I picked her up and she wound her legs around my waist. Nose to nose, I quickly carried her into the bedroom and laid her sideways across my bed, keeping her legs wrapped around me where I stood at the edge.
The lights were off. The window shades drawn.
The storm raging outside lit her up.
She’d told me that was where she felt safest.
Freest.
So yeah, there were no doubts in my mind it was stupid and selfish. But I wanted her freedom found with me.
In me.
Even when I’d remain in chains.
Edging back, I pulled her shoes and socks from her feet as something heavy pulled at my heart. I leaned in close, inhaling deep and filling my senses with all that cinnamon and spice, pressing my nose to her bare stomach as I undid the button and zipper on her jeans.
Intoxicating.
Maybe that’s what this was.
A spell.
A curse.
A red-headed demon sent to crucify and slay.
Because her fingertips were mercy and her touch was misery.
What the fuck had I done?
Letting her get to me this way?
I knew better, but there was nothing I could do to stop this, and I was all too eager to yank her jeans down her legs.
I dropped them to the floor, leaving her in nothing but the red suit she’d been tempting me with all night.
“Do you have any idea how gorgeous you are?” I murmured. I smoothed my palms up the outside of her thighs, gripping a good handful of those lush hips. “Do you know, Red? How I have to tear myself away from you night after night? How I can’t fucking sleep because I know you’re just across the landing, lying in your bed. Alone. And then here I am, left thinking that’s right where I should be?”
A shaky breath and a brush of her fingertips down my cheek. “Why do you leave when you know I want you to stay?”
Need and something I didn’t want to feel knotted my guts.
Pulling back an inch, I let my gaze wander over her body.
Her skin was white and snowy, all except for the color inked across her flesh.
Long locks of red were strewn around her head like a fiery halo.
Just like my girl.
An angel.
A siren.
Rise swirled up her ribs in that pretty font, and my fingers trailed over the statement before I slid my hands under her back and freed her bathing suit top and tossed it to the floor.
“Goddamn,” I hissed. I palmed her tits, bunching them up and pressing them together. I ducked down and brushed my lips across the hardened tip of one nipple. Breathing a breath of hot air across that perfect flesh.
Red arched and she fisted her hands in my hair.
Tugging hard. “Oh God…please.”
My dick damn near exploded.
I did the same to the other, making sure she was a squirming mess of need.
Ready for me.
Because on all things holy, was I ever ready for her.
I moved back, knelt down and unlaced my boots, before I stood and shed my jeans. I stood before her in nothing but my tight underwear, my cock so fucking hard.
Begging.
Needy.
Desperate to take this girl.
Body and soul. Spirit and flesh.
Everything.
I had the depraved, fleeting thought that maybe I’d find a little bit of freedom in her, too.
Under her unyielding stare, I pulled my underwear down and kicked them from my feet.
Blue eyes roamed my body, up and down. The girl knew exactly how to undo me. Her tongue darted out and swiped across her lips when her heady gaze locked on my dick that was pointing to the sky. But then she let it trail back up, over my body that was covered by my story. The good and the bad. The deranged and the beautiful.
She looked to my eyes. Like she was both in the dark—willing to give up anything to read the fucked-up pages because she couldn’t quite see, and in the light—where she still got all the important stuff anyway.
“It’s you who’s beautiful, Lyrik. Fascinating. Talented. Broken while you take the time to rebuild me. To make me remember what it feels like to be cared about. Taken care of. What it’s like to feel unafraid.”
Care.
I did.
I fucking did.
My jaw clenched. “But my time’s running out.”
Pain and hope lashed across her face. “It doesn’t have to.”
But it did and it would and there was no use wishing for things that weren’t ever going to be.
I cinched my hands tight around her narrow waist and tugged her closer to the edge of the bed. “It’s gonna end, Red. You and I both know it. Tell me right now you’re okay with that. Otherwise, you need to get up and go, because I’m not the type of guy who’s going to stand here and feed you lies. Think you know me better than that by now.”
Shit. Why did saying it cause a ripping ache to slice through my insides?
But she knew what this was. Right from the start.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Her head nodded harshly as I ran my palms under her ass, kneading and squeezing, “I want everything you have to give. Even if this ends right here, it’s more than I ever thought I’d have.”
Resting her ankles on my shoulders, I leaned down and worked the red bottoms free from her tight little body. She lifted her ankles just enough so I could pull them from her feet.