Page 77 of A Heart So Savage

Ava shook her head. “I’ve not had one of those since—” she faltered then continued in a stronger voice. “Not since we began sharing a bed.”

Kingston shifted their bodies until they lay on their sides facing one another. The bandage on his upper arm was startlingly white against his tanned skin. “Your parents, then.”

Ava could not escape the scrutiny in his gaze, not even in the shadowy darkness of the room. He had her pinned, and she relented with a small, anguished cry. “Yes! And… Carson. I can’t understand why he would do this… how he could…” Tears welled up in her eyes, tears she couldn’t seem to contain. Although she tried stemming the tide, they seeped out, tracking down her cheeks in silent rivulets as the pain she’d held in check for so long escaped under this man’s watchful regard. “They loved us both so much. Why? Why would he do something so horrible?”

Ava buried her face in her hands, horrified by her own sobs and this display of weakness, but it couldn’t be helped. Some sort of emotional dam had burst, and everything inside her since the day of her mom and dad’s deaths—maybe even from the night Carson sold her to his friends—was now crashing through.

She half-expected Kingston to roll away in disgust, but what he did instead shook her entire world.

He gathered her in his arms, those muscled limbs wrapping and encircling until Ava almost felt safe. Holding her tight as she wept, he whispered comforting words in her ears and against her temples, stroking her back with large, brutal hands that had once caused pain but now soothed her.

“Let it out, little lamb. It’s okay to cry. I’m here to wipe away those tears for you.” Kingston’s voice was rough and smooth all at once, the timbre of it rumbling through her body and reaching every corner of her broken, tattered soul. “I told you before. Carson will pay for what he’s done. He won’t be able to hurt you ever again. I promise you that.”

Ava clung tighter to him, moving her arms until they looped around his neck. “I’m scared. Scared he will hurt you, too. Hurt you like he did today. He could kill you like he did my mom and dad. And I-I don’t want that.”

Kingston chuckled. “You can’t kill the Devil. And for you, I will become Lucifer himself.”

Large hands bracketed her face as Kingston stared into her eyes. He held her gaze for a long moment, searching and intense. When he apparently found what he was looking for, the corners of his lips curved upward in what could almost be called a smile.

“Damn you, Ava. I can’t fight this. I can’t ignore it. I damn sure don’t understand it. But I need you like I need air to breathe. And it fucking pisses me off.”

His mouth descended on hers in a flurry of unspoken words. Emotions which could not be named aloud battered the walls between them until every hurtful act was stripped away. Left behind was pure, unapologetic hunger. Need. Lust. A mutual desire to forget the world and everything awful in their lives.

Ava knew what Kingston silently vowed as he ravaged her mouth and kissed her tear-stained cheeks. She knew because her heart was screaming in return.

You are mine. I am yours. No one will destroy what we feel for each other. No one can steal what we give each other.

Kingston cared for her as much as Ava tragically cared for him.

And that was a dangerous thing. It left them both vulnerable and desperate to protect what had grown like a fragile, flowering vine in the midst of a desolate wilderness.

Kingston kissed her so wildly that Ava thought her heart might explode. She kissed him back with the same ferocity, wondering how her feelings for him had changed so completely.

Hatred and despair had morphed into something else… somethingsavage.It could not be named out loud just yet, but Ava knew. Her heart knew.

Love.

She loved him, and even if he never said the word itself in return, Ava was positive Kingston felt the same.

ChapterThirty

On broken glass we slept

Regrets slicing like a thousand knives.

My memories escaping in rivulets.

“Make love to me, Kingston.”

He withdrew from pressing hot kisses to her neck and savoring the sweetness of her mouth and shook his head. “I’m trying to be strong here, Ava.”

She frowned, obviously puzzled by his restraint when before he would have taken what he wanted without consent or invitation.

“Strong?” she repeated. “I don’t understand.”

“I don’t want to hurt you. At least, not in that way.”

A small smile curved her lips as she swiped the last of her tears from her cheeks. “You won’t. If you are worried about the waxing, I assure you it feels fine. I feel fine. Other than aching for you in ways I still don’t understand.”

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