Page 185 of At the Edge of Surrender

He stared at me as he said it.

An invitation.

One I accepted with a shuddery, “Yes.”

The instant I said it, he pushed up high on his knees, one hand binding into the fall of my hair and the other gripping onto the side of my neck.

It was the exact moment his mouth descended and captured mine.

Flames ignited at the crash of our lips.

A blast of heat gusted through my veins.

My fingers dove into his hair, and I kissed him back as furiously as he was kissing me.

It wasn’t gentle or meek. It wasn’t him treating me as if I was fragile or broken. It was him showing me that I might be scarred, but those scars didn’t hold the power to keep me from experiencing what I wanted.

They didn’t hold the power to stem the onslaught of need that careened through my body. Licking up through my insides and saturating every cell.

I felt the rush of him everywhere.

His passion.

His greed.

His beauty.

This chaotic man who burned right through the middle of me.

“Emery,” he rumbled into the frenzy of the kiss. “Gonna show you what it’s like to be adored, and I’m never going to stop.”

“Don’t stop.” It was out without permission, as if he’d drawn the plea directly from that secreted place inside me.

“Don’t worry, sweetness, I don’t intend to.”

His tongue licked at my lips, and I opened to him. Beckoned him to take it deeper.

And I welcomed the thrill that charged through me when his tongue tangled with mine. Welcomed the sensations that rolled and whispered from the innermost sanctums of my spirit and blistered across my flesh.

No numbness to be found.

I was here.

Alive and burning beneath the caress of his hands.

“Kane.” I muttered his name at his mouth as my fingers searched, dragging down the back of his neck and sinking into his shoulders.

“I’m right here, Emery. I’m right here, and I’m not going anywhere.”

He pushed up to standing, and I angled back onto the bed. His feet were still planted on the floor as he hovered over me and kissed me into a puddle in the middle of the mattress.

I started scooting back, making room for him to climb on top of me.

Because I wanted to feel the brute force of his weight. To be pinned and know I was completely safe.

That energy rose and lifted, vibrating through the room as he followed me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist, urging him to press himself against the throbbing at my center.

To quench it the way he’d promised, then beg him to make good on doing it all over again.

---