Page 114 of The Alien's Vicious Starflash Manor

The heat of her core against me, even through layers of clothing.

The silk of her hair sliding between my fingers.

The way she gasps my name when I trail kisses down her throat.

I want to map her body with my hands and mouth until I know every sensitive spot, every sound she makes when pleasure overwhelms her.

Want to mark her as mine in ways that can never be undone.

Wanther, with an intensity that terrifies me.

And I know, with the kind of certainty that reshapes worlds, that I am lost. That I will tear apart heaven and earth, rewrite destiny itself, to find a way to save both her and my world.

Because I cannot lose her.

Not now.

Not ever.

The knowledge settles into my bones like a prophecy, like a curse, like salvation.

Like love.

I cannot go through with my original plan. Cannot sacrifice her, no matter what it costs my world. The realization should send panic coursing through me, should make me push her away and rebuild my walls of ice.

Instead, I pull her closer and capture her mouth again, pouring everything I cannot say into the kiss.

She responds with equal fervor, and for a moment I let myself believe that this—her warmth, her trust, her fire melting my frozen heart—could be enough.

Could be everything.

Her hands slip inside my coat, and even through my shirt, her touch burns like brands against my skin. I growl into her mouth, pressing her harder against the wall. Ice crackles around us, responding to my rising desire, but she doesn’t flinch from the cold.

If anything, she seems to welcome it. One hand slides up to tangle in my hair, and she uses the grip to angle my head, deepening the kiss until I’m lost in her heat.

“Please,” she whispers against my lips.

The word sends another surge of possessive need through me, and I drag my mouth from hers to press open-mouthed kisses down her throat. She arches into the touch, and the sound she makes nearly shatters what little remains of my control.

“Mine,” I growl against her pulse point, no longer caring how much of my desperate want bleeds into my voice. “Say you’re mine.”

“Yours,” she gasps, and the word sends molten heat flooding through my veins. “Only yours.”

I reclaim her mouth, and this kiss holds nothing back. All my need, my hunger, my impossible longing—I pour it all into the press of my lips against hers. She meets me with equal passion, and for endless moments there is only this.

Only us.

Only the heat of her mouth and the silk of her skin and the way she trembles in my arms.

I am lost.

I am found.

I am hers, as surely as she is mine.

And I will find another way. Will move heaven and earth, will rewrite destiny itself, if that’s what it takes to keep her safe.

To keep her.

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