Claim, as in mark;to brand this man as mine.
The last shred of sanity I‘d been struggling to hold onto snapped, along with my restraint, as my right hand found the collar of his shirt, fist gripping and twisting in the soft cotton before I forcefully crashed our mouths together; a deep guttural moan leaving my body in the process.
Unapologetic, unafraid—un-fucking-yielding.
And just when things couldn’t have been more romantic, droplets of water had started running down the side of my cheek, cooling the flush that covered my face.
The first kiss of rain…
Chapter 18
Rhylan
IbroughtDakotaouthere as a romantic gesture—that was obvious, but I also wanted to show her a gentler side of myself, and I couldn’t have asked for the rain to fall at a more perfect time.
Dakota took the lead, controlling our pace as slow or fast as she wanted. Deepening our kiss, her hand released the collar of my shirt to glide up the side of my neck, my heart beating rapidly at the caressing touch. I flexed my arm around her waist, tightening its grip, and in return, she moaned her approval, the taste of fresh rain coating our tongues as they tangled together.
Within minutes, we were drenched from head to toe, Dakota’s hair clinging to her face in slick waves.
I never wanted this to end. I didn’t want to let her go, not even for a split second to come up for air. She was all the oxygen I needed. This woman could suffocate me, and I’d die the happiest man in the fucking world.
“Rhy…” Dakota interrupted our embrace with a deep inhale, catching her breath while lightly pressing a hand against my sternum, feeling the slow rise and fall of my chest beneath her palm.
“Don’t stop now, Dakota…” I wasn’t ready, uttering my words against her trembling lips, my voice cracking as I internally begged for her to bring them back. So fucking close, and yet I felt as far away as the moon is from the earth.
“Twice.”
“Hm?”
“You’ve said my name twice since I gave it to you… and both times I’ve felt something threaten to break through my walls…” She paused, rolling her lips together without breaking eye contact. Studying.Searching… “I’m not entirely sure where this feeling came from, but I do know that I can’t keep fighting it; not anymore. I’ve been trying my fucking damnedest to avoid you, and I—”
“Why?”I could think of a thousand reasons off the top of my head… but I wanted to know hers.
Dakota struggled to come up with a response at first, her irises blazing with a war that raged behind them. She didn’t want to allow her heart to develop feelings; to fall for me, and that was fair. Every man she’d ever been vulnerable with always ended up leaving, and in her eyes, I’d be no different—but I was,and I wanted a chance to prove it.
“Okay… you want the ugly truth that has scared countless men away? Then here it is…” She took a deep breath, bracing herself for the explanation she was hesitant to give, but felt safe enough to try.“There was… a torturous period in my life where a man took too much from me without asking… he shattered my innocence into a million damn pieces right before my eyes. Ruthlessly and unapologetically.”He fucking what?
“I tried mending the scars he’d left behind, but building walls was the only solution I could handle. Shutting out the demons that haunted me instead of facing them and fighting back… that’s why no one stays…”
The blood began to boil beneath my skin, the rain feeling colder than before as I processed what she was saying. I let her continue sharing her story, even though every word left me unsettled, gritting my teeth.
“No one wants the broken and violently twisted woman who’s afraid of the monster that lurks between her sheets, and still, to this day, haunts her dreams… Thatmantooksomuch that I became nothing more than a shell of who I once was by the end of his year-long abuse…” Dakota stared into my eyes as she spoke, searching mine for a sign that I wouldn’t turn away; reassurance that I didn’t see her as so many others had.Damaged.
“I’ve been trying to avoid you because I’m afraid that I’ll never be able to give you what you need. My strongest love language used to be touch; now it holds no deeper meaning… and I don’t expect you to understand that. No one ever has.”What sheneedsis someone with self-control.
“When?” It was the only question I had.How could I have missed this significant part of her life?
“I-I’m not sure? Four, maybe five years ago?” Her voice cracked as she remembered a time she wished had never existed. “He’s gone now, so it doesn’t matter anyway; I’m over it…” The rain couldn’t mask the tears that had started running down her cheeks. I wasn’t blind to the misery in her eyes. “I’m—”
“Shh, Dakota…” I pressed the pad of my thumb to her mouth, brushing it across her soft lips while biting my own in an effort to restrain myself from claiming them once more.
She wasn’t fine. But she would be.I’ll make sure of that.
The hardest part of knowing everything about her, or so I thought, was pretending that I didn’t know jack shit, and it hurt like hell to conceal the truth.
That Ididunderstand.
That I knew her like the back of my hand.
