Page 35 of Claim Me

“Yes.”

She looked away briefly, dragging the tip of her tongue across her bottom lip. “I remember now. He told me about you. Maybe only once did he say your name, but he talked about how the nine months of being incarcerated had changed him. That’s what he called the time spent in Vegas. He left a young man who was so angry, so violent that I was afraid I’d never see him again. When he returned, he was so happy, so full of life. I loved the stories. Then they stopped and I don’t know why. Maybe because my father didn’t want me to hear them any longer. He was like that, controlling.”

My silence was what she needed, her mind processing not only Charlie’s death, but the life that she would continue living. There was too much sexual tension between us, a burning need that could go nowhere.

I’d seen her quick glances even at the hospital, had felt the heat continuing to build between us. I was losing the battle quickly. In what war?

As she slowly turned her head to face me, she allowed her gaze to drift to my groin. She could clearly see what she did to me. Raw pain pushed me to an uncontrollable edge and there was no way to take my mind off her luscious body.

You’re insane.

Maybe so, but it was becoming harder to ignore the need.

Especially with the way she looked in the dress, the heat exploding between us and the softness of her skipping breath.

When she pressed her hands against my chest, the control slipped even further. “I don’t like being alone.”

“You won’t need to be. I’ll be with you. I’ll take care of you.”

Marissa shook her head. “You killed someone. Didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Because he was coming after me.” She curled her fingers around my shirt and every muscle in my body stiffened until I reached a hardcore ache.

“Yes.”

“I’m scared.”

The long line of her neck highlighted the intense pulse as her breathing became labored. Against my better judgment, I curled the fingers of one hand, brushing my knuckles across the softness of her cheek. “You don’t need to be. I’ll protect you.”

“I know. But… Kazimir.” There was no mistaking the lust in her voice or the desire dripping from her lips.

“This can’t happen,” I growled.

“Why?”

“Because I’ll hurt you.”

My eyes watched in a moment that would burn into the darkest portions of my mind as she licked her bottom lip once again. “Maybe I want to be a little hurt. Please. I need you.”

Just like that, the resolve that I’d kept tightly woven deep within my mind and my soul was shaken.

Now nothing would stop me from taking exactly everything I wanted.

God help me for what I was about to do.

CHAPTER 11

Marissa

I knew this was wrong on every level. The feelings were sinful, the needs damning. There was no denying that my thoughts alone were ridiculous under any circumstances but given the fact my brother’s body was lying in a morgue, they were even more so.

Desire.

Burning and all-consuming need.

I’d felt both in Kazimir from the moment I’d met him, the undeniable sense of dark cravings that had kept both our bodies humming. My mind was still trying to process the events of the last few hours, yet it was the weeks and months before when a mystery man had showered me with attention and precious gifts that had awakened the darkest part of my soul.