Page 69 of Us Defiant Few

When her decadent tongue caressed his, it was like setting a match to a ticking bomb.

Kissing her felt right.

Like he should’ve been doing it all along.

For a wild moment, he thought about spending eternity on his knees, just so he could ravish her endlessly.

The sounds she made…

The moans slipping free when he bent her backward and laid claim to her—it was enough to make the strongest man come undone.

If she’d asked him for the sun in that moment, Takeshi would’ve found a way to pull it from the sky.

But when she threw her arms around him, the barest sliver of sanity returned.

He remembered who was in his arms.

And how dangerously close he was to the edge of no return.

It took all his strength and control to tear himself away. Even as Takeshi pulled back, a voice inside him begged to turn around. Screaming how much of a fool he was.

Up to that point, Takeshi had done a good job of beating the strange voice down to a small pebble. It was an insignificant nuisance. But it started getting louder the more time he spent around her.

She was torturous. Maddening.

Every second, he watched her. Every second, he became more unstable in her presence.

And what scared him was that he was actually starting to consider whether she was telling the truth.

What if they truly were on the same side and he’d forgotten her? And they were as close as she claimed?

Did she know that he wasn’t the type of person to do anything by half? If he ever chose a woman to be with, he’d give everything to her.

His strength. His power. His heart.

She’d want for nothing.

But the idea of choosing Khalani Kanes was preposterous.

She was aggravating. Stubborn. Reckless. Defiant. Had zero sense of self-preservation.

Sure, he had to subtly adjust himself when he saw the fight in her eyes, the intelligence leaking off her lips, and the curves of her body that enticed him to no end.

And sure, she possessed a quiet strength that confounded him. When she spoke, others paid attention. In the short time he’d known Khalani—which was only a few weeks—he realized she deeply cared for those around her, even to a fault.

She was unequivocally beautiful in every possible way.

But obstinate. Annoying. Headstrong. Argumentative.

Takeshi crossed his arms, muttering more negative adjectives under his breath to drown out the positive ones.

And yet, he remained in front of her door.

He twirled the knife, reminding himself why he was there.

Only he could touch her.

Only he could kill her.