Page 35 of His Asset

“If only I’d known, I would have gladly shattered more than your window when I escaped.”

Except fleeing had been the only thing on my mind.

He moved his mouth closer to my ear.“When you used your echolocation to shatter that window...when I saw what you were truly capable of,” his low, rasping voice sent currents of pleasure through me, “I realized I’d been drawn to your power all along, even when I didn’t know its extent.You’re the only thing in my life I truly care about.You’re more valuable to me than anything else, more than all the risks, more than all the wealth I’ve accumulated.”

Adam was a man of restraint, of talking only when it mattered.He commanded and others listened.Perhaps that was why I believed him, why I shoved all my bitterness down, beneath the ache gathering in my chest.

And I fell.

The world shrank to just us, with all the danger, all the pain forgotten.

His hand came up slowly, threading into my hair before he tilted my face back up to his.His breath brushed across my brow, warm and reverent.

Then he tipped my head even further, and kissed me.

Not like someone claiming a possession.Not like a man staking his territory.But like someone who had waited a year just to feel me again.

And I broke all over again.

With his words still echoing in my head—you’re the only thing in my life I truly care about—I kissed him back.

Hard.Desperate.Wanting more.Needing to forget.

His mouth never left mine as he moved, one hand guiding me gently, the other anchored at my waist.It was like a dance, every step effortless, choreographed by something ancient and unspoken.

He turned me with him, his grip firm but reverent, and before I knew it, the backs of my knees met the edge of the bed.I sank down, breathless, and he followed, lowering us both with the same deliberate grace.

His lips still moved against mine, slower now, deeper.A kind of worship threaded through the heat, making my chest ache.This wasn’t control.It wasn’t domination.It was something far more dangerous.

Trust.

His body pressed to mine, warm and solid, his weight grounding me in a reality I didn’t want to face, yet couldn’t turn away from.Our mouths moved together, no longer tentative.No longer careful.Every kiss tasted of longing denied, of things left unsaid, of too many nights spent apart.

Adam’s hands slid beneath my cropped leather jacket, then up along my ribs, dragging my T-shirt along with it, revealing skin inch-by-aching-inch.He broke the kiss only long enough to pull the leather jacket and T-shirt fully from my shoulders.

I was left panting and lightheaded in the shadowed bedroom in nothing more than a lacy black bra, my once upswept hair almost fully undone.

His own breathing shallow, his eyes locked onto mine like he didn’t dare blink.Like I’d disappear into the shadows I’d created.“You’re shaking,” he said thickly.

I stiffened, then nodded.“You’re turning everything upside down and inside out.”

Lord help me, I wanted to believe in him.But I’d seen what he’d done.I’d lost people who were like family to me...the only family I’d ever known.

His brilliant gold stare held mine.“I waited for that whole year with you in my home, waited to prove I wasn’t the monster you imagined.”

He’d been waiting until I was twenty-one, proving he was human when I’d too often seen his inhuman side.But right then, in this moment, I only saw the man who desired me, a man I desired right back.

I drank in his stare, yearning pushing above all else as I whispered, “Then show me.”

He didn’t need to be asked twice.He stripped me within seconds, his big, capable hands, ones that had been part of such destruction, touching me reverently, like I was priceless.Irreplaceable.

I gasped as his knuckles grazed between my breasts, my breath hitching, my heartbeat suspended, as though waiting for something more.He gave it to me in one single swipe of his tongue across my nipple, and I mewled like the kitten I’d once seen in one of my rare outings with Adam.

It’d come trotting over to us and Adam had picked it up and stroked it until it purred, apparently safe in his arms.Then he’d put it back down and turned his back on it.I’d been horrified, appalled...until the mother cat had come trotting out, searching for it with alarmedmeows.

Adam had looked at me and said, “One day you’re going to stop believing I’m the villain in your story.”

He licked my hardening nipple again, jerking me back to the present.“What are you doing to me?”I gasped, arching toward him.