Page 3 of Savage Possession
“I…” She hesitates, her gaze flicking to my mouth, then down to the book pressed between us. “I don’t even know you, but I feel like this isn’t the first time we’ve met. Is that crazy?”
“Not yet, you don’t.” I counter, my voice dropping lower, my need making it rough. “But I’d like to fix that. And no. It’s not crazy at all.”
She blushes, the pink staining her cheeks making me want to mark the rest of her, everywhere my mouth can reach. I let my fingers drift up, tucking a strand of that wild, snow-white hairbehind her ear. My knuckles graze the soft skin at her jaw, and her breath catches.
“Are you always this straightforward with the girls in bookstores?” she tries, her tone half-joking, half-nervous.
I step closer, letting her feel the heat of my body, the barely leashed tension in every muscle. “Only when they look like you. Only when they make me feel things I forgot I was capable of.”
She tries to laugh, but it comes out as a nervous sound, her chest rising and falling with every uneven breath. “I guess that makes me special, huh?”
She thinks she is kidding, but she has no idea just how special she is.
I lean in, letting my lips graze the shell of her ear, my breath hot against her skin. “No, angel. Just you. You got me thinking crazy things. Like how good you’d taste if I kissed you. Or how soft you’d feel pressed up against these shelves, moaning my name with that pretty mouth.”
Her breath stutters, pupils blown wide. She doesn’t pull away like I fear she will. No, my sweet angel tips her chin up, inviting, daring, desperate for the promises I just hung between us.
Fuck. Me.
“You shouldn’t say things like that,” she whispers. “Someone might hear.”
I grin, brushing my thumb over her lower lip, slow and lingering. “Then let ‘em. Let the whole world hear. I got nothing to hide, sweet angel. Except maybe how much I want to ruin you in the best possible way.”
I see the shiver that rolls down her spine. She tries to mask it, but I catch the way her thighs press together, the way her tongue flicks over her lips as if she’s already imagining it. My cock throbs, straining against my jeans, and I have to grit my teeth to keep from dragging her back into the high fantasy section and showing her exactly what I mean.
Instead, I settle for slipping my hand into hers, feeling the smallness of her fingers laced through mine. “You ever get curious about what it’d be like, sweet angel, you know where to find me. Hell, you call, I’ll come running. Or give the word and I’ll take you home with me right now.”
I don’t remember exactly when in the last ten minutes of our meeting I decided she was mine, but I’m too damn possessive of her sweetness to think of her any other way. I’d protect her with the last drop of blood in my veins and air in my lungs.
She smiles, trembling, but I see the want blooming in her eyes. It matches the wild hunger clawing through my chest.
“I…” Her voice falters. “I should go. No matter how tempting you make the fantasy, I don’t have that freedom.”
“What do you mean?” My hand glides down her arm, thumb circling her wrist, feeling her pulse skip and stutter. “You sure you don’t want to stay a while here then? Let me buy you a coffee. Sit with me for a while. I’ll read you all the dirty parts.” I tap the book she is still holding in the other hand.
She laughs for real then, the sound shaky but sweet, like she’s never been flirted with like this before. “You don’t strike me as the romantic type, Ash.”
I step closer, closing the distance so there’s barely a breath between us. “I’m not. Not for anyone else.” I let my gaze fall toher lips, letting her see the raw, hungry truth I’d never admit out loud. “But you make me want to try.”
There’s got to be a decade, maybe a decade and a half between our ages, but I don’t care and she doesn’t seem to be turned off by me being an older man.
My cock turns into steel as her gaze caresses over every part of me with a curious brush of her blue eyes.
Her cheeks turn pinker, and for a moment, I let myself imagine what it would feel like to have her here, alone, her dress hiked up around her hips, my name a broken plea on her lips as I take her virginity. Because there is no way this woman has ever taken a man. She’s too damn innocent.
The image nearly undoes me.
She slips her hand free from mine as she clutches the book to her chest like a shield. “I really have to go. I’m… meeting someone.”
The possessive heat that flares in me is instant and brutal. I bite it back, forcing a smile onto my lips. “Lucky bastard,” I say, though my voice is rougher than I intend. “You sure you want to?”
She bites her lip, eyes flicking to the exit. “I promised. I keep my promises.”
“Good girl.” The words slip out, deep and full of filthy promises. “That’s all right. I’m a patient man. But you know where to find me, sweet angel. Anytime you want to see what all my promises can do with all that sweetness of yours, come find me.”
She’s trembling now, cheeks blazing, but she doesn’t look away. “Ash…”
I can’t help myself. I take her hand again, raise it to my lips, pressing a slow, lingering kiss to the back. Her skin is soft, tasting of salt and heat and something faintly like vanilla. And then I take her lips with mine. My hand slips under the loose braid and I thread my fingers through the silkiness of her hair as she opens for me. Our tongues touch, caress and taste. Breathing heavily, I pull back just enough to rest my forehead against hers. We breathe each other in and all the ugliness of the world falls to the side. It’s just her and me.
