Page 101 of At the Edge of Surrender

I wanted to forget. I wanted to be elevated. I wanted to fly.

He dipped down, so close the words breezed across my lips. “Thethings I would do to you, Emery Voss. The way I would make this perfect little body glow. Make you light up like the sun. Know you’re aching for it.”

Air heaved from my lungs, a clash of horror and lust that whipped around the two of us, my gaze trapped by his.

The bare flesh of his chest pressed to the thin fabric of my tank, and our hearts ravaged in a clattering of greed.

“That can never happen.” Somehow, I managed to wheeze it.

The pad of his thumb stroked the sensitive hollow at the side of my neck, from behind my ear and over the pulse point that drummed in desperation.

“Never?” The gold of his eyes flashed with the challenge. “Already know the way you taste. Know the sounds you make when you come. How hard your thighs shake when pleasure is tearing through you. How these greedy little hands rip at my hair as you beg for more.”

“That was before I knew who you were.” The words barely made it off my tongue.

Surprise rocked him back half an inch. “And that changes things?”

I choked in incredulity.

Was he serious?

“You had a child with my sister. Mytwinsister.”

My sister who was dead and gone.

A rush of shame came barreling through at the thought. How could I be standing in here with this man like this?

Kane seemed to war, thoughts cutting and grinding through the sharp edges of his face. His expression finally settled into a frown. “I didn’t even know her real name, Emery.”

I could feel my own expression contort with guilt. With the grief and the torment and the contention that ransacked my conscience. “Do you think that changes it? Do you think it doesn’t kill me to think about you with her? Do you think I don’thatethat you make me feel this way? That you make me want something that no one else has? And you’re the last person I should want it with.”

For a beat, he lessened his hold, and I thought he was going to release me, only his fist suddenly tightened as he bent me over farther,the man hovering over me as he murmured, “And you’re the first person who’s ever made me want like this, too. First person who’s ever chased me into my dreams. One who hits my mind the second I wake up in the morning.”

His tone deepened. “Only you’ve got it all wrong, Emery. I’m pretty sure you’re the exact person I should want.”

“You’re my enemy.” I could barely croak it around the desire that coursed through me.

His entire brow pinched. “Your enemy?”

All that bottled pain rose and lifted, churning from the depths of where I’d tried to keep it concealed. Bubbling up and spilling over.

I ripped myself out of his hold, and the fury gushed free.

“Yes, you’re the enemy. The enemy who is trying to steal the last part of my sister from me. The one who is trying to steal the last bit of light in my life. You.”

I gasped it as my fingers clutched the fabric of my tank right over my heart. My heart that was bleeding out all over his floor.

“You are the one who’s going to destroy me. Destroy us. Rip the last joy from our lives. Take a little girl from her home and keep her from the ones who love her.”

A sob tore out with it, and I bent in two as I was slammed with the misery. With everything I’d tried to keep contained and shored away.

It rended and rived, cutting me apart.

I struggled to remain standing.

To keep from being swallowed by the ground that had suddenly opened up beneath me.

A dark hole that would take me all the way under.

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