Page 73 of When Hearts Awaken

About my fears and nightmares, heartbreak and heartaches.

I want to be the breathtakingly beautiful woman this man in front of me sees. This man who’s protecting me, calming me down when panic swirls inside my mind and I can’t even think straight.

“Roses are much more beautiful with thorns.”His words echo in my ear as the heat ratches up between us.

He hears me. He sees me. He thinks my thorns are beautiful.

The scattered thoughts send more tears falling as if all the tears I’ve held inside for all these years are finally unleashed, because they need a safe harbor.

Because I need someone strong and tall, someone who infuriates me as much as entices me to hold me while I rest in his arms.

Because I’m so damn tired.

A sob collides with a moan as I throw myself into the kiss, accepting his tongue as he slips it between my lips. My skin is hot, sensitive—I’m throbbing everywhere—my nipples, my clit. I rub my legs together, the piercing sending an extra layer of sensations, shocking my senses like live wire.

He groans against my mouth, his hands buried in my hair, tugging the strands to the point of pain—oh, so pleasurable pain.

“I can’t get you out of my mind,” he rasps as we pull apart for air. “You intoxicate me. Turn me into someone I don’t recognize.”

His eyes are dilated. I can barely see his irises anymore. His blond hair is disheveled and I realize I have my fingers buried in his thick strands too. He looks ravenous and desperate.

And somehow, just like the last few times, I’m still not afraid.

The thought sends a sizzle of excitement.

I’m not afraid of him.

“You drive me nuts too,” I whisper, pulling his head toward mine.

“Let’s fall into madness together.” Charles takes my lips between his and his teeth make an appearance as he peppers small bites on my bottom lip, the tiny pinches direct caresses to my core.

Wetness seeps out of me and the pulsing need climbs between my legs—higher and higher. I’m like a bomb seconds away from detonating. My body is not mine anymore—I’m a slave to the sensations rioting through me. I want to flee from them. I want to burn with them. I want to pull him closer so I can’t tell what parts belong to him and what parts belong to me.

Clamping one leg around his waist, I grind into his hips, wanting more friction, more heat, more of the electricity sparking in my veins.

He growls, sliding his hand down and kneading my bare thigh as I move against him. Searching, seeking, needing to see the end of this.

An unmistakable hardness prods at my stomach and for a moment, that makes my motions falter.

Fly Harriet.

“No!”I attempt to shove the thoughts away. Taking Charles’s other hand, I close it over my aching breast.

“Fuuuck,” he grunts, his fingers squeezing over the sensitive mound. He thumbs my sensitive nipple, which sends a sharp current of pleasure to my pulsing core.

“Look at her thrashing. She’s going to come, isn’t she?”

“Go away. Stop it. No!”Don’t ruin this for me. I’m feeling normal, wanted, needed.More tears slip down my cheeks.

I grind myself against Charles’s cock, needing to fan the flames again. This time, I get to decide when to explode.

I get to choose this.This elusive pleasure I’ve been deprived of since that night.

But after a few seconds, I realize he’s stopped moving, his hand clamped on my thigh like a vise, the other hand curled around my waist. His lips are still on mine as puffs of air hit my face from his heavy breathing. He’s trembling—the vibrations so subtle, I almost don’t notice it.

I tilt my head up and what I see on his face makes me gasp in shock.

Charles looks furious. The same violent god of thunder I saw that first day at ABTC, except this time, I’m within searing distance of the scorching anger radiating from his body. A vein bulges on his temple, his nostrils flaring as a muscle tics in his jaw.

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