Page 21 of Never Tell Lies

I stared at him—this cold, aloof man who had just said something so earnest. "You don't even know me."

"A part of me knows you." He took a step towards me and, in an instant, the atmosphere felt charged, every fibre of my beingsuddenly on high alert. "A part of me that I didn’t even know existed. You're calling to me, Lola. I felt it when I first saw you."

I started to back away from him but he didn't stop, stalking towards me with slow, lazy movements. I was the doe and he, the grey wolf.

"You felt it too, didn't you?"

"I…" The hard knots of a tree dug into my back and I was suddenly frozen.

He closed the distance between us and I swallowed hard, trying to regain control of my scrambling thoughts. He cupped my face, keeping me firmly in place as he leaned in further.

His lips hovered over mine, hot breaths coming hard. Barely contained passion rippled through his body, radiating from him in waves. He shuddered with it and leaned in. He was about to kiss me and I knew for certain that if we started, there was no going back. I was on the edge of a precipice and jumping would either end in heartbreak or ecstasy. With this man there would be no middle ground.

"We can't," I whispered, my voice hoarse and lost. My body had never been so alive nor my mind so afraid.

"Stop me." Then his lips found mine, and he devoured me whole.

I succumbed with a whimper, my body limp and languid as he pressed himself into me, pinning me against the hard knots of the oak.

Heat radiated from his powerful body and poured into me until I grew flushed. I slipped off the precipice and fell through him, my senses completely swarmed.

I gripped his biceps, my hands feeling small against them. A whisper of fear at my vulnerability flowed through my subconscious but was drowned out by the fierce passion he had unearthed inside me.

I gasped when his hands found my breasts and I felt again that need to make him stop but I couldn't, I just couldn't. He didn't take his time or lead up to touching me there. He cupped them like they were already promised to him and I whimpered in confused desperation. He pulled away from my mouth and looked down at his own hands as they massaged my swollen flesh.

I watched him, enraptured by the expression on his perfect face. How could a face be that perfect?

His thumbs brushed over my nipples and they hardened through the material.

"You want me." His voice was low and determined as his thumbs continued their torture of my nipples, the proof that my body wanted him. "Say it," he commanded.

"Alfie…"Alfie?When did I start calling him Alfie? I couldn't think when all my body wanted was release.

His hands tightened on my breasts but he silenced my cry with his hot mouth on mine. I flung my arms around his neck and pulled him to me as the night darkened around us, transforming the clearing to an otherworldly dimension where all that existed was my need for his touch and his passion.

"Say it," he growled again, and this time I managed to shake my head. I couldn't admit it, not out loud. Those steel greys flashed as if I'd just issued a challenge.

He pressed his thigh up between my legs, raising me up onto the balls of my feet and forcing my sensitive core down on him. I gasped at the sensation and he smiled knowingly.

I couldn't move or get away.

I lifted myself up higher on my toes to relieve the intense pressure on that bundle of nerves but he simply pushed his leg further into me. There was nowhere for me to go, nothing for me to do but grind down on him. A small moan escaped me at the pleasure but it wasn't enough and I whined in frustration.

A small smile played around his devilish lips as he watched me try in vain to satisfy myself.

As my desperation grew to the most feverish pitch, his steel grey eyes found mine and grounded me, centred me. I gazed back, enthralled.

"Say it, O'Connell. Say you want me."

What is happening to me?

I felt a strange sensation of becoming…I wasbecomingsomething, someone new. He was transforming me. He could see me and I, as I regarded his cool beauty, saw him too. I knew he was playing with me once again, but right then, I didn't care.

"I want you," I whispered.

He was so quick I barely had time to breathe. He released my breasts, gripped my waist, and hitched me up his body until I clung to him, trapped between him and the earthy bark of the old oak. His mouth devoured me with a possession I never thought possible. I moulded to him—my body, my soul. He took all that I was and fit it to his exact specifications. It frightened me. It enthralled me.

Elliot's firm voice echoed to me through my tormented rationale. "Miss Carter, please. He gave instructions not to be disturbed."

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