Page 13 of Deadly Oath

“Well, I was driving by, and I saw smoke coming out of your house. Responding to an emergency is, actually, a part of my job.” I reach up, running a hand through my sweat-damp hair, and I see her gaze flick to the movement of my arm, fluttering over my chest and back up as if she doesn’t know where to look first. She’s so innocent, so obviously undone by my partial nudity, that it’s amusing and intoxicating all at once.

I’d be her first for everything.I’m almost sure of it. The thought is dizzying, arousal hitting me like a slap, and I struggle to keep from moving closer to her, from taking advantage of her obvious discomfiture.

What the hell,I think as I watch her eyes skitter nervously back up to my face, her tongue darting out along her lower lip as if she’strying to figure out how to respond.Why not push a little? See what happens.If my little rabbit runs from this snare, I can always set another for her later. It’s not as if she can leave town.

And I’m certainly not going anywhere.

I take a step forward, putting me within touching distance of her. Her nostrils flare, her cheeks turning red, and I think I see her draw in a breath. I can imagine what she’s smelling—sweat and musk, salt and heat, and my cock throbs insistently, half-hard and threatening to stiffen further.

Sabrina takes a quick step to the side, skittering back as nervously as a bunny, but she miscalculated her direction. Her back smacks directly into the boxing bag, and she squeaks as she goes stock still, frozen in place as I stalk towards her, closing in.

I put one hand on the top of the bag, holding it still as I loom over her. “Where are you going, princess?” I murmur, and Sabrina’s lips part, her eyes flashing that irritated spark again. She swallows hard, glancing from left to right, but there’s nowhere for her to go. I’m so close our bodies are almost brushing, my arm blocking her on the left, and she knows I’m faster than her. If she tries to dart to the right, I’ve got her.

“Caught you, rabbit,” I murmur, my gaze locking onto hers.

6

SABRINA

My heart is hammering like the small animal that he’s nicknamed me after, and I don’t think I could move even if I wanted to.

Do I want to?I don’t know. I’m terrified, and at the same time, I feel like I’m burning up from the inside, on fire with a skin-tightening heat that I’ve never felt before. That warmth is flooding through me, down to the throbbing space between my thighs, and I feel like I’m on the verge of being overcome by a sensation I don’t even recognize.

I didn’t know what to think when I walked in and saw him working out, shirtless and muscles flexing, sweat dripping down his skin and glistening in the overhead lights. He’s rippling with muscle, sculpted like one of the statues I’ve seen in museums, like a Greek god. Lean and carved and utter, physical perfection—and now he’s looming over me, his mouth so close to mine that I feel sure that this time, he’s actually going to kiss me.

My first kiss. Something that I always thought would happen on my wedding day, with the man my father chose for me, a man that I probably wouldn’t even be all that excited about kissing.

But IwantKian to kiss me. He’s irritating and arrogant, and he sets off some instinctual alarm that tells me he’s dangerous—but Iwanted him to kiss me earlier, even though I was angry and upset. I want him to kiss me now, even if the pattering beat of my heart tells me I should run. Because whatever primal, instinctive thing it is that warns me away from him—it’s also drawing me to him, too.

To the temptation of being allowed towantfor the first time. Of being allowed tochoose.

If this gorgeous man wants me, too, there’s no one here making me say no. There probably never will be again. And it’s only a kiss.

He’s breathing hard, his chest so close to mine that it almost touches me each time he draws in a breath. His hands bracket me, caging me in place, and there’s a predatory heat in his gaze that makes me want to run, even as I look up into his dark blue eyes and wish for his mouth on mine.

I’m not at all prepared for the sensation when it happens. He leans in, in one short, swift motion, his mouth pressing hard against my lips as his body leans into mine, and I’m hit with a wave of unfamiliar sensations all at once. His mouth, full and firm, slanting over mine as he takes the kiss without any further hesitation, his lips salty as they drag over my mouth. His hard chest, pressing into me, muscles flexing as his hips meet mine, and against my thigh?—

I gasp, a small, whimpering sound of shock and arousal escaping me as I feel his hard length against my leg. There’s nothing restraining him other than the flimsy fabric of his shorts, and I feel it fully, hot and thick as he presses into me, so large that I can’t imagine how all the pieces actually fit together. There’s no way he could fit inside of me, and yet?—

My body is throbbing as if it desperately wants him to.

His right hand goes to my hip, closing around it as he groans, the sound vibrating across my mouth and through me like a shock.I made him make that sound. Me. It’s almost a sound of pain, and yet, the way he surges against me, the way his thumb presses into my hipbone as his hard length grinds against my leg and his tongue sweeps over my lips—I know instinctively that it’s not pain. It’s need, and pleasure, and lust—and it’s me making him feel all of those things.

A heady sense of power washes over me at that, like the hit of a drug, better even than the pleasure racing over my nerves at the touch of Kian’s mouth and hands. I’ve never had power in my life. I didn’t have the power to choose my own future—or my own husband. I didn’t have the power to save myself from being kidnapped or choose where I would go after. My whole life, I’ve beenutterlypowerless, and yet, at this moment, I can feel a new, formerly unknown sense of power waking up within me.

This effect that I have on Kian,thisis power. And I have some idea that once I give in, once we take this to its inevitable conclusion, I’ll lose some measure of it.

I need to wield it, while I can, to understand what’s happening here. Why he wants me, and where this is going to go.

“Kian.” I try to gasp his name, but the sound of it only seems to urge him on. His hips press into mine, the bag swaying backward, nearly knocking us both to the side. He lets out a frustrated sound that’s very nearly a growl, both of his broad hands suddenly gripping my waist hard as he turns me, backing me up against the ropes surrounding the boxing ring right next to us.

“Say my name again,” he growls, his lips crashing down on mine, his hands still firmly on my waist. His thumbs slide up over the edge of my ribcage, his tongue pushing at the seam of my lips, demanding entrance. “Fuck,Sabrina?—”

It would be so easy to give in. I never imagined my first kiss would feel like this, and I want to know what the rest will feel like, too. What else could he show me that would undo all my previously held imaginings about what sex could be?

His hands are sliding upwards as his mouth drags away from mine, his lips skimming over my jaw, to the soft flesh of my neck as his fingers start to curve around my breasts. His lips on my throat send electricity over my skin, making my knees go weak as I shiver with pleasure, but I somehow manage to find the strength to reach up, pushing my hands against his chest. “Kian,” I hiss, more insistently this time. “Kian, stop.”

To his credit, he does. He shudders, his hands gripping my sidesfor one brief instant that makes me almost wonder if hewillstop, but then he pulls back, his eyes dark, pupils wide as he looks down at me with an almost feral need.

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