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The need to keep her in this moment burned through him. He pivoted, pressing a hand to the small of her back, guiding her off the path. The world tilted as he maneuvered them into the deep shadows beneath the building’s overhang, his body crowding hers gently against the rough stone wall.
The city faded. Diesel, rain, the faint acrid bite of smoke, all of it drowned beneath the deeper, more intoxicating scent ofher. Quinn.
He inhaled her like he was starving.
His hands bracketed her hips, firm but careful, as his mouth moved over hers, not rushed, but searching, savoring, chasing every breath she gave him.
Damn right she did.His body was solid. Anchored. Here for her, just as he had always been.
The kiss deepened, turning urgent. His lips dragged over hers, tilting her head back, wanting more. Needing it. He tasted her slowly, thoroughly, each pass of his mouth reverent and aching.
When she opened to him with a shuddering breath, he answered with a low, raw sound from deep in his chest. His hand slid up, fingers splaying across her ribs, anchoring her to him as their bodies aligned, heat meeting heat.
This wasn’t just hunger. It wasrecognition. Years of distance collapsing in one endless kiss.
Still, it wasn’t enough.
Dagger pressed in, trapping her between the hard wall and the even harder lines of his body, his thighs bracketing hers, his forearm coming up to rest against the stone beside her head. He felt her gasp into him, the way she clung, fingers sliding up, curling around the back of his neck, nails raking into his scalp. He chased the sensation, kissing her deeper, taking, giving, devouring.
The night around them was alive, horns blaring in the distance, the low murmur of voices somewhere outside the wall, the damp breeze through the courtyard, cooling the fever igniting under his skin. But all of it blurred, meaningless compared toher.
His pulse hammered, but in his head, all he could think wasshe’s here. She wasn’t running, wasn’t slapping him, wasn’t cursing his name.
She waskissing him back.
The realization of that took him under as he unraveled. He’d meant to hold something back of himself, something vital to his survival when it came to Quinn, to save himself from heartache later if she had a change of heart, but he couldn’t grab hold, his will slipping through his fingers like sand.
Every shift of her body, every press of her lips against his, every needy sound she made had him sinking deeper, losing himself in her. He wanted to drown in the feel of her, let her pull him under, take and take until there was nothing left but the fire between them.
He wasn’t sure how they’d gone from kissing tothis,his hands gripping her hips, her body caged between him and the wall, the unbearable friction of her pressed so perfectly against him. His name was a whisper against his lips, breathless, desperate, like she wanted more,neededmore, and fuck, he wanted to give it to her.God, did he want to give it to her.
It would beso easy.
Just let go. Lose himself. Sink into her, intothis. He could take her right here, right now, against this goddamn wall, and she wouldn’t stop him. He knew it. Felt it in the way she arched into him, in the way her fingers fisted in his shirt, trying to drag him closer like she couldn't get enough.
Neither could he.
But then,thiswas Quinn.
Easyhad never been an option with her.
Dagger felt like he’d just kissed his stupid ass straight into agoatfuckof his own making. A full-blown, chaotic, no-coming-back-from-this kind of mess. Because this wasn’t just a kiss. This wasn’t just some moment of weakness, some fleeting slip in judgment that could be shoved aside.
This was Quinn.
Afterall this time, afteryearsof denying himself, after shoving his feelings down so deep he thought he’d buried themfor good, his deepest, most forbidden desire had just detonated, blowing his restraint to hell.
It wasn’t justreal. It wasrealin a way that shook him to hisgoddamncore.Fuckif that didn’t complicate every damn thing in his life and in her life. They were in this together. There was no stepping back from that or all the shit inherent in that statement.
Now, there was no pretending. No denying. No stuffing his feelings down into some deep, unreachable part of himself where they couldn’t wreck everything in their path.
This was happening. Happening meant consequences. Meant that every choice from here on out carried weight. It wasn’t just about them. What happened between them also happened to those boys. Quinn’s kids weren’t some distant factor in all of this. They wereeverything. He had already invested in them, already woven into their lives in ways that made his stomach clench. He’d goddamneddestroyedher over them, torn her apart when she hadn’t been capable of being the mother they needed.
That was another heavy-duty, soul-gutting conversation they were going to have to have. Because there was no moving forward without reckoning with the past.
Fuck.What a fucking goatfuck. A goatfuck he was running straight into, locked and loaded. Because he’d always been there for her. Nothing had changed, wouldn’t change ever.
He tore his mouth from hers, sucking in air like a man barely keeping himself from drowning. His forehead dropped to hers, his hands flexing against her hips, shaking from restraint. “Quinn,” he rasped, his voice wavering, showing the battle he waged against his baser instincts.