Page 26 of Knuckles & Knives

I lift my chin, eyeing him. “What do you want, Dom?”

“I want to keep you alive… even if it means protecting you from yourself.”

The honesty in his voice undoes something in my chest and loosens the knot of tension I’ve been carrying since that night in the garage.

Maybe I shouldn’t, but I reach up to cup his face. His skin is warm beneath my palm, rough with the stubble he never quite manages to shave completely.

“Dom—”

“Don’t.” But he doesn’t pull away from my touch. If anything, he leans into it, his eyes fluttering closed for just a moment. “Don’t make this harder than it already is.”

“What if I want it to be hard?”

His eyes snap open, dark and intense. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

“Don’t I?” I let my thumb trace the sharp line of his cheekbone. “You’ve been watching me, protecting me, keeping your distance like I’m something fragile that might break if youtouch me, but I’m not fragile, Dom. I’m not some innocent girl who needs to be handled with kid gloves.”

“I know exactly who you are.” His hand comes up to cover mine, pressing it more firmly against his face. “That’s the problem.”

“Then stop treating me like I’m made of glass.”

Something snaps in his expression, that careful control fraying at the edges. “You want to know what I really want, Raven? I want to strip you bare and learn every inch of your skin. I want to hear you moan my name like it’s the only word you remember. I want to make you forget every other man who’s ever touched you, kissed you, looked at you like they have a right to.”

The words send heat spiraling through my body, pooling low and insistent. “Then why don’t you?”

“Because,” he says, yanking me so close to him that I can feel the length of his hard body pressed against me, “once I start, I won’t be able to stop, and you’re not ready for what that means.”

“Try me.”

His control snaps. Dom’s mouth crashes against mine. Dom is pure hunger, an all-consuming fire that burns away every rational thought. His hands fist in my hair, tilting my head back to deepen the kiss, and I return his desperation.

This is what I’ve been waiting for without realizing it, this raw connection that makes everything else fade to background noise.

His tongue sweeps into my mouth, claiming and demanding, and I give as good as I get, biting his lower lip hard enough to make him groan.

He backs me against the wall, his body pinning me in place while his hands explore with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what he wants. When his mouth moves to my throat, I gasp and arch against him shamelessly.

“Dom,” I breathe, and his name sounds like a prayer on my lips.

“That’s it,” he murmurs against my skin. “Say my name like that again.”

I’m about to comply when his phone buzzes insistently in his pocket. He ignores it the first time, too focused on the task of driving me insane with his mouth, but when it buzzes again immediately, he pulls back with a curse.

“Someone better be dying,” he growls, checking the message. His expression shifts from frustrated to grim in an instant. “Fuck.”

“What is it?”

“Fight club. There’s been an incident.” He’s already moving away from me, that professional mask sliding back into place. “I have to go.”

The abrupt shift from heat to business leaves me reeling, but I force myself to focus. “What kind of incident?”

“The kind that requires cleanup.” He pauses at the door, looking back at me with an expression I can’t quite read. “This conversation isn’t over, Raven, but when we finish it, you need to understand something. I don’t share. Whatever game you’re playing with the others ends the moment you say yes to me.”

“And if I’m not ready to choose?”

“Then you better figure out what you want fast. I’m done pretending I don’t want to kill any man who looks at you like you belong to them.” His smile is sharp and dangerous. “Especially Kieran Frost.”

And then he’s done.