I can’t help the smile that steals across my face. We’re so close to being one. “Would knowing the boy was out of harm’s way have changed the outcome for you? Would you have chosen differently?”
She turns in my arms, those fierce eyes seeking the truth. “But how?”
I brush a wild lock of hair behind her ear. “Trust, London. It’s what comes next. Do you believe I’d want you to suffer an innocent child’s death?”
She blinks up at me, relief filling her shimmering gaze. “He was safe the whole time.”
I press my lips to her forehead, unable to deny myself the taste of her. “We’re not those monsters,” I say, my hands mapping a path across her back and waist, gripping the satin dress. “But we’re not healthy, either. We’re ravenous, and we have to feed.”
She’s touching me, too. Her hands tracing the ink and scars scored into my forearms, palms seeking friction against my chest, fingers stroking the back of my neck. Every intimate quest to pull us closer sends an arousing lick of fire over my flesh.
We’re uninhibited.
Unleashed.
“It would’ve changed nothing,” she admits. “And now, I’ll never be sated. How will we ever stop. Filling the void is an endless cycle. We’ll always need more and more until it consumes us.”
I cradle her face in my palm and stare into the depths of her. The golden flecks shimmer with the reflective sparkle of keys, our very own stars set within a sky of blood.
“We never have to stop,” I say, my voice rough, deepening with vicious want. “Never. I no longer bear a penance, just asyou no longer have to live the lie. Shame doesn’t exist between us. And as for this maddening need…” I drag the dress down her shoulders, relishing the glide of fabric slipping along the delicate curves of her body, just as I imagined. “We’ll find ways to keep each other satisfied.”
Bathed in our starlight, her body is achingly beautiful, an alluring tease finally within reach. Unable to resist, I lower my mouth to her bare shoulder, tasting the hint of lilac on her soft skin—my aphrodisiac, my drug.
Goddamn, she’s my addiction.
Her breath hitches as I grasp her slender waist. She tilts her head back, surrendering to the spell, as I drop heated kisses to her skin, greedily claiming every tempting part of her as mine.
Her gaze drifts to the trap, where our victim erodes into nothing. “It’s too much—keep touching me, Grayson. I’m burning up…I need more.”
“Fuck, I’ll give you everything—all of me,a stóirín.” I trail my hands down the sexy flare of her hips.
“Tell me what that means.”
I grasp her nape, guiding her gaze back to mine. “My treasure,” I whisper, pressing a gentle kiss to her cheek. “My darlin’,” I murmur, brushing my lips along her jaw until I reach her ear. “More than any endearment could hold, you’re my match,mo anam cara.”
She shivers a little in my embrace, and I pull back just enough to admire the faint bruising along her throat—my brand. I trace the beautiful violet imprints of my fingers, marks pressed into her skin with hunger. She wears them like a promise, like a vow.
“Now,” I say, voice thick with want, “let me do every wicked thing to you, love.”
My knees hit the ground. My mouth travels hungrily along the sensitive skin of her pelvis, loving how she clutches at myshoulders, her nails biting into me, her legs trembling with aching need.
“Don’t stop,” she begs, the throaty rasp of her voice tearing at my control.
I drag my fingertips down her legs, then lift one over my shoulder, burying my mouth against the flesh of her inner thigh. She jolts at the graze of my teeth, and I groan as her heat touches my face, intoxicating my senses. Her fingers sink into my hair, gripping as I kiss and bite my way upward, her breathy, broken cries making my cock painfully hard against my jeans.
I taste her then. My hands hold her ass, pulling her sweet center against my mouth, my tongue slipping between her silky lips. Fuck, she’s so wet, so fucking needy, I feel every trembling constriction of her muscles as she grinds against my face.
“Grayson…” My name is a prayer on her lips, soft and breathless, and it drives me crazy. My desire turns wild, hungrily devouring her until she’s throbbing against my tongue.
I pull away and quickly rise to my feet, lifting her into my arms and seating her right up against my aching groin. She wraps around me instinctively, her slick heat tearing a rough groan from my throat.
“Take me,” she breathes against my mouth before capturing my bottom lip between her teeth, and I obey, tunneling a hand into her hair and dragging her down against me. “Oh, god. Fuck me until I’m begging you to stop…until we’re on the brink of death.”
“Shite,” I breathe against her. I slide my hand to the back of her neck, gripping hard as I crush my mouth to hers.
I’m trembling as I lower her to the earth, every muscle and tendon stretched taut in anticipation. “Christ, you’re so fucking perfect. I’ll never hold back with you, London. That would be a sin.”
Her hands tear at my shirt, nails raking across my skin. It’sagonizing and pleasurable, and it’s pure, unadulterated need. I hiss through clenched teeth when her fingers graze the wound along my abdomen.
