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His entire body hardened to granite, locking him in place. “I can’t take back what I did to you,” he rasped. “I told myself I didn’t have a choice, but that was a lie. Part of me knew it too. But I took you and terrorized you anyway.”
My wrists tingled with the memory of the soft binding that’d secured me to the chair in his basement. I suppressed the urge to rub away the phantom feel of the restraints that had bound me as he’d questioned me.
“I haven’t forgotten,” I said quietly. “I won’t ever be able to forget. But I do forgive you, Max.” I reached out and wrapped my fingers around one of his clenched fists. It flexed beneath my touch, his muscles rippling as though resisting an inexorable pull. “I want you to come inside.”
Max couldn’t resist me any more than I could resist him. If this relationship were at all rational, I’d be screaming for help and locking the door as a barrier between us.
Instead, I gently tugged on his hand, urging him to step over the threshold.
Something snapped inside him, and he surged toward me. His arms wrapped around me, and he captured my shocked gasp with his lips. His strong body pressed forward, entering my personal space as though he had every right. He filled all my senses, his powerful body overwhelming me as the fiery chemistry between us ignited.
I registered the slam of my door as his booted foot kicked it closed behind him. The harsh sound jolted through my body, and I jerked in his arms.
He didn’t release me from his savage kiss. Instead, he pushed me back up against the wall, his weight pinning me in place. One of his big hands cupped my nape, his long fingers tangling in my hair and tugging my head back to deepen our kiss.
I quivered in his harsh hold, a thrill of fear dancing through my lust. This wasn’t the first time he’d pinned me against this wall and covered my mouth.
But it wasn’t his hand smothering my screams this time; his mouth consumed my small whimper, his tongue claiming me in hot, demanding strokes. The kiss was a challenge, a dare.
He craved me as fiercely as I craved him, but some part of him was still trying to push me away, to give me one last chance to escape him.
When my head was spinning and I was trembling in his harsh hold, he finally pulled away to allow me to draw in much-needed oxygen. My knees sagged at the rush, and his strong arms tightened around me, caging me even as he supported me.
“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” he growled, his eyes burning with desperate hunger.
His scar was on full display, and for a moment, his twisted snarl made me flash back to the night he’d kidnapped me. My stomach turned when we I realized he’d pinned me in the exact place where he’d drugged me.
He was still trying to scare me off. Well, I wouldn’t allow it. My body burned for him, no matter how much he tried to intimidate me.
“Because you’re not very frightening.” I tried to keep my tone flippant to avoid the deeper feelings of residual terror from overtaking my brain, but my breathy voice hitched slightly. Just because I’d decided that I wanted to be with Max didn’t mean that the instinctive part of my mind had forgotten the danger.
I breathed through the echo of fear, and a tantalizing buzz flooded my veins. Maybe my problem wasn’t that I couldn’t sense the danger Max posed. Maybe I liked the danger. I’d never felt more alive than I did when I was in his presence. It was wild and thrilling and possibly a little twisted, but I craved more.
“Allie.” Max said my name like a warning, but the savagery eased from his sharp features. He wrapped his long fingers around my shoulders, holding me with the careful but unbreakable grip that made me feel both sheltered and trapped. A shiver danced over my skin, and I swayed toward him. He frowned down at me.
“Why aren’t you afraid of me?” he asked again, more softly this time. His black eyes pinned me in place even more effectively than his strong hands on my shoulders.
He didn’t say the next part out loud, but I saw it in the taut lines of his face: You should be scared.
He didn’t bother to condescend to repeat himself. He’d said it enough times before, and I’d rebuffed him each time, demanding that he respect my autonomy. But he truly didn’t understand. I wasn’t sure if I fully understood it, either.
“I’m choosing not to be afraid,” I replied, my voice still breathless from his merciless kiss. “I know I should be, but I don’t want to be. I’m choosing to see you, Max.”
