Page 88 of Sugar and Skulls

“Me either but everyone will be up soon.”

I turn my head to look at him. “What made you come back last night?”

His hand brushes back and forth over my stomach. “Raffe.”

My eyes widen. He laughs.

“He was waiting on the dock. Seems he knows me better than I thought.” His smile fades, a seriousness falling over him. “He called me a coward.”

I turn away from him to stare at the tent. Self-conscious in the fact that Dirk did not come back on his own.

Dirk leans in so his lips, brush the shell of my ear. “He was right. I was being a coward. You had me spooked. I’ve never felt this way before, Jesse.”

His hand roams up between my breasts. It doesn’t stop until his fingers are wrapping around my throat. He squeezes gently. His breath hot on my ear. “It scares me because I knew once I had you I would want more.” His grip tightens, my heart picking up a notch. “And then I would want more, and more, and more.”

His tongue skates along my shell of my ear making me shiver in his arms.

“I’ll never. Never. Get enough of you.” He turns my face towards him. He kisses me with an intensity that scorches my insides and curls my toes.

I will never forget the look on his face when he pulls away. It’s scary, frightening, and god if I don’t fucking love it.

“Raffe was smart to bow out when he did. Because once I had you,” he pauses, his eyes boring into mine, “I knew I would kill anyone who touches you.”

I swallow hard. He is serious. Profoundly serious.

“You are mine, Jesse Miller. No one will touch you, look at you, even breathe in your direction without going through me first.”

We stare at each other. I watch the turmoil swim in his eyes.

“Do you understand?”

I nod slowly. His hand falls away from my neck.

“Does that scare you?” he asks, studying my face.

“No,” I whisper, running my hand over my throat. “I feel the same way about you. If any, and I do mean any, woman approaches you…you better send her packing real quick.”

His nostrils flare. He rolls me onto my back, smiling wickedly in my face. “Is that right?”

“I’ll stick a fork in them, Dirk. I’m not kidding.”

He falls onto his back laughing hard. “Oh, god, Jesse. You are fucking perfect. Perfect,” he exclaims between bouts of laughter.

It’s music to my ears. I smile smugly to myself. Scary tattoo man is mine. Finally, mine.

When I was a girl I thought I wanted to be like him. But, maybe what I really wanted was simply for him to be mine.

Chapter Thirty-Six

Jesse

???

My dad looks up when I walk in for breakfast. His eyes follow me as I grab a bowl and sit at the table. Katie slides the box of fruit loops to me. Raffe comes in to grab a cup of coffee, he plops down across from me. I keep my eyes on my cereal.

“I went to your room this morning to wake you up, you weren’t there,” dad says.

I shove my spoon in my cereal, my heart beating nervously. “I went for a walk. Couldn’t sleep.”

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