Page 84 of The Piece You Stole

Still, the only monster in my life was the one who would knock me down because I wouldn’t give him money for booze, so maybe one day soon, I will get used to it.

When his hands grip my hips and he turns me, so my back is to him and my gaze focuses out at the neon bright-lit night, I sigh in pleasure as he presses his erection tight against my ass.

“I want to take you here.” His lips touch my throat. “I almost wish we weren’t so high so people could see it because I want them to see me claim you. I want them to hear you scream my name.”

Arousal flutters in my belly like the soft brush of a butterfly flapping its wings.

Rylan strokes his hands up and over my breasts. “Everyone wants you,” he breathes. “The men out there whose eyes follow you, the men in my pack, everyone. But you belong to me. Don’t you?”

“Yes.”

His teeth nip my throat, and I gasp. “Yes, what?”

I don’t even hesitate. “Yes, Rylan. I belong to you.”

“If I’d ripped those pretty pink panties off and taken you on the table, would you have been wet for me?” he purrs into my left ear.

The edge of his finger brushes against my core, and I suck in a sharp breath. “I, uh…” My cheeks burn with need and embarrassment.

Rylan must feel the heat coming off me because he’s smiling. I feel it.

“I love your innocence.” He nips my ear. “Your sweetness. I want to taste it all.”

I lovehim.

“You’d have let me do it, wouldn’t you,” he murmurs, grinding into me. “You’d have let me take you in front of everyone, screaming my name so they all knew you were mine.”

“Yes,” I moan, eager for him to pick me up and carry me over to the bed. It’s not something I would have thought I wanted, having eyes on me, but I do. I love anything and everything Rylan does to me. Everything but one thing.

“My heart.” His words make me melt.

He turns me, so I have my back to the wall of glass. I stare into his face, waiting for his kiss. I’ve leaned in to kiss him before, but he slides his hand around my nape and holds me there. “No, Saige,” he tells me. “An alpha does the taking.”

He’s dominant, not just in the bedroom, but everywhere. He likes to order for me, food, clothes, and things he thinks I will like because he knows this world better than I do. Coming from a shitty apartment with empty cupboards, he’s right. I wouldn’t know the first thing about ordering in a restaurant without making a fool of myself, and I wouldn’t know what was fashionable if it slapped me across the face. So I don’t complain. Why would I?

His fingers brush across my cheek as he studies me with pleasure-filled warmth. When his gaze settles on my throat, and the faint scar there, wariness creeps into my mind.

He strokes lightly, back and forth.

There are no rough callouses on Rylan’s fingertips. Callouses require grunt work, menial jobs…physical labor.

The heaviest thing Rylan lifts is me, and the roughest, again, me. So his touch is buttery soft as it whispers over my skin. “It’s healed nicely.”

And I know what he’s going to say. “Really?” I ask because this is the one thing I don’t want.

He never takes his eyes off my throat. “Yes. It’s time we tried again. The first bite doesn’t always take, but the second will.”

The memory of that first bite lashes my mind, stealing away my need for him. If I’d known how much it would hurt, I don’t know that I would have agreed. Even for him.

Just one bite, he’d told me, and then I’d be as he was, and we’d both have everything we’d ever wanted.

He didn’t warn me it wouldn’t work until I woke up with a bandage on my burning throat, still as human as I’ve always been. I’d hoped that maybe my scream, or how I’d cried in his arms for nearly an hour because of the pain, would make him decide not to try again. That maybe we could just be as we were.

“Rylan, do we really have to…?”

He presses a finger firmly against my mouth, leans in close, and lightly kisses my scar. My body stirs at his touch, but wariness cools my arousal. “You’re my mate,” he murmurs. “My heart. You love me, don’t you?”

I stroke my hands up his back and step into him. “You know I do. More than anyone ever.”

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