Page 151 of Desperate Actions

She looks fucking perfect.

And she loves me.

The knowledge is a live wire running beneath my skin, setting every nerve ending on fire.

I take a slow, measured step toward her.

She shifts, eyes flickering with uncertainty, but she doesn’t move away.

Doesn’t run.

I wouldn’t let her even if she tried.

I reach for her, trailing my fingers down her bare arm, watching as a shiver ripples through her.

“Say it again,” I murmur, my voice rough and desperate and nothing like the composed man I pretend to be.

Her lips part. “What?”

“You know what,” I growl, stepping even closer, caging her against the kitchen counter.

Her pulse hammers at the base of her throat, and fuck, it makes me want to bite her.

But I wait. I need her to say it.

I tilt her head back, forcing her to meet my gaze. Her breath stutters, her lips swollen and slick from my kisses, her pupils blown wide as I hold her there, trapped beneath my touch.

“You heard all that, didn’t you?” she whispers, her voice shaking, thick with emotion, accusation, and something else—something darker.

Possession.

Like she already knows what she does to me. Like she understands, deep down, that she owns me in a way no one ever has.

But she doesn’t fully know.

Not yet.

I tilt my chin, my lips brushing the shell of her ear, my voice raw with need. “Say it again.”

Her fingers curl into my shirt, bunching the fabric in her fists. Her chest rises and falls too fast, like she’s struggling to breathe, like she’s unraveling right in front of me.

“I love you, Sammy,” she whispers.

My forehead drops to hers, my own breath ragged as something feral and desperate takes hold of me.

“Again.”

She lets out a choked laugh, but her eyes are shining with unshed tears. “I love you.”

I break.

I crush my mouth to hers, kissing her so hard it’s like I can pour every missed moment, every lost year, into this single instant. I taste the salt of her tears as they slip between us, but I don’t stop.

I won’t ever fucking stop.

Because she loves me.

She’s mine, and she fucking loves me.

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