Page 164 of Tangled Kisses
“Yeah,” I whisper, hope burning hot down my cheeks. “It does.”
His eyes darken, his voice dropping low and rough. “I need to feel you, Reese. I’ve missed you so much, I can’t—” His hand fists in my blouse, shaking with restraint. “I need you.”
My heart clenches. I reach for him, scattering frantic kisses over his mouth, his jaw, his cheekbones, as if I can kiss away all the hurt between us. “You’ve got me. Whatever you need. If you want to sleep, we’ll sleep. If you want to eat, we’ll eat. If you just want to sit in front of the fire, I’ll sit there with you.”
His forehead presses to mine, his breathing ragged. “I want to make love to you. Now. But I don’t want to hurt you. You’ve hurt enough already.”
“Please make love to me,” I whisper, my fingers clutching his shirt. “You’ll never hurt me.”
“Never.”
My body still aches, sore in ways I can’t ignore, but I need this. I need him surrounding me, reminding me I’m safe.
His mouth crashes onto mine, and I let it consume me as he sweeps me into his arms and carries me to his bed.
He unbuttons my blouse with the gentlest of hands, his eyes locked on mine.
I flinch, catching his wrists. “Wait—the bruises. I’ll just… keep everything on.”
But his gaze only softens, steady as stone. He presses a kiss to my temple, then goes back to opening my blouse.
“No,” he murmurs, voice hoarse. “Because every inch of you is going to know it’s safe now.”
“They’ll fade,” I whisper.
“They will.” His eyes blaze with quiet ferocity. “And I’ll make damn certain no one ever lays a hand on you again.”
His mouth traces down my jaw and along my throat, depositing soft kisses that ignite and soothe me all at once.
He takes his time, unhurried, reverent, like I’m something sacred. But when his mouth drifts lower—over my collarbone, over the fading bruise at my shoulder—his breath catches.
Brightness burn in his eyes as he looks up at me, his voice fracturing. “Baby, why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you come to me? I would have died to protect you.”
My hand slides to the back of his head, holding him close. “Because I need you here. Alive. With me.” My throat tightens, the truth clawing free. “It was you who kept me going. I carried a picture of you in my mind, the way it felt when you held me. That’s what got me through.”
His mouth trembles against my ribs, pressing over another bruise, and then he stops. But I feel his sobs against my skin—the agony in his heart that he wasn’t there to stop it.
It breaks me all over again because I never want Griffin to feel an ounce of pain.
I cradle his face between my palms until he meets my eyes. “It’ll be okay. Do you want me to put my shirt back on?” My voice wavers. “If it’s too much?—”
Tears still glisten in his eyes, but his gaze is fierce, unrelenting. “No. I don’t want anything between us. Not your shirt, not anything.” Then his thumb sweeps away my tears. “No more walls. No more condoms. What I said before—I meant it.”
The weight of his words crashes over me. He’s asking for everything. Do I have it in me to give him that? All of me—my body, my heart, my future?
When I look into his eyes, those endless blue depths, I know the answer in an instant. Yes. Always yes.
“Are you certain that’s what you want?”
“Yes.” His forehead presses to mine, his voice guttural with need. “It’s always been you. A life with you. A family with you. Tell me I can have that. Tell me I can have all of you.”
My tears fall hot and fast, my body shaking. “You already do.”
Something in his eyes gives way, softening into a desperate certainty as his hands move with aching patience, stripping me bare piece by piece.
It’s so intense I clutch the sheet, my go-to protective instinct.
“No,” he murmurs, low and fierce. “You’ll never hide again. You’ll never hurt again. From this moment, you’re mine. Only mine. Do you understand what that means?”
