Page 145 of The Devil's Deal

I reach a hand for the necklace, running a finger over the soft angles.

“I really can’t believe you still have that. I know you said you did in the letter, but seeing it…” My voice cracks with a raw edge, tears drifting like the years we lost.

“I swore I’d never take it off,” he says, his arm curving over my back, pulling me in. “It’s with me everywhere I go. Reminding me of you.”

“I wish I had mine,” I confess.

He smiles, and it catches my breath. “You do.”

“What? No.” I shake my head, my brows bowing. “It’s still at my house, in the—”

“Bowl by the picture of you and me,” he finishes.

He drops his hand from around me, reaching into his pocket for the second time, pulling out the other half of my heart.

My trembling hand slowly nears my mouth. “You took it?”

“Yeah.” He smirks. “Your panties weren’t the only thing I stole.”

I let out a laugh, remembering how pissed I was.

“I didn’t want anything to happen to it in case your father went to the house,” he explains.

“Put it on me,” I tell him tenderly, smiling with happiness for the first time in a long time.

“I have a better idea.” His face lights up, his dimple deepening with the curve of his lips. “Turn around.”

When he fastens the necklace around my neck, I notice it isn’t mine. It’s his.Domis written on the back of the pendant. As I face him again, I find him placing my half around his neck.

“Now you have a piece of my heart and I have yours,” he says, his knuckles rolling down my cheek.

My heart lurches with a beat, waves of emotions settling into the center of my chest.

I reach for my pendant, running my fingers over it as his gaze captures mine. “I’ll never take it off.”

“Me neither,” he swears.

“We probably look so childish,” I laugh, biting the edge of my lower lip.

His palm fits over my cheek, the intensity in his gaze—gentle, yet hungry—pulling me in, owning my every breath.

“We probably do,” he rasps, so deep I can practically feel it.

My pulse yanks at my heart; my stomach drops.

“Do you care, baby? Because I sure as fuck don’t.”

Then his lips crash to mine, taking me with a searing kiss. It’s harsher, more demanding, this time. As though he wants to devour my lips, taking my body with them.

I’m lost to everything but the feel of his mouth moving with the flow of mine. His hand slides into my hair, the pads of his fingers rough against my scalp, his other hand grabbing my hip sharply into its palm.

Angling his face, he circles his tongue over mine, kissing me until it consumes us, while pushing me up against the wall with the strength of his body.

With his fingers woven through my hair, he pulls my head back, tracing his lips over my jaw, his teeth raking my skin before his tongue glides down my neck. His mouth skims past my shoulder, his finger slipping into the thin strap of my blue tank top, dragging it past my arm.

“Dom,” I groan, unable to control the lust-induced ache between my legs.

“Fuck,” he growls, his eyes pinning me with a fiery gaze. “I’ve been waiting for you to call me that. And now, hearing it…”

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