Page 78 of Phantom Mine

Then the other.

“How about,” he breathes against my skin, “we have a code word for when you’re done answering questions?”

He kisses my cheek next.

Then the other.

The corner of my mouth.

My lips part on a soft whine, but he avoids them, moving down the line of my jaw instead.

“And then what?” I ask breathlessly.

I turn my face into his, searching for his lips, but he ignores me. Instead, the hand in my hair drops to cuff my throat. Pulsing need thrums to life in my core at his dominating touch.

“Then I stop,” he says simply.

A breath catches on my lips. Something about the way he whispers that to me is so fucking seductive.

“I don’t want you disappearing again,” Matteo rumbles, a faint note of distress infiltrating his voice. “Especially not because I pushed you to answer me when you weren’t ready.” He buries his face in the crook of my neck, his lips moving up the column of my throat. “But,cara, know that whenever you do tell me…” Matteo’s mouth presses hotly against my ear, his breaths fanning across my burning skin. “I’ll kill him.”

I shudder violently at the dark emotion in his tone. “Who?” I croak.

“Whoever hurt you.”

“What if—”What if they’re your family? What would you do then?“What if there’s more than one?”

Lips press against mine, but not in a kiss. In a claim. “I’ll kill them all,” he vows fervently. “What’s your word?”

The scent of him, the feel of him, the sheer size of him overwhelms me. He turns us around so that I’m the one pressed against the counter, trapped between his arms.

The marble digs into my back.

“Cherry,” I gasp.

His body moves against mine as a deep, raspy chuckle hits my ear. “Pick something else.”

“Why?”

Finally,finally, he pulls back just enough to hover his face over mine. His eyes drop to my mouth and I watch as a fresh wave of primal arousal rolls through them.

“Because that’s going to be your safe word when I tie you to my bed,cara.”

I gulp. A slow, arrogant smile curves the corner of his lips when he sees the expression on my face.

“Um…” I say, suddenly brainless. “Peacock?”

“Pavona,” he corrects.

I notice Matteo hasn’t called me that since I recognized who he was. It’s almost like he was pushing me into remembering.

If he was, I failed that test spectacularly.

Now he only calls me what he called me that night;caraorcara mia.

“Yes.Pavona.”

The charming smile is back, sending my stomach into a turmoil of twists and turns.

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