Page 29 of Guarded Knight (Echo Valley #3)

Her eyes flare with need, her hands frantic at my belt. “I’ve done the same at the thought of you…” she pants, desperation in every syllable. “From the first time I touched myself.”

Fucking hell…

I undo her front-clip bra, exposing her to my hungry gaze.

She’s perfect. Every inch of her, her small, pert tits and dusky nipples.

My mouth closes over one nipple, my tongue flicking and teasing until she’s gasping, her hands digging into my hair, and I kiss my way back up her soft skin, her collarbone and back to her lips.

My breath is ragged. “I need you.”

And I don’t just mean tonight.

I mean everything.

“I need you, too,” she groans.

Her hands scrabble at my shirt, peeling it over my head. Her nails rake down my back as I press her harder against the bed. I strip out of my jeans and boxer briefs, and toss them, not caring where they land. My cock springs out, throbbing with need.

Her eyes blaze with hunger. “Fuck, G… I didn’t think they made them so big.”

Her lips are swollen, her blonde hair a messy halo, the Devil’s own temptation. She’s soft where I’m hard, wild where I’ve always been controlled.

But tonight, I’m giving in to life the way she does. Living in the moment the way I always wished I could.

I hook my thumbs in the waistband of her panties and tear them down, leaving her bare for me.

Her pussy glistens with wetness in the low light.

I used to picture this in the dark, how her skin might feel, how she might fall apart for me.

But nothing, not even my most desperate night, came close to the reality.

I drop to my knees in front of her, grip her thighs, spread them apart, and drag my tongue through her folds, tasting her like I’ve been starved for years. She’s sweet and salty, all heat and home.

I pull her closer, fingers biting into her thighs to hold her open. She’s fragile under my hands, and it makes me feel ten times bigger, every protective instinct and every filthy urge slamming into me at once.

“So fucking tiny, Firefly,” I rasp against her clit. “And all mine.”

She bucks under me. “Gabriel…” she moans. “Please…”

But I’m relentless. I suck her clit between my lips, teasing with my tongue, and she shatters, coming apart on my mouth.

Her voice is a broken whimper. “My God…”

I wrench my head back, eyes dark, lips wet with her.

“Inside me. Now,” she breathes.

I shove off the floor, rising above her like a storm.

“Do you have a condom?”

I stopped carrying them around years ago.

“We don’t need one,” she says, less breathless.

A moment of sanity creeps into this chaotic, torrential current we’ve been riding.

No condom. No barrier. No protection.

It’s reckless, and I know better. I should know better.

But fuck, the way she says it, we don’t need one… I know what she means.

Her disease… She can’t get pregnant? I always knew it could be a thing.

And it fucking guts me.

God, I’d give anything to be the one to give her that. Give us that. To bury myself inside her and give her something that lasts.

“Are you sure?” I stroke hair off her forehead. “Only if you’re sure.”

My dick presses into her slick seam, and I wait eagerly for the answer. But I need permission.

I want her raw. I want this to feel as real as it’s always been between us. But I need to check again. Lara is known for leaping before she looks.

“I’m sure, G…”

I grip her thighs, pushing her legs wider apart, exposing her completely.

“You’re so fucking little.” I line myself up, the head of my cock nudging her slick entrance. “Goddamn, Firefly, I don’t even know if you can take me.”

Her eyes are glazed with lust and challenge. “Give me everything.”

A groan with pleasure as I ease in, slowly feeling her stretch around me, tight and slick and so goddamn warm it nearly undoes me.

Her nails dig into my biceps, anchoring herself like she needs something to hold on to.

I bottom out. “I could fucking die right here…” I press my forehead to hers.

She whimpers, trembling beneath me, her pussy stretched tight around my cock.

I pin her wrists above her head. “Does it feel good?” I thrust into her, trying to hold back some of the force in my hips. “Once I go for it, I won’t be able to stop. Is it too hard?”

“I can take it.”

She’s staring at me like she’s waited her whole life for this. Hell, I’ve waited all of mine. But none of that changes how wrong I am for her. I’m the wrecking ball that could tear her apart… but I’m possessed.

I sink in. Hard. Faster… Desperate. Every thrust slams through me. The bed creaks. The headboard rattles.

And then I burst. I come hard, buried so deep in her our two bodies are one. I bite down hard on her name between my teeth like it’s the only prayer I’ve ever known.

We lie there, chests heaving, sweat and heat mixing between us. Her skin is still hot against mine, her breath brushing my shoulder, and for a heartbeat it feels like the world outside doesn’t exist. Only us.

For a moment, there’s only the sound of our breathing. And in that time, my sanity starts to return.

What the hell am I doing?

Where the hell does this leave things?

Still friends?

The word tastes wrong, flimsy against the gravity of what just happened. Nothing about this feels like friendship, but I don’t trust myself to admit what it does feel like.

As usual, she breaks the tension with humor.

Her lips brush my ear, and I feel the smile on them. “You’re improving your stamina, G.”

It makes me smile, too, involuntary, genuine, the kind of smile I’ve found again now that she’s in my life. The kind only she pulls from me.

I shift to see her, golden hair wild and tangled, her face flushed and hazel eyes so fucking bright it nearly kills me.

“Stay,” she whispers, and her question is so vulnerable, it’s nearly the end of me because I know she means in here and not on the couch.

I shouldn’t. But this has made walking away feel impossible. And what the hell will Xander think? We can’t keep this a secret…

But when her gaze is on me like that, I’m powerless.

And now I’m like every other man who falls for her, I’ll take every piece of her she’s willing to give.

I brush a lock of hair from her cheek, and for a split second, even with all the reasons why we can’t be together, none of them feel true with our bare skin touching and her breath on my chest, right over that heart that’s always beat only for her.

“Yeah, Firefly,” I kiss her nose. “I’ll stay.”