Page 49 of Scarlet Mark

“You all right over there?” Killian asked, his amusement palpable. He probably knew he was driving me insane with lust.Jackhole.

“I’m fine.”

“Are you? Because I swear you just growled at me.”

“I growled at myself,” I grumbled, watching the scenery change from highway to side streets.

“Mmm, well, feel free to growl at me anytime, kitten. It’s hot.”

I rolled my eyes. “You’re all talk and no action, Bedivere. I’m not worried.”

He laughed. “Excuse me?”

Shit.I hadn’t meant to say that out loud. “Nothing.”

“Oh, no, that was something all right.” He pulled up to a stoplight and turned toward me. “Did you just accuse me of having performance issues?”

“Do you?” I countered, deciding to take his bait. “Because I thought you wanted to fuck me. And you haven’t.”

“Eager, kitten?” he asked softly, danger glittering in his dark eyes. “Maybe I consider all this dancing around each other to be foreplay.”

“Maybe I consider it boring.”

“Then you wouldn’t be over there all hot and bothered and growling, would you?” He smirked and refocused on the road. “Patience, sweet Amara. You’ll feel my cock soon.”

“All talk and no action,” I repeated, sighing. “Here I thought you knew how to handle a woman, Killian.”

He chuckled. “Baiting me isn’t going to work.”

Yeah? We’ll see about that, Bedivere.

Because I had a few ideas on how to properlybaithim. I just needed the courage to follow through.

Killian presented a challenge unlike any I’d ever faced. He intrigued me. He turned me on. All of which were new and enticing sensations. And I wanted to see how deep it could all go, to see if he had the ability to shatter my past and help me move on from the history shackling my emotions.

I wanted him to introduce me to life. To passion. To ecstasy.

Why I’d chosen him, I couldn’t say. Maybe because he was the first to ever care. Maybe because he awoke all these foreign feelings inside me. Maybe because I trusted him, at least on a superficial level.

Or maybe all of those reasons wrapped up into one big reason—I just desired him.

He wasn’t my knight.

He wasn’t my savior.

He was merely Killian.My Killian. At least for now. And I wanted to know what that meant and how it felt to be well and truly possessed by a man of his knowledge and power.

So perhaps I needed to show him that, to convince him with my body instead of my words. Before he drew this out too long and ruined the connection between us.

Because if there was one thing I knew, it was that nothing good lasted forever.

Tonight, I decided.Tonight, I’ll play him at his own game.

Killian

“As-salaam ‘alaykum,” the lanky host greeted as we entered the restaurant.

“Wa ‘alaykum al-salaam,” I replied.