Page 167 of Those Who Are Bound

It’d been brewing all day, the sexual tension between them. There’d been satisfaction this morning when he’d stalked her into the bedroom. But with Jonah, there never seemed to be enough. And the day… the day, with its ups and downs, the teasing, the promises, the interruptions.

And now the heightened tempers… it was passion, after all.

So his forceful kiss—even though she wanted to slap him? Hurt him after that insult? She allowed it; met his demand. And the best part? She’d driven him to this, to lose his cool, his control.

Because this was not the kiss of a godly man. This was searing and punishing, biting. It was sinful, and it made her demon sing. It was pain and pleasure and it shot all the way through her. Excited and thrilled her, and damn him, he better make good on the promise this kiss was making.

Regardless of the fire racing through her, she fought him for the struggle; to feel him brace against her. To make him tighten his fist in her hair, to hear and feel him growl into her mouth, bringing out the wolf she knew was buried inside, rising to meet her own internal monster. Her body sang at the press of his, the heat rolling off him, the ferocity coursing between them.

When he released her lips, leaving her pulsing and bruised, he caught her jaw between his teeth in a quick bite before he chided roughly, “You’re out of control.”

“Me?” she panted. “You can’t form a valid argument against my accusations, so you try to distract me by kissing me? Why now? Because it’s finally dark and no one can see you with your little heathen?”

He gave her a fierce jerk. “Stop it! I’ve never called you that and never accused you of it. I misinterpreted your tears. I misread that, but that doesn’t account for this level of anger and vitriol.”

Glaring up at him, she said for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight, “I needed you. I needed you, and you walked away.” And he should know how hard it was for her to admit that. Repeatedly, no less.

His demeanor went from hard to soft in an instant. “And I’m here. You have me. I’m here now.”

“I don’t know if that’s enough.” There was a little guilt—or a lot of it—as she said it because she knew that as much as she insisted she needed him, demanded him, she was planning on leaving him.

It wasn’t fair, demanding this sacrifice from him, these words, this contrition. But in the saner part of her brain, she kept telling herself that she was leaving for him; it was to preserve him.

He moved to cradle her face in his hands, resting his forehead against hers. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make it enough. It’s what we do; we fight for this, for us.”

You are pure evil, letting him say these things to you. Pure. Evil.

But it will keep him whole later.

“I want you tonight,” she said. She did; she didn’t want tonight stolen from her, their last night together. She’d had an image in her head of leaving them both with a final, drawn-out night of lovemaking.Lovemaking—something more than the ravishment against a dresser, as amazing as that had been.

Jonah nodded, staring down at her.

“Pastor Jonah?”

He stiffened.

Elliott stared up at him, silently begging him not to go, not to respond.

“Can you give us a moment?” he called without moving.

“Sure, but you always offer the evening prayer, so…”

They heard a foot scrape against the rocks, as though someone was standing there, making designs with their shoe, not eager to walk away without him.

Steeling herself, she already knew he was going to walk away from her. “Go. They need you.”

“Elliott…”

“No, go. We’re done.”

“I’ll come find you—”

She shook her head. “Don’t. This… I’m done.”

“I’m not. Lucy can say the prayer—”

Pushing away from him, she looked over his shoulder to the woman. It was Shari, watching them curiously, not looking the least bit sorry for interrupting what was obviously an intimate moment. “He’s coming.”

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