He wrapped his hand around my wrist as my fingers continued to flutter over his lips. He kissed across them,inhaling a deep, tremulous breath. “The ways I’m going to touch you, Brinley. The ways I’m going to have you.”
Desire gathered on the horizon. Lighting up my insides in orange and red flames.
“I like the sound of that.”
His chuckle was rough, though his words turned reverent. “I’m going to take care of you. Treasure you. Shower you in everything you didn’t know you wanted.”
My stomach flipped, and my blood pounded.
“I didn’t know I wanted any of this. Not until I met you,” I admitted.
“And I think somewhere in the back of my head, I did want it. I wanted someone who made me feel this way. But I was never fool enough to dream that I might actually have it.”
“It’s yours, Silas.”
A growl rolled his powerful chest. “That’s right, Brinley. You’re mine. Mine to cherish. Mine to worship. Mine to adore.”
Every word swelled through me on a wave of affection.
He dipped down and kissed along my jaw, and I reached up and lightly threaded my fingers through his hair.
Inhaled everything that he was.
The degeneracy and the righteousness.
The corruption and the integrity.
The brash harshness up against all his sweet.
He let one hand slide down my side, gliding over the divots of my ribs. The pad of his thumb brushed over my breast.
Sensation pebbled my nipple.
“You’re so beautiful, Brinley. Stole the breath right out of my lungs the second you stepped from your brother’s car. Knew you were going to be my end when you did. I just didn’t know what that meant.”
I arched, and the fabric of my tee brushed against the rigid strength of his bare chest, seeking the connection.
To feel the violent ravaging of his heart as he murmured his confessions to me.
“My match.The match. The wildfire I didn’t see coming. Burning up my world and setting fire to my heart.”
“I thought you were the most dangerously gorgeous man I’d ever seen,” I whispered into the chaos. “But I never thought in a million years I’d fall in love with you.”
I almost regretted letting it go with the way Silas’s body went rigid, and everything slowed as he pressed up onto his hands so he was hovering over me.
His beautiful face tortured and severe.
“I guess I should have known I’d fall in love with you. You were a lightning strike in the darkness that ruled my life. A shooting star falling from the heavens and taking me down with you. Warmth in the cold. I’ve spent so many years allowing hatred to drive me. But this love will be what’s driving me now, Brinley. This massive amount of love that I’ve got for you. You were the only one who could break through the stone, and now, every broken piece belongs to you.”
“I love you.” I said it straight.
“I’m so fucking in love with you that I’ve forgotten to breathe without you here. The second you walked out the door…”
His tongue swiped over his lips.
“Even though there was no chance you were getting over the wall…” He quirked an accusatory brow, then the words went gruff, “I knew the wall I’d erected between us was one I couldn’t bear.”
“Who would have thought the one I believed my captor was my ultimate destination?”
