Page 74 of Guarded Knight

Why can’t I stop myself? Why does everything about her, about us, feel inevitable?

“You have no idea,” I snarl against her lips, my voice a wreck of want, “how bad I want you.”

“Then take me,” she breathes into my mouth. “God, G… fucking take me.”

I seize her mouth again and dance my tongue around hers. I lift her, her legs wrapping around me, pressing her against the wall so hard a picture frame rattles. I’m beyond control. I’m beyond reason. I’m beyond everything but her.

I clutch her ass and turn, crashing into the dining table. A glass falls, shattering at our feet. She jerks, eyes blazing like she’s going to shatter, too.And I want her to.

But I told myself I’d let her go. I promised I’d protect her from every kind of damage, even me.

But I can’t protect her from me tonight.

I’m pure emotion.

Pure desire.

Pure animal instinct.

She is my soulmate. The only one my body is greedy for. The only one my heart needs…

My hands are everywhere, in her hair, on her throat, gripping her hips so tight she gasps. I can’t get enough. I’ve never wanted anything this much. Not even close.

Every second with her is a battle between wanting to worship her and wanting to own her. She deserves tenderness. She deserves a man who can be gentle. But I can’t be that man right now.

I scoop her up, my hands on her firm ass, still kissing, coming up only to ask, “Can you handle this?”

“Yes…” she murmurs between our lips.

I carry her down the hall, every step a war against my own sanity. My cock pushes on my zipper. I kick open her bedroom door, throw her down like the prize she is, covering her tiny frame with mine, pressing my hips between her legs with a force that makes her gasp.

“Gabriel…”

My name is airy and intimate on her tongue and my heart explodes.

She’s said my name a thousand times before, on playgrounds, on horseback, in hospital rooms, across dinner tables. But never like this. Never like it’s the only word left in her lungs.

“I love how you say my name, Firefly,” I growl, ripping at her jeans with a violence I don’t even recognize in myself. “Now I want to hear you scream it.”

Her fingers claw at my shirt. “Then make me,” she fires back, dirty and fearless.

I yank her shirt over her head so fast the seams pop. She gasps, but her eyes blaze like a challenge. She’s not afraid. She’s daring me to let go. To show her everything I’ve been fighting to keep inside.

“Fuck,” I growl, shoving her jeans down her legs. “If your mouth tastes this good, I can’t wait to bury my face in your pussy.” I drink in the sight of her bare skin. “I’ve jacked off to the thought of this body more times than I can count.”

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.