Page 51 of Wicked and Bound

“Me.” Her whisper felt like stepping off a cliff without a safety net. A shiver raced down her spine as every instinct screamed at her to retreat, but she forced herself forward. “My body. My complete surrender. And any other part of me you want.”

Like my heart. Like my future. Like every truth I’ve kept locked away.

Raw hunger flared in his eyes, turning them nearly black. The heat of his body seared her through their clothes as his hand slid to her throat, an outwardly dominant gesture that let him feel her racing pulse. His thumb stroked over her thundering heartbeat. “Anyother part? Show me. Prove you mean it.”

Words would endanger them both. But she could speak with her body, with her heart.

Lightning illuminated them as she reached for him, no longer caring about their audience. The last of her defenses crumbled, leaving her stripped bare before him. Finally allowing her to bridge the distance she’d placed between them.

She curled her fingers into Nash’s shirt and lifted onto her toes, brushing her mouth across his softly. The kiss was a confession, an apology.

His hands flexed on her waist, and she felt his surprise before he deepened the kiss with both searing gentleness and dark hunger. She drew his lower lip between hers, telling him with each caress that she wanted him, that she loved him. That she was sorrier than he’d ever know that she’d kept them apart.

When she drew back, questions filled his eyes as his thumb traced her cheek. “Tell me what’s wrong.”

“Nothing. Everything.” Her voice fractured as she clenched her trembling fingers into fists. The weight of unspoken truths pressed against her. “I just need to…” She swallowed past the guilt lodged in her throat. “I need to give you everything I can. Everything I’m able to right now.”

Understanding lit his face. “I want it all.”

The secret she’d buried sat in her chest like molten lead, but she couldn’t voice it. Not here. Not now. Instead, she caught his hand and drew him toward the bed, willing him to read the raw honesty in her eyes. “It’s yours.”

“Baby…” He scanned her face as if his crowbar of an expression could pry answers from her.

Tears burned her eyes. She ached to spill her secret, her deep regret, take back every moment of their two years apart. But too much honesty now would only put them in danger. So she placed her palm over his thudding heart and urged him down to the mattress. She followed, capturing his mouth again, trying to show him with actions what she didn’t dare say with words.

Her kiss held nothing back. She infused every brush of her lips with meaning—her love, her remorse, her soul-deep need for him to understand that she was done letting fear come between them.

When she finally lifted her head, hope had softened the sharp edges of his expression. Something profound passed between them as she offered him a tremulous nod and smile heavy with promise.

“Seriously?” His whisper held wonder and disbelief in equal measure. “Oh, baby…”

Nash took over, rolling her onto her back and covering her mouth with his. He plowed past her lips, barreled through the fragility of the moment, smashing any defenses she had left. She opened to him, winding her arms around his neck, and allowed him deeper than he’d ever been.

Reality shifted until there was only them. Her head whirled. Need surged. Euphoria soared. Her heart took wing as he caressed a possessive hand down to her waist before pulling her impossibly closer.

Time lost all meaning as she fell into his kiss. Every brush of his lips tasted of hope. Every sweep of his tongue was flavored with his passion. Every beat of his heart against hers brimmed with devotion.

For the girl who’d grown up believing that love was a fairy tale, that promises were for suckers and that forever was a scam, she felt so humbled and blessed to be wrong.

Beneath him, she spread her legs and arched, silently begging him to give himself over to their silent vow of tomorrow.

Nash didn’t hesitate. Without breaking their kiss, he settled into the cradle of her thighs with a sound caught between pleasure and reverence. The weight of him, the heat of his skin against hers, felt like coming home. She hadn’t voiced the words burning in her throat, hadn’t confessed the truth threatening to crush her chest…yet somehow, he understood that she was laying her whole heart bare before him. She wanted everything in return—not just the solid strength of his body or the heat of his desire, but his unwavering dedication, his fierce protectiveness, his steadfast soul. Most of all, she craved the heart she’d been too afraid to fully accept until now.

“Take off your shirt,” she murmured.

He broke the kiss to stare into her eyes, scanning, looking for something… Their gazes locked. He threw open the shutters around his soul, letting her see completely inside. The moment was painfully honest, beautifully intimate. More tears stung her eyes and fell.

Nash thumbed them away before he reached behind him and tugged his T-shirt off, then tossed it across the room.

Haisley lurched up, planting her face in his chest, inhaling his musky pheromones and pressing her lips to the solid slab of his hair-roughened pecs in a worshipful gesture. Above her, he tangled his hands in her hair and kissed the top of her head as if he was determined to shower her in his love and devotion.

The gestured buoyed her heart. She skated her lips up his neck and across his jaw before she fused her lips with his. He delved inside again, reassuring her. Every sweep of his tongue was like throwing gasoline on her rising desire.

Before Nash, sex had been a lot of things—fun, awkward, a great diversion from real life. But it had never had real meaning until him.

Suddenly, he wrenched away from her and stood, powerful chest heaving. “You mean it.”

The wonder in his voice had her tearing up again. “I’ve never meant anything more.”

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