Page 16 of This Reckless Home

“Tell me you want this. Tell me you want me.” The words are a growl, a plea that allows nothing but the truth in return.

“I want you. Steele. So much. Even when I shouldn’t.”

He stops, going utterly still. “Because I’m a monster. Because I’m beneath you.”

It’s not a question. It’s a heartbreaking statement of fact as he sees it. It’s a truth, a story that he’s been told so much it’s become his own. And it makes me sick to my stomach.

“No!” I close the small distance between us, my hands coming up to his strong, wide t-shirt covered chest. “God, no, Steele. Never that.”

His brow furrows, confusion in those dark eyes of his. “Then why⁠—”

“Because I’m sort of Justin’s foster mum, and you’re practically his brother, then there’s Anatole and Nox and—” My eyes go wide as I slap my hand over my mouth, realising what secrets just spilled out. Oh Christ.

His pupils dilate, swallowing up his dark irises, the muscles on his face relaxing as understanding dawns. A slow, dangerous smile curves his kissable lips, and my core pulses.

“You want my brothers too?” His voice drops even deeper than normal, that wild, primal edge that he has sharpening until it spears straight to the heart of me. “Nox and Anatole?”

I whimper, which has his nostrils flaring, my face no doubt flaming. “It sounds very wanton when you put it like that. Like I want all the desserts at the buffet table.”

He gives a low chuckle that has my thighs clenching, stalking closer, forcing me to back up, one step at a time until the backs of my legs hit the edge of the bed. Goosebumps race across my skin in an intense tingle as he looms over me like some kind of dark woodland king, all that barely contained wildness focused entirely on me.

“You could have all the dessert, Flower.”

Another small push and I’m sitting on the bed, my head tilted back to maintain eye contact. I’m not sure I’m breathing, lost in the swirling darkness of his eyes. In the impossible promise he seems to be making.

“You could have everything.”

He comes closer, forcing me onto my elbows and he braces his hands on either side of my hips, caging me in and good lord I never want to be set free.

“But you want me now? First?”

His voice is all gravel. It makes my heart race, the blood rushing around my body until I’m dizzy with need. I’m trembling, nerves and arousal mixing potently inside me until all I can see and feel and smell is Steele.

“Yes.” It’s barely a whisper, but his nostrils flare all the same. “I want you first, Steele. I want you now.”

Something fierce and possessive flashes in his eyes.

“Good.”

His mouth captures mine in a claiming kiss, not gentle like the one earlier in the garden. This is hunger unleashed, and it sparks something in me, something desperate and needy, making my mouth open to him, my hands lifting and dragging him down with me as my back hits the mattress.

He groans, his stubble scratching my cheek in the most delicious way. I want to burn for him outside like I am inside. My moan spurs him on, his huge hands coming up to tangle in my hair, angling my head in the way he wants so he can go deeper, invading my mouth and making it his.

His hips grind into me, the roughness of his jeans pressing against the central seam of my sleep shorts and making my brain short circuit at the pleasure that flashes through me.

“Steele!” I gasp into his mouth, and he grunts.

“Tell me if anything is too much. I like it rough, but don’t want to hurt you, Flower,” he pants into my mouth, pulling back just enough to look into my eyes.

“You won’t,” I reply breathlessly. “I trust you.”

“Fuck, baby.” He kisses me deeply. “You really shouldn’t.”

His face lowers to my neck, his nose burying in the side of it, breathing me in.

“Cherry blossoms and spring. Been driving me crazy,” he groans, kissing over my pulse point, nipping and sucking and leaving me gasping, my toes curling. “Going to remember this scent forever. Going to cover you in mine.”

God this man and his words. They’re so primal, and they are making me so bloody wet.