Page 134 of Beautiful Venom

This is confusing and illogical.

Kane’s exhales turn harsher, his grip tighter, and his nostrils flare.

He’s containing himself.

Shoving himself behind that wall I hate so much.

“I can handle you, Kane,” I say in a whisper, stroking his hair instead of pulling it.

“Youthinkyou can.”

“IknowI can.” I wet my lips, and his darkened eyes zero in on the motion, turning molten.

“You knownothing,” he grinds out even as he watches my mouth. “You’re just a fuck, Dahlia. Stay where you belong.”

“And yet you want to kiss me.” I lick his lower lip, leaving a shiny trail of my saliva on his soft skin.

His grip tenses up on my throat. “Stopthat.”

“Show me how I’m just a fuck.” I roll my body against the taut ridges of his muscles. “Kiss me, Kane.”

“You’re a fucking nuisance.”

“Kiss me.”

“I hate you.”

“I hate you, too. Kiss me.”

“I’ll fucking ruin you.”

“Prove it. Kiss me?—”

My words are stolen when he kills the distance and seals his lips to mine with a groan.

There’s something different about this kiss.

It’s deep and unhinged like the rest of him, but it’s also slower, not as frenzied, not accompanied by his brutal fucking or his constant need to claim and possess me.

His hand tightens on the sides of my throat, his index finger tilting my jaw to the side as he devours my mouth, sensually sucking on my tongue.

There’s anger, too, but it pales in comparison to the way he owns me.

I kiss him back, reveling in how he loses control.

How he shows me his true self.

Onlyme.

I pull on his hair, then stroke it.

I moan in his mouth and let him manhandle me any way he pleases.

I’ve come to the realization that I can let this man do whatever he wants to me as long as I have him all to myself.

It’s selfishness, I realize. For the first time in my life, I’m coveting something I can’t have.

It’s terrifying, but I can’t stop.

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