Page 100 of At the Edge of Surrender

My brows lifted in challenge.

Sighing, Kane planted those big hands on the glittering veins of the quartz countertop. “Listen… Won’t pretend I have everything figured out right now, but I can promise that I’m going to make this work.”

Rejection puffed from between my lips. “Make this work? She can’t be some extraneous piece that you try to stuff wherever you can make her fit, Kane.”

Those magic eyes pinched at the sides. “Is that what it looks like I’m doing right now? Because what I’m trying to do is give my all. Every good part of me.”

Not even close to being a good man.

My insides flip-flopped.

“And what are the bad parts?” It raked out on a disordered gush. “You told me that you aren’t a good man. You told me you’re the dragon.”

I wouldn’t tiptoe around it.

The air shivered when he straightened, the man rising to his full, imposing height. He began to slowly weave around the island, eyes never leaving me.

His head cocked when he came around the side, and the ground trembled beneath my feet as I stood there without anything separating us.

No barrier for the energy that pounded through the atmosphere.

“You want to know what my bad parts are, Emery?” His voicehad dropped to a jagged blade. “They’re the parts of my life that have shaped me. The ones that made me who I am. Some of them were mistakes. And others I would never fucking change.”

My pulse thrummed into turbulence, both alarmed at the foreboding he emitted and wanting to rest in the safety of it at the same time.

He took another step forward on bare feet.

A shockwave rolled the ground.

He came so close that I could smell him. That warm cedar and clove scent that covered me in a jumbled, disorganized comfort.

His voice dropped even lower as he inclined his head my direction. Words raw, unbridled temptation that he whispered far too close to my lips, “You didn’t seem to mind a whole lot about that on Friday night.”

Shivers raced.

“That was obviously a mistake of my own,” I managed to say.

“That so?” he rumbled, inching even closer.

I released a shaky breath, one he seemed to inhale, and a big palm came to rest on the side of my neck.

Heat blistered at the contact.

A roar that burned through my veins.

“Yes,” I forced out through the desire that flickered through my nerves.

A dangerous smirk ticked at the edge of his mouth.

“I think you’re a liar, Little Warrior. I think you want this every bit as badly as I do. Do you think I can’t feel what’s coming off you? Way your body lights up the second I come near you?”

His hand slid up from my neck to tangle in my hair.

He tilted my head back. Mayhem ripped through me like a tornado. How out of control I felt. The man holding all the power.

And I was nothing but a fool. The way I wanted it. The way I wanted him to take that power and rule me.

Just for one minute more.

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