Page 67 of In Shadows We Dance

"The dress." I trace the strap against her shoulder. "You’d look beautiful in it. It’s mine now. Like the photographs. Like all your secrets I’ve uncovered." My fingers explore lower, brushing over the swell of her breast. "Like you."

"I’m not yours." Her voice is a threadbare whisper.

"No?" I snap another photograph, capturing her parted lips, the flush creeping up her neck. "Then why aren’t you screaming? Why do you keep looking at my mouth?"

Her face flushes deeper, eyes darting away. My hand captures her jaw, tilting her face back to mine, forcing her to look at me.

"The rules are suffocating you." My thumb drags over her lower lip. "You want more. You want what I keep promising you. You want to be touched. You want to bewanted.”

I lean in, my lips kissing the mark I left on her throat. "I can give you that. Make you feel alive in ways your father never dreamed. I could show you everything you’ve been missing.”

“Stop saying things like that.” Her whispered words carry an edge of desperation. It turns my blood to molten lava, and mydick to stone.

"Why? Because you don’t want to think of him while I’m touching you?" My fingers move down her arm, smiling as she shivers. "Or because you’re afraid of wanting this?"

Click. Her internal war plays out in her eyes. Fear battling with need. Need clawing against denial.

Click. The way her body shifts closer.

"You were alive when you danced for me." I catch her wrist, thumb pressing the frantic pulse beneath her skin. "Free. Not hiding. Not pretending."

"You forced …"

"Did I? Or did I just give you permission to be more?" I release her wrist so I can thread my fingers through her hair, nails dragging lightly against her scalp. She shudders as I tighten my grip, tilting her head back to bare the delicate line of her throat. "You don’t know how to want things for yourself."

"You don’t know what I want."

"I do." My voice drops, firm and sure, while my fingers curl tighter into her hair. "I know everything you try to hide."

Click.Her lips press together, quivering as I lower my mouth to her throat.

Click.Her hands clutch my shirt, refusing to push me away.

"Tell me to stop." My tongue grazes her pulse. "Tell me you don’t want this."

A whimper escapes her lips, fingers tightening. I smile against her skin.

“Let me show you what happens when you stop hiding.” My mouth finds her jaw, teeth grazing her skin before I claim her lips. She gasps, her body arching toward mine, and I capture the moment, my camera snapping in time with her surrender.

Click. Her conflict laid bare, her need rising to the surface.

"That’s it,” I whisper. My hand moves under her top, fingers tracing the soft curve of her stomach. "Let go."

Her breath comes in short, uneven whimpers as my handstrokes higher, fingers brushing over her nipple.

"Please—"

"Please what?” I arch an eyebrow. “Stop? Stay? Show you?" My camera captures her expression—conflicted, uncertain. "Say yes. One word, and I’ll give you everything."

My tongue licks over the pulse fluttering like a trapped bird at the base of her throat. “Tell me that you don’t want to know what it feels like to be truly seen by me.”

Instead of answering, she gives a small whimper, turning my dick even harder. My lips travel down. Her top lifts, breasts bare beneath the thin material, my camera ready to capture her realization—her surrender.

“All you have to do is ask.”

Her breath comes in short gasps, her teeth sink into her bottom lip when my thumb brushes over her nipple. And my camera documents every moment of her surrender. How she arches into my hand, the way her resistance crumbles with every touch, every kiss against her skin.

I kiss my way down her throat, over her shoulder and down, while my fingers tease and stroke her nipple. I pull back just enough to watch her face as she realizes what I’m doing. How completely she’s giving in to what she’s fought so hard against.

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