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But I can’t tell her the truth. I can’t tell her that the first time I laid eyes on her, I knew she was mine. I can’t tell her how many lines I’ve crossed since that day to keep her safe and to prepare for when I finally make her mine. If I told her any of that, she’d run. And if she ran, I’d have to chase her.

“The first night, it was to get you away from those creeps. I could tell you were uncomfortable, and it didn’t sit right with me, so I spoke to Lucas and made the arrangements. After that, I couldn’t accept that I wouldn’t see you again.”

She nods her understanding against my chest. “And the darkness?”

I chuckle because this is a question I can answer without lying. It’s one of the few truths I can give her without sending her running in the opposite direction. “Initially, it was because people tend to act differently around me once they meet me face-to-face. But after the first time, it was because you seemed so relaxed in the dark. Every time you walk into this room, and you’re met with it, the tension visibly rolls off you.”

When she doesn’t reply immediately, I carefully shift her in my lap and lift her face up until our lips are just a breath apart.

“I’d like to kiss you now,” I murmur and smile when her breath hitches.

“Okay,” she whispers.

Not giving her a chance to change her mind, I close the space between us and taste her for the first time. The softness of her lips is like nothing I’ve ever felt, but it’s the little moan that accompanies the first swipe of my tongue that does me in.

Every ounce of control I’ve held onto since the day I first saw her disappears, and the monster I hide beneath my well-tailored suits forces his way to the surface.

I’m a man possessed as I ravage her lips, desperately trying to get my fill, even though it’s pointless.

I’ll never get enough of my little flame.

A ragged growl escapes my throat as my fingers slide up the nape of her neck and grasp her hair in my fist, giving me full control as I move her exactly how I need her.

Ember shifts in my lap, and a small gasp tears from her when her ass grazes my too hard cock. The poor guy is seconds from tearing through my zipper, and her grinding on me is definitely not going to help matters.

I wrench her lips from mine and trail kisses down her throat, nipping and sucking as I go, ensuring my marks will mar her perfect skin, even if it is only temporary.

“Orion,” she moans, her fingers tugging at my hair and spurring me on. It seems my little flame is just as desperate for me as I am for her.

“You have no fucking clue what you do to me, Ember,” I rumble against the column of her throat. “You have no idea how badly I want to bend you over and fuck you so hard you’ll be feeling me inside you for the rest of your goddamn life.”

Another moan escapes, and I can’t help but chuckle. She likes the sound of that.

But not tonight. Things have already spiraled, and if I allow myself too much more rope, I’m going to make good on my promise.

She needs to know she’s not just a fuck for me.

She’s my everything.

UNTITLED

And soon she’ll be my queen.

“The first time I take you, Little Flame, it won’t be in this club.”

Her breath hitches. “You’re sounding very sure that it’s an eventuality.”

I chuckle. “That’s because I am, Ember. When I want something, I take it. And you have quickly become exactly what I want.”

CHAPTER TWENTY

EMBER

This is fucking insane.

There’s no other word for it.

And yet instead of running out the door and putting as much distance between myself and danger, I’m sitting in its lap, burying my face in its neck.