Page 55 of Piece You Saved

“But if it were, it wouldn’t be by me, and you wouldn’t tell me. Would you?” Her voice isn’t quiet now. There’s a bite of anger in it. Not as much as when she snapped at me in the garden, but it’s a near thing.

There’s an angry thing inside her, twisting her up and cutting, and she only lets me see it. It’s time we did something about that.

After one last glance at the laptop, I nudge it aside and reach over to snag her wrist. “Up.”

She doesn’t fight me. She comes right at once.

And she does it for a reason I still don’t fucking understand and likely never will. Saige comes because she trusts I’ll never hurt her, and I will do anything—give anything—not to shatter that.Ever.

When I have her straddling my thighs, I frame her face and kiss her. Hard.

She places her hands on my chest and shoves. Her lips are soft and rosy. Her smoky blue eyes glitter with anger. “Don’t kiss me to distract me.”

I let her see the smile in my eyes. “I kiss you for a lot of reasons, angel. But that isn’t one of them.”

I kiss her again.

And again, she shoves me away, breaking the kiss. I don’t fight to keep her, and I don’t hold her too tight. I remember what happened at this kitchen table before, and I have no intention of moving too fast and scaring her again. “Stop it, Kade.”

But that isn’t what the heat in her eyes is saying.

I slide my hand around the nape of her neck, the slim column fragile in my palm. “No.”

“Yes.” She shoves again.

“You want a reason to get angry,” I say, throwing her a taunting grin. “I’m giving you one.”

Her eyes narrow. “I don’t want a reason to get angry. I just want to know what’s going on with Rylan, and I want to be involved.”

My lips quirk in a half smile. “No, you don’t.”

Her stormy blue-gray eyes flash at me. “Don’t provoke me.”

“Would you rather I fucked you instead?” I raise an eyebrow and wait. “Yes? No?”

“No,” she replies, though not instantly.

Stroking my hands down her back, I grip her hips. “So you don’t want me to spread you open on this table and fuck you?”

I feel myself hardening at the thought of doing just that. I took her ass in Aden’s bed, but I want her pussy. And I want it now.

Her breathing hitches. Her cheeks redden, and her eyelashes flutter. “No,” she whispers, as her fingers clench in the material of my shirt. “That isn’t what I want.”

Leaning close, I kiss her lightly on her lips, keeping my eyes open. “You sure about that, angel? Because my nose is telling me that if I were to peel those panties away, they would not be dry. What do you think? Should I investigate?”

Her fingers clench tighter around my shirt. “You said you wouldn’t because I’m bruised.”

I nod, battling to hide my fury at the sight of more marred skin. “Maybe I was lying. Maybe I can’t wait that long.”

She says nothing. Just watches me.

And in that silence, I slide my hand down her thigh, reach the hem of her shirt and nudge it aside.

Her breathing grows shallow as I skim my fingers up her satiny inner thigh until I reach the edge of her panties. There, I stop. “Angel?”

She continues to study me through those shadow-filled orbs.

God, those eyes are like traps, their sharp teeth hooking right into me. “You want to fuck this feeling out?”

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