Page 4 of Prey for You

He was still asleep.

Deeply, sweetly asleep. And I loved it.

I’d had little chance to just look at him. So often our time was shadowed by other people, or pressures, or, you know, clothing. Last night had been amazing, but I’d been so consumed withfeelingit all, I hadn’t beenlookinga whole lot.

So, careful not to move and disturb him, I sank into my pillow and took the opportunity to drink in the sight of…my husband.Even the thought was crazy.

A memory of him leaning over that marriage certificate the night before rocked me. He’d put the pen to the paper, then looked up at me, his eyes bright and lips pulled into a smile, before he scrawled his name.

Mine. He was really mine.

How was that possible? How did two people start as individuals, then say a few words and sign a piece of paper, then suddenly they were a unit?

What a mind fuck.

A delicious one, though.

Starting at that hand splayed on the sheets between us, I smiled and let my gaze crawl up his arms, following those tendons on the back of his hand to his wrist, mentally tracing the tattoos covering most of his arm to the shoulder. He’d obviously had work done to blend his prison ink and there were a couple I suspected were cover ups. His chest was bare of ink, but I didn’t care because it gave me a clear view of his pecs and abs, and that smattering of hair that started under his navel and trailed down…

Want fluttered low in my belly as I dragged my eyes back up his carved torso.

His body was honed. A weapon. But resting.

It struck me that he was completely vulnerable. I knew moves that would kill him if I used the right hold. I could take a knife to his throat and he’d be dead in minutes. But even after everything he’d been through—everything he’d been—he trusted me not to. He wasasleep.Right there. All that muscle and strength coiled up like a snake in the sun.

I’d done the same. Trusted him. Slept like a baby.Safe.

I stiffened when the word echoed in my head. Usually it was a trigger, something that sent me spiraling into an itch to find trouble,anything.

But nothing happened.

Warily, I walked back through the thoughts in my head.

Sam was my husband.

Sam was dangerous… but not to me.

Sam trusted me.

And I trusted him.

Sam wassafe.

And for the first time in my life, that thought thrilled me.

Then he stirred and I bit my lip, watching him unfurl like an animal, his body coming awake, his eyes fluttering, then opening slightly… and dragging up the bed, up my body, until they went wide and he snapped his head up off the pillow to look at me.

Our eyes locked and nerves flickered in my chest. Was he going to regret—?

“It wasn’t a dream?” His voice was deep and ragged with sleep.Heavenly.

I couldn’t stop smiling as I shook my head.

And then, because he was fuckingperfect,Sam’s hand shot out to snake around my waist and yank me bodily across the bed and against him. He was comingalive.

I giggled.

I fuckinggiggled.

---