Page 51 of Deception & Desire

“Say you’re mine.”

“I’m yours.” It comes out in a half-scream. “God, fuck me,please. I’m yours.”

His hands withdraw, then bury themselves in the flesh of my hips. He flips me over on the counter.

Cool granite presses into my cheek, offering me a moment of clarity as I listen to him taking off his pants. I want this. Goddammit, do Ineed this.

My panties are removed with a tight snap, and then he’s there.

Hard, throbbing, touching, but not entering. Letting me learn the sensation, letting me marvel at how strong his desire is for me.

“Please,” I beg. “Take me, claim me. No one else. No one else.”

He stops hesitating. He sheaths himself to the hilt, and I see fucking stars. Vaguely, I’m aware of the countertop biting into my hips and the low throb of my injured arm, but the pain only adds to the pleasure.

Especially when his hands curl around my hair and yank, arching me into an angle that allows him to push even further.

And it hits, it hits, it…he…fuck.

My brain short circuits. All I can hear is the pounding of his body, slamming into me, over and over.

All I can feel is ecstasy. I don’t know if I’ve already hit my orgasm. I don’t know if I’m still riding it out or if it is to come. It’s just purefeeling,pure rhythm and carnage and craving.

I never want it to end. I want to be used like this forever. I want to drown in the feeling of him inside of me. I want to be resurrected by the hands that grip me tight enough to bruise.

A lifetime passes. An arm scoops me up. His rhythm accelerates. I’ve come undone at some point. I’m just his to have and to hold.

There’s a groan, and I’m lifted up entirely. His lips are on my neck, on the side of my face, desperate and wanting, andGoddo I want them.

He shudders beneath me, and he holds me so, so close as he finishes. His lips are wherever he can find skin, and I sink into his embrace.

Take me, hold me, I’m yours.

And I can’t think of any reason at all why that could be a terrible, awful idea.

14

LEON

Mia Natali is a very dangerous and precious thing.

It might not be the first time I’ve thought it, but she surely embodies it in this very moment, lying peacefully in my bed.

In sleep, there’s something wholly innocent about her. No frown lines to mar her smooth skin, no flames behind her endlessly green eyes. The effect is entirely angelic.

I’m staring at her when her eyes eventually flutter open, and…no,nowshe looks angelic.

“Good morning.” There’s a small smile playing in the corner of her mouth.

I lean in to kiss her softly. Her perfect lips are slow to respond and the kiss is chaste, but they send something entirely lovely through my chest.

She sighs into it.

Everything feels easier in the warm morning light, wrapped in sheets, wrapped up inher.

“Leon…what is this?”

Even that question feels somehow easier. There’s less heat, less anger, less longing.

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