Page 109 of Bound to a Killer
A war I desperately want him to lose.
Untamed hunger begins to rise behind his gaze, animalistic and all-consuming, pulling a stifled, ragged breath out of me.
Heat doesn’t trickle—it crashes into me. Sharp and consuming. My body responding to the unspoken intensity between us, pulsing through my chest and searing down my spine.
When I finally catch my breath, my voice snags on the way out, the back of my throat singeing tight. “Tell me why, Ledger.”
His gaze doesn’t budge. It lingers a beat longer, reluctant, until finally, it lifts to meet mine.
I pray the darkness conceals the heat flooding my cheeks, the warmth trailing down my neck and spilling through me, coiling tight in my stomach and stealing my breath. Every fiber in me yearns for him to succumb to the carnal desire festering between us, to cross the line I’m helplessly toeing.
“Because I’m a weak man,” he says with a lump in his throat. “Because each time I edge closer, I risk breaking off another piece of you, and I’m too fucking selfish to resist the pull that keeps dragging me back. Too weak to stay away. You need to cut me out, because I can’t do it myself. Because you’re just as much my downfall as I’ll be yours.”
My heart aches, swelling with emotion as I shake my head. “I don’t want to. You can’t make me.”
He stares at me, his chest heaving, eyes darkening into a lustful glaze, though pain still etches between his brows. “You’ll regret it,” he says, his voice thick as gravel.
“I don’t care.”
Suddenly overcome with the brazen disregard for anything else, I give in to the unrelenting pull to inch closer, bridging the sliver of space between us.
I press myself against the hard ridges of his chest and inhale that woodsy scent that’s always clung to him, letting it sink into my core. Reminding me that this moment is real, not just a memory. That we’re both real and here.
“I’ve spent my whole life being too careful. It’s exhausting. To live that way…closed off, always anxious, anticipating the worst. Like if I could just intercede before the inevitable pain, I’d be better off for it.”
Reaching the pinnacle of my speech, I audaciously ignore my usual timidity and sit up, swinging my legs over his torso and lifting myself over him, craving closer contact. His whole body tightens, the muscles in his arm flexing when he reaches out to grip my hips, steadying me.
“And you know what it taught me?”
His jaw flexes, eyes pinned to mine in a battle of ice and fire.
Resistance and desire.
“It taught me that life is fragile. Fleeting.”
A tepid breeze sweeps through my hair, sending the strands into a tizzy, but I keep my hands firmly planted on his chest. Feeling the way it tightens beneath my touch, his entire body stiff and rigid.
“All we have is this moment,” I say, my pulse thumping madly. I trail a hand higher on his chest, up his neck and jaw, until I’m cupping his face, feeling the freshly grown stubble prickle my palm. “This right here…This is all we get. It’s either a cataclysmic, life-altering change, or we play it safe and live pretending the ache of what could’ve been doesn’t bother us. That we don’t regret not taking the risk.”
My mouth feels dry, stuffed full of cotton, my tongue sluggish as it slips out to wet my lips. His hooded eyes track the movement, spiking my heart into a slow, deafening spiral. The air around us thickens.
Drunk on the heavy fog floating in my head, I shift my hips, leaning closer to him, swept in the hum of want and desire stitched beneath my skin, but he reaches out, tugging me back by my hair.
The tension tightens at my scalp, holding me a threadbare inch away from his mouth.
Our breaths, hot and heavy, intermingling.
“I won’t hold back this time,” he warns, his voice rough, the grittiness siphoning liquid heat to trickle out of me. “I’ll fucking destroy you. You sure you can handle that?”
My hips shift again, my legs clamping around him at the feel of his growing erection, stiff as a rod. A violent shudder racks up my body from the friction it puts against my pelvis when I lean in closer, that secret nub swelling with arousal, the throbbing heightening. My voice is a tight rasp. “I want you, Ledger. Even if it’ll lead to my downfall. Even if it’ll lead to yours.”
My fingers dig into his chest when I feel his rough hands slide down the back of my jean-clad thighs, following a sharp inhalation of breath. “Let’s be each other’s ruin.”
He growls, his chest heaving. The resistance snaps, and in an instant, he nudges me harder down into him. My lips part with a sharp gasp when the throbbing pulse presses against his hard length again, my moan catching in my throat as his mouth crashes over mine.
Lashes fluttering, I squeeze my eyes shut and exhale a deep, guttural sound into his mouth, the fervor in it matching my own as our tongues flirt together.
One of his hands stays at my backside, urging me to keep rolling against him, the delicious friction intensifying, while the other hand slides between us, fumbling with the button of my jeans before tugging the zipper down. “Take it off out here?” I ask, a quiver clinging to my voice as my movements still for just a second.
