Page 163 of Under an Endless Moon

And a little sore on top of it.

Otto squeezed my hip with one of those massive mitts. “Don’t worry, gorgeous, house catches fire, and you’ll be over my shoulder so fast you won’t know what hit you.”

“I already know what hit me,” I said, words laden with a tease and wonder.

His chuckle scraped across my overheated skin, and he squeezed a little tighter. “That was me goin’ easy on you, Raven. You don’t have the first clue what I have in store for you.”

I snuggled down deeper into the rumpled sheets of the bed, still completely nude, skin sticky with sweat, limbs so heavy I couldn’t move. Still, I was unable to stop the ridiculous grin that spread across my face. “You say that like I might object. Bring it, Burly Bear.”

Otto laughed a little harder, though his tone went predatory as he leaned in closer to my face. “You think you can handle me, do you?”

“I was made to handle you, Otto Hudson.”

“Ah, my little moonflower really is ready to bloom.”

“I’ve been waiting for half my life.”

His features softened, tenderness and something that resembled regret. He stroked his thumb over the freckle at the side of my upper lip. “Didn’t mean to make you wait, Raven. Didn’t mean to keep you from what you needed. Just didn’t think I could ever be worthy of holding something as beautiful as you.”

I set my palm on the stubble of his cheek. “Everyone deserves to be loved, Otto. No matter what you’ve done. But you? You deserve it more than anyone else I know.”

He flinched. “Nah, baby, I’m just the lucky bastard who somehow is fortunate enough to get someone like you to look at me the way you do.”

“It’s not just looking. It’s seeing, Otto. I see you. I see you for who you are.”

Blue eyes dimmed, and he leaned in, so close to my face that our mouths were nearly touching. “One day, I’ll let you see all of it, Raven, then you might change your mind.”

It hit me like a threat.

Like shame.

Like fear.

He pushed off the bed before I could say anything else, and he strode for the bathroom.

Completely bare.

I rolled that direction and propped my head up on my hand so I wouldn’t miss a second.

His back rippled with strength and his perfect ass flexed with each step that he took.

He flipped on the light since the sun was steadily sinking behind the trees, and I listened as water ran and a cabinet banged before he returned to the doorway with a washcloth, so close to the way he’d done last night, thougheverything had changed.

He wavered at the threshold. Greed gripped him as he froze there to take me in.

Ravenous eyes glinted beneath the fading rays that speared through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the man lit up in a glittering spotlight.

A treasure that had been unearthed.

A crude, rugged, priceless stone.

His hard, packed body vibrated with lust.

His giant cock twitching where it bobbed, still partially hard.

The designs on his flesh writhed, like each depiction had come to life.

And I swore that somehow I saw the petals of the moonflower on his hip unfurl further beneath the shower of the moon.

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