Page 118 of Sage Haven

The other strap fell away.

She turned her back to me, baring the delicate curve of her neck to me like a silent offering.

“Can you untie the knot?” she asked quietly.

I exhaled through my teeth as I stepped in close.

My fingers brushing her skin as I pulled the knot free.

As you wish, wildflower.

Her top slid away.

And then she turned to face me.

Bare.

Exposed.

Unflinching.

Nothing but teasing eyes and a slight smile that said it all.

I was completely, utterly fucked.

And I knew it.

27

SAGE

Maybe this was amistake.

But deep down, beneath the chaos twisting inside my gut, it didn’t feel like one.

I needed this. I needed someone to want me. To touch me like I was something they couldn’t bear to lose.

Ever since that last night in Sanele, I’d felt filthy. Stripped down and thrown out. Discarded like something used up and broken. Every time I caught my reflection, it made me shudder. I didn’t recognize her—the girl staring back at me with hollow eyes and a brittle smile. She wasn’t wanted anymore. She wasn’t needed. She was a burden. A story people pitied until they got tired of hearing it.

But then there was Reich.

And God help me against my better judgement, I craved him.

I wanted him with a hunger that burned through my veins, even though every piece of logic in me screamed no. Even though I knew it was reckless and dangerous.

I wanted him because he didn’t look at me like I was broken. He didn’t flinch away from the shadows clinging to me. It was almost as if he was already darker than they were.

Slowly, I lifted my gaze.

Reich was stiff, rigid as stone, standing like a man fighting a battle he already knew he was going to lose. Every muscle in his body was tense, his jaw locked so tight I could practically hear his teeth grinding together. But his eyes—God, his eyes—betrayed him.

They were dark. Hungry.

And when his gaze dropped over my body, lingering at the slope of my shoulders and the curve of my hips, I knew.

I wasn’t crazy.

He wanted me just as badly as I wanted him.