Page 92 of Finding Lord Landry

In a way I’d rarely let him be.

One hand slipped between his legs while the other rucked up his shirt, fingertips grazing taut muscle as his abs clenched beneath my touch. My gaze stayed riveted on his, holding him there andmakinghim see me serving him, devoted to him,his.

I am yours.

I want to make you happy.

I will do whatever it takes.

Landry’s eyes burned like liquid fire. Within moments, he pulled away from me with a glare.

“Stop looking at me like that.”

Beyond the thin curtain, glasses clinked, laughter swelled and dipped, and the hum of polite conversation masked the ragged sound of my breathing.

I blinked up at him, jaw aching and lips slick, my head spinning from lack of oxygen… and lack of understanding.

“Like what?”

“Like you want something from me.”

“But I do,” I admitted softly. “I want you to admit you care about me.”

Landry scoffed. “So you can reject me again?” He jerked his sleeves down and smoothed his cuffs as if he was getting ready to rejoin the party. “I could tell you I love you, and you wouldn’t care. It wouldn’t make a damned bit of difference.”

I pushed off the ground to stand before him in the darkened space. The scent of perfume—something expensive and refined—drifted through the partition, reminding me that we shouldn’t be here like this. But there was nowhere else on Earth I wanted to be.

My shirtsleeve hung open and crumpled as I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

“Try me.”

He stepped close, his breath hot against my cheek. “You have no idea,” he warned in a low, desperate voice.

I did, though. Or I was almost sure I did. And the way my heart flung itself around my rib cage at the knowledge should have been biologically impossible. “So tell me.”

“Fuck you,” he spat.

“Darling, I’d love nothing more…” I arched a brow and ran a casual finger over his shirt cuff. “…but it seems you’re done using my body for the evening.”

There it was. I’d finally found the hot button. And I’d pressed it long and hard.

Landry’s eyes bored into mine, anger sparking anew. “Usingyour body? Never in the history of our time together have Iusedyou! I have loved you from the very first time, Kenji Toma.”

His eyes widened, and his voice broke, like he’d just realized what he’d admitted. But my Landry—my stubborn, beautiful reprobate—didn’t back down… hedoubleddown. “I love you more than I can even put into words. I would give up my fucking future, my dreams, my family for you. I love you so much, I?—”

I grabbed the front of his shirt. “Landry?—”

He clapped a hand over my mouth. “No. Do not say a single word, or I won’t leave here with my dignity intact. If you reject me again, that’s it, and I’ll dissolve into a pathetic, sobbing mess. If you don’t…”

Landry frowned like he’d never let himself imagine the alternative, and my heart squeezed with something fierce and protective.

No one would ever hurt this man again, I vowed. Even—especially—me.

“If I don’t?” I whispered against his skin.

He sucked in a breath. “If you don’t, I will, quite frankly, experience a medical event and have to be carted out on a stretcher. Either way… please, baby. Please don’t say it.”

Every ounce of love I’d ever felt for him had to be apparent in my eyes. At least, I hoped it was. The words hammered against the back of my teeth, desperate to break free, but for him, I held them back.

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