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Grabbing the backs of his arms, I push up onto my toes and kiss him lightly, and his hands rest on my hips. He gasps silently as I pull back from him, our noses brushing, and his eyes still closed. Resting his head forward on mine, he shakes his head wordlessly. I snag his collar, pull him down closer, and kiss him again. Our lips brush gently at first, until we transform into melding and molding. I flick my tongue across his lips, and he opens his mouth to me. We slow into a tantalizing tease and stroke of flesh and heat. Moving closer and closer until we are sharing shaky breaths. Each movement is more jerky, more frantic, more desperate.

Until, that is, he withdraws breathily. “We shouldn’t be doing this. We can’t, Kat. I—”

“I love you, too,” I whisper against his mouth and roll my body into his, sealing his lips closed with mine. If he thinks this is just sex, he’s sorely mistaken. And if he thinks I’ll desert him again, he’s wrong. It’s just him and him alone. And I need him. The intimacy, the closeness, and the fire of what we once were.

He staggers backwards, slamming back into his desk, the wood creaking at the sudden force. Withdrawing from my mouth, he flicks his attention to the door, his hands clenched tight around the lip of the desk, and the veins in his arms bulging with tension. He drags his gaze back to me, his breathing ragged. “I can’t. I can’t keep touching you. Because I won’t be able to stop myself.”

Sliding my hand up his chest to his face, I brush my thumb over his bottom lip before leaning in and kissing him. I cup the front of his trousers with my other hand, rubbing against his length as I murmur against his mouth, “I don’t want you to stop. I need you.”

He seizes my wrist, removing my hand from his crotch.

I look up at him through my lashes, my breath still heavy on my lips. “If you don’t want this, then just say it.”

He grunts. “It’s not that I don’t...”

“Then what? What is holding you back? I don’t need chivalry, Cole, I just need you. Tell me no if you don’t want this.”

“I...can’t,” he nearly whines, his grip around my hand trembling. His breath saws in and out of his chest, his hair even more of a mess than when I first came into his room. But there it is—raw desire roaring in the intensity of his eyes, locking me in and begging me to release him. The bands of muscle in his throat are pulled tight, his jaw clenched.

All of it releases in a single breath as he shakes his head. “Gods, I always want you. Every beat of my heart is a profession of what life you instill in me. The day I no longer want you will be the day I’m buried in the ground, far from feelings or thoughts. Because it’s you. Always you.”

“Then shut up, Cole.” I lean forward, pulling my wrist out from his weak grip. “Save the chivalry for some other time, and kiss me.”

He snakes his fingers through my hair and curls them into the strands at the base of my skull, leading me into him. His other hand rests on my lower back, pressing my hips into him. For the first time since I’ve been here, he kisses me.Actuallykisses me. Slow and deliberate, strong and sure, his mouth claiming mine.

Finally.

As if brick by brick, the walls he’s fought so hard to keep fortified come crumbling down. Each movement more assertive.

I can’t help it. We’ve always been electric. But there’s a new edge to him—a new him I’m hungry to unravel. My mouth parts, and I tease his bottom lip with my tongue. He groans before opening his own mouth, and our tongues clash in a furious dance, a blistering heat sparking between us. Our movements catch fire, and there’s nothing left to do but burn.

His lips slide from my mouth down to my jawline, trailing his kisses lower toward my neck.

Brushing my hand down his shirt, I follow the muscles etched into his abdomen and dip my fingertips into his waistband. I slip my hand underneath his clothes and wrap my fingers around his hard length. He moans into the side of my neck, the sound rumbling against my skin. I smile triumphantly.

He grits out choppily as I stroke him. “You…make it…so…hard—”

“So I can tell.”

“—to have any self-control,” he finishes with a husky breath.

I lean forward, whispering against his ear, “Then let it go.”

The ferality he’s been hiding unleashes. A growl rumbles in his chest as he rips me off the ground into his arms, his hands gripping the back of my thighs as my legs wrap around his waist, my hands around his biceps to steady myself. He spins us, placing me on his desk.

We work together to tear my clothes off, and I fling them across the room. Now naked, I become painfully aware of how the months of traveling and lack of food pulls my skin taut over my bones. I shift, self-conscious of how different I must look compared to the last time he saw me.

A soft smile breaks his hardened features as he brushes a thumb over my cheek. “Gods, you’re infinitely beautiful.”

He dips his head low, taking his time as he delicately presses one kiss at a time along an invisible line drawn down the center of my body. My forehead, nose, lips, chin, the hollow of my throat, and between my breasts. Each touch melting every bit of my self-consciousness until it’s gone.

Knotting my hands in his hair, I tug him to my breast.

He grazes his teeth across the tip of my nipple before sucking it into his mouth. My head sinks back, hitting the desk with a moan. He presses a few fingers to my mouth to quiet me.

Switching his mouth to the other breast, his fingers knead the first one. I roll my hips up closer to him, and he unlatches hislips from my breast, his wolf-like eyes meeting mine through dark lowered brows. The most devious smile splits his lips, and he withdraws from me, kneeling down on the ground before me.

Grabbing my legs, he pulls me to the edge of the desk in one swift tug. He snatches my ankles and sweeps my legs up to rest on his shoulders. His glowing, yellow eyes stare up at me from between my naked legs.