“We’ll…” My voice broke. I tightened my grip on Dean. “We’ll go clean up.” I gave him a gentle tug. “Come on.”
I managed to get him into the house without another confrontation. Voices came from the kitchen, where I assumed the rest of the group was tending to Archer. I heard the word hospital and winced.
Before I could turn toward the stairs, Dean pushed me into the library. He slammed and locked the door behind him. Dim light and silence descended.
I pressed my palms to my face. My jaw ached from both the blow and trying to restrain my tears.
I felt Dean’s gaze. He latched a hand around my wrist.
“What the hell?” He cupped my chin with his other hand and turned me toward him, brushing his fingers beneath my jaw where a bruise must have formed. “Did I do that?”
“It was an accident. It doesn’t hurt.”
“Goddammit, Liv.” Self-directed anger speared his expression.
Oh, Dean.
“Don’t.” Tears burned my eyes. “I’m okay.”
A ripple of anger coursed through him. Blackness concealed the gold flecks in his eyes. I stepped back, my heart thudding.
“Dean?”
He advanced, coiled with leashed energy, his fists bunching at his sides. “I want you.”
“I’m… I’m yours.”
“I want to fuck you. Hard.”
Shock jolted me. My hips hit the big oak desk. “You—”
He grabbed my shoulders, his fingers digging in almost painfully. Tension knotted his muscles. His eyes blazed with heat.
“I need to know you’re mine. That you’re all mine.”
“I am.” A dark, thrilling arousal spiraled through me at the anger-edged lust emanating from him. “Of course I am.”
“Let me.”
“Yes. Yes.”
He hauled me against him, his lips crashing down on mine. He pushed his tongue into my mouth with a sharp, possessive gesture, as if he wanted to mark me, claim me. The length of my body pressed against his, every one of his muscles still locked tight. I could feel the adrenaline coursing through him, the burn of his blood.
Heat rocketed through me. I grasped his biceps, stunned by the flood of excitement. He dug his fingers into my hips and hauled me up onto the edge of the desk, his mouth never ceasing its plundering of mine. He kissed me, licked me, bit my lower lip, dragged his mouth down to nip the throbbing vein at the side of my neck.
I inhaled sharply, spreading my legs around his hips. He shoved himself between my thighs, already hard through his jeans. With a sweep of his arm, he sent the desk clutter behind me crashing to the floor, pens and paper scattering.
I pushed my hands underneath his blood-spattered T-shirt, sliding my palms over his damp skin, the rigidity of his muscles. He yanked my skirt up my thighs, his mouth close to my ear.
“Take these fucking things off,” he hissed.
My heart pulsed. I pushed him away so that I could slither out of my pantyhose and drop them to the floor. Dean tangled his fingers into my underwear, brushing against my sex. I fumbled for the button-fly of his jeans, but my hands were shaking too much. He stepped back and kicked off his shoes, then unbuttoned his fly and shoved his jeans and boxers off. His erection sprang up between us, thick and heavy. My throat went dry.
“Oh, God, Dean.”
I reached for him. He pressed his palm to my breastbone and pushed me back onto the desk. He took hold of my blouse and ripped it right down the middle. A fever darkened his eyes. I undid my bra, aching for him to touch my breasts. Panting, I twisted, rubbing my spread sex against the head of his cock as he bent to take my nipple between his teeth.
An intense shudder vibrated to my toes. He slid his hand down my belly, beneath my underwear. His forefinger ran over my folds, spurring my excitement higher. I tightened my legs around his hips.
I need to know you’re mine.
His rough voice echoed in my lust-fogged mind. Didn’t he know that already? How else could I show him?
He pulled my underwear over my legs. A gust of air brushed against my sex. Dean pushed his hands under my thighs, opening me to him fully. For an instant, his hot eyes met mine before he plunged his cock into me.
I was ready. He’d warned me, asked me, prepared me. But the intensity of his thrust, the sheer power of it, rocked me to the core. My emotions exploded. I cried out in sudden shock, clutching his rigid arms. Sparks spread through my nerves as my inner flesh tightened around his pulsing shaft.
He gripped my thighs, keeping me open, as he thrust again and again, a relentless fucking that shook the desk and made my body bounce. I arched upward, drenched in the fog of desire, the dawning knowledge that I was binding myself inextricably to this man, and that I did not want to be free.
Leashed urgency pulsed through his muscles. His T-shirt dampened with sweat, smearing the remnants of his and his brother’s blood. Tears spilled from the corners of my eyes. My whole body ached and throbbed.