Page 212 of Beyond the Blue Horizon

A canvas of loss and horror, though his spirit whispered of the same hope that had tremored within me for so long.

In sorrow we must stand.

Theo had stood for so many, and now, I wanted to stand for him.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, Theo Mallin. All of you,” I whispered.

It was admission.

Acceptance.

Surrender.

A hint of that arrogance kicked at the edge of his mouth, his voice rough and scraping, though there was no missing the tenderness that adorned it. “You clearly don’t have the view I have right now.”

He reached out and dragged his fingers from my chin and down my trembling neck until he was brushing them over my breasts that strained beneath the lace of my bra.

“You have me on my knees, Piper.”

“You have me everywhere. You’re the current that rushes through my veins.”

He dragged his fingers down my abdomen then flicked the button of my jeans.

Desire quaked through my body.

There was no question that Theo felt it. Lust hot on the surface of his skin.

He sat back farther, gaze tipped to my face as he grabbed me by the ankle and slowly pulled down the zipper on my over-the-knee boot.

The sound echoed against the walls, reverberating back and stoking the need that flamed and lapped.

I sighed a shaky sound as he dumped it onto the floor, then he turned and did the same to the other, quick to rid me of my socks before he set his palms on my knees.

I burned at the connection, and shallow breaths panted from my lungs.

The oxygen nonexistent.

His aura was the only thing I could breathe.

The mossy woods and crisp snow and the faint vestiges of warm, smokey leather. Though now, the scent of sex ran rampant.

A vapor that wisped through the dense, dense air.

“The way I want you, Piper Whittman. Never have hungered for anything or anyone the way I hunger for you. This emptiness inside me that only you can fill.”

My fingers reached out to trace the harsh angles of his ruthlessly beautiful face. “I think you’re only reflecting me. This ache that only you can satisfy.”

“I plan on satisfying it in every way. Filling you full. Again and again. I’m going to write myself on you so deep that you’re going to feel me like a tattoo. Inscribed on your heart and forever scored on your body.”

Trembles raced, and Theo pushed up higher on his knees and hooked his fingers in the waistband of my jeans.

Moonlit eyes flashed as he began to tug them free. I lifted my hips to help him, and my heart fluttered at a frantic beat as he peeled them off my legs. He took my underwear with him as he went.

“Look at you, achin’ for me,” Theo grunted.

“I need you so much. In a way I didn’t know I could need anyone,” I whimpered.

“You have me.”