Before or after you held a gun to my head?”

“You, with your dark hair spilling all around me, and your nails shredding my back—”

“Did I hurt you?” I lift the bedsheet to hide my blushes.

“Sweetest pain I ever felt,” he says, his lips curving.

“Well, it’s not a vision anymore.” I kneel naked before him, wrapping my arms around his waist, laying my cheek on his chest and breathing in the heady scent of sex, sweat, and him. He hasn’t showered, and my guessis he has no intention of it. Like me, he wants to keep the smell of us on his skin for as long as possible.

He plants a quick, chaste kiss to the top of my head and unravels himself. “I need to leave, and I have to speak to Manuel first. He’s downstairs in the car waiting for me.”

“Go easy on him, Dante. The kindness you showed him all those years ago has left a big impression.”

He frowns. “What kindness?”

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