Page 42 of Like a Hurricane

“So, because you haven’t seen it, it doesn’t exist?”

I open my mouth to defend myself but then I have nothing to say about that. Just because I hadn’t seen it, witnessed it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

“I think because you haven’t experienced it,” Everett continues, his thumb stroking softly across my jaw, “You believe it’s not possible. But I’ve witnessed the all-consuming, heart shattering love you’re talking about. I’ve seen what it can do and what it can cause, and I assure you, princess, it’s real.”

“And you want it?” I ask.

“I’m working on it,” He smiles, leaning in closer, closing the space between us until his lips are almost touching mine. I feel the warmth of his breath on my lips and stare into the glacial blue of his eyes. This close I can see the specks of darker blue freckled throughout, some lighter parts that look like lightning forked through the blue of his iris’s.

I could imagine being loved by a man like Everett would be intense and a longing kind of feeling blooms in my chest. The feeling makes me realize just how lonely my life has been, how walled off I’ve made myself.

Then I’m kicking myself because this is a man who kills for a living.

And I’m just the woman he’s currently taken a shining to. It would never last.

The two of us, with all these differences… We were just messy.

Chapter Twenty

“You don’t have to sleep there,” I hover at the mouth of the hallway that leads to the one bedroom in this cabin, chewing on my bottom lip. Everett glances over to me from where he’s sprawled across the couch, the blanket resting at his hips and his bare, sculptured chest on show, the dark ink etched into his skin drawing my eyes as the firelight kisses his skin. He has one hand resting behind his head, stretching out those thick arm muscles.

He is a beautiful man, every hard, glorious inch of him.

I never stood a fucking chance.

“You want me to sleep with you, princess?” He smirks, catching me ogling him like a damn piece of meat. It was hardly fair for him to look like that. Like I said, he was a unicorn. He may as well have walked right off a romance book page because he was living up to every book boyfriend dream.

“No,” I instantly defend, crossing my arms, “I just don’t see much point in you sleeping out here. It can’t be comfortable.”

“Will you try to murder me in my sleep?” He teases, sitting up. His back is just as pretty as the front, broad shoulders, muscles that ripple and flex when he moves but littered with scars. There was a new one on his shoulder, fresh and pink, still raised, which oddly looked like a bullet wound.

I avert my eyes and start walking towards the bedroom, “I make no promises.”

His chuckle follows me through the door, making my damn knees weak and raising goose bumps over my skin.

“Stupid, stupid girl,” I mutter to myself, throwing back the sheets to climb into the bed. The lamp on the bedside counter gives the room a warm glow and I’d purposely left the curtains open to see the still falling snow outside the window.

There was so much snow, piled so high outside the windows it almost touched the glass. Everett had been shoveling every day, several times a day just to keep it clear but this was just ridiculous. How could one place get so much snow?

But there was no denying the peace that came with the small white flakes falling from the sky, I’d always thought it back in the city when I actually had time to enjoy it, rather than battling it.

Laying with the sheets still pulled back, Everett strolls through the bedroom door a moment later, a pair of sweats hanging low on his hips. A trail of hair works from his naval to beneath his pants, framed by that delicious V that carves up his hips and will make any woman lose a few brain cells. What is it about an Adonis belt that makes us go crazy?

“The way you look at me, little storm, makes me want to do real bad things to you.” Everett rasps, taking easy, controlled steps towards me on the bed. I curl my fingers into the sheets, holding my breath while he places a knee onto the end of the mattress and then the other until he’s kneeling at my feet and staring at me like he wants to eat me.

The hunger that burns in his gaze is enough to set my whole body on fire and warmth spreads through me, the man hasn’t even touched me.

There was no room for any other thought, any worries or grief or anger, just him and me and the inferno of undeniable chemistry that flares between us.

He places his hand on one of my ankles, circling his fingers around it before he does the same on the other, tightening his grip and then he yanks me down the bed, moving me so effortlessly towards him. I yelp before his body covers mine and his lips land against my own. Helpless is how I felt and yet a big part of me did not want to be saved from him.

He breathes me in like I’m the very air that fills his lungs. No man had ever consumed me the way Everett does, and it had only been a few days.

The fire will dwindle, surely, it couldn’t remain this…intense.

His tongue tangles with mine, hands coming up to frame my head so he can angle it just the way he wants. He dominates me, controls every aspect of this and I can’t help but submit to it, let him have it. I don’t want control here, not when I have to control every other aspect of my life. Right here, right now, with him, I want him to have it. I don’t want to make the choices, the decisions, I just want to feel this.

“The way you melt for me,” He growls against my mouth, his fingers threading into my hair right before he grips the strands and tugs slightly, bringing my head back, chin up while he stares down at me, “I love how you trust me with your body. You know I can make you feel good.”

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