Page 58 of The Tower

He clenched his fists, drew a breath, then released it slowly.

Right now, he just wanted the woman. Not because the proof of Victor Reed’s crimes still lived in her blood, but because she sparked something inside him. He didn’t know what. He didn’t care.

He wasn’t even sure he liked it.

All he knew was the craving. The tightening in his chest. In his balls.

The way his hands itched to touch her. To take her. To make her his and protect her from the horrors of the goddamn world.

To protect her even from himself.

And wasn’t he turning into a damn pussy?

With a soft grunt, he sat on the edge of the bed, watching as the moonlight filtered through the gap in the curtains. It caught her hair, making it gleam like the crown of an angel he wanted to defile.

To take down.

To exorcise from his fantasies for once and for all. Just as he’d tried to do over and over again on those lonely nights when he’d hacked into Elysium, the world she thought so safe and impenetrable.

He’d discovered her private sanctuary by accident when he’d been hacking Reed Tower’s electronic files. He’d seen a bandwidth irregularity, and that had led him to a secret server. Being a curious sort, he’d followed the footprints until he’d ended up in another world.

Sasha’s world.

And wasn’t that an interesting place to vacation?

He spent months carefully examining the code through the backdoors he installed, tweaking the prince here and there, letting him grow organically more and more into Liam’s doppelganger even as the prince teased and touched and flirted with Vale.

The real fun had begun when he realized that Sasha had access to wearable equipment to enhance the virtual experience, and he acquired his own bodysuit and headset with a few well-placed bribes.

He told himself he’d only hacked in to observe. To study this woman who got under his skin in ways both good and bad.

How could he have anticipated finding himself there? The fantasy prince who courted her slowly, teasing and tempting. Whose whispers turned dirty as his touch turned naughty, exploring all her dark, soft places, using fingers and tongue to take Sasha—no, Vale—to the highest reaches of pleasure.

And damned if he wasn’t jealous of Prince Killiam, especially when she cried out his name. When she thought it was just an AI-created prince who took her to the edge. Who pushed her over that sensual precipice. Who made her scream and beg and feel.

Prince Killiam.

She’d built him from code and craving, a fantasy prince who praised her gently and whispered filthy promises in a voice that sounded almost—almost—like his.

As far as Liam was concerned, the prince’s moniker meant that Liam wasn’t trespassing at all. That name was practically an engraved invitation. Not only into her world but into her virtual bed—and he’d accepted the invitation eagerly.

He’d logged in every night to kiss her lips and lick her cunt. To bite her breasts. To fuck her hard and deep until she screamed his name, albeit hidden in the name of the prince she thought she craved.

He’d intruded. He’d violated. He’d defiled.

And he’d loved every sensual, crazed moment of it. The way her body had tightened around his cock, the sensations through the bodysuit like a goddamn revelation. The passion in her eyes when she came.

He should have felt shame. Instead, he felt power.

And now, damn him, he felt so much more.

Her responsiveness in Elysium had made him harder than he’d ever been—and had made him wonder how she’d respond with real skin against skin.

He wanted to take her in all the ways he’d already had her. And yet he couldn’t.

He had to be careful.

He had to push aside the memory of those wild and erotic moments. The need he’d felt. The passion he’d witnessed from that sleeping princess.