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Her step faltered for a split second.
He was larger now, more intimidating, and not just because of his massive size. It was the way the ugly scar slashed from his hairline, over his missing eye, across his cheek, and down to the corner of his lips, disappearing under his short beard. It was the way he was wearing a leather patch over his eye and still sensed someone in his personal space before they announced themselves. It was the way he held more power in that singular gaze than most people did in their entire bodies. He hadn’t lost that with his right eye.
His face showed nothing, no recognition. Was it because of the hair? She'd kept it blond back then, and she'd definitely gained some curves in the time in between. But had she really become that unrecognizable? She was completely out of her depth, but she'd already jumped off-board, and hell if she wasn't going to swim.
Inhaling with purpose, she closed the distance between them even as he watched her like a hawk, and jumped.
His hands instinctively caught her as she wrapped her legs around his waist, her hands gripping his shoulders. He was solid, immovable, and holding her up with an ease she'd never, ever experienced again in the last decade.
Without giving him a moment to ask anything, she slanted her face and kissed him, her lips trembling with emotion.
He stiffened, his grip on her waist tightening slightly as he pulled back a bit, something akin to curiosity emanating from him. She didn't know what his sex life was like but she doubted he had random girls climbing his frame and planting one on him. Or maybe he did.
"Please," she whispered in the space between their mouth, knowing it was that girl inside her who had kissed a wild boy speaking. She needed to believe for herself that this was him, feel it in her bones, feel it in their kiss.
His golden gaze considered her for a small second before suddenly he shifted her, holding her up with only one arm under her ass, the other hand still wrapped in tape fisting her hair and pulling her neck back in a move that was sheer power.
Raw, unadulterated power.
Zephyr didn't know what she'd expected but this hadn't been it. Not the way he'd taken control, not the way her heart began to pound a frantic beat in a response to it, not the way her core clenched. It was as though the tug on her scalp and his taped hand around her hair had found something primitive deep inside her and poked it into a strange awareness.
He’d not done that before.
His mouth came closer to hers, and she waited, unable to move her neck and close the distance. In essence, she was immobilized and it did something to her. Up close, she could make out the slight sheen of sweat over his bronzed skin, the depth of his scar tissue, the intricate detailing on his eye patch. It was fancier than she'd expected, some kind of leather. She wondered what it felt like to touch. Lord, she was crazy. She'd just seen this man pummel another, and there she was on him like an orangutan with its favorite tree.
"What's a little rainbow like you doing in a shithole like this?" he murmured as he inhaled the side of her neck, so softly she felt his words more than heard them. She knew she had a colorful personality but she'd never been called a rainbow before and the way he said it was nice, really nice.
But it also told her something—he didn’t recognize her.
Nothing.
Something akin to hurt and disappointment crashed over her. What did she expect though? He had clearly lived through a lot, and it had been ten years.
"It's a long story," she told him softly, swallowing the turmoil of emotions inside her.
He didn't move, just observed her.
Zephyr closed her eyes in mortification. The last hour had been one hit to her heart after another. She should probably just go home and have a good cry.
She began to move her legs, and his grip on her hair tightened, freezing her in place.
She could feel the heat emanating from his body. He smelled like the wilderness, like what she imagined the dark depths of the wild forest beyond the city smelled like—sweat, wood, musk, and something unknown. With her eyes closed, she could imagine him in another time, another place, hunting in the wild, coming to his cave and fucking his woman raw. That was the word. Raw. She'd never smelled anyone so raw. Most boys during her teens had drowned themselves in body sprays that advertised women falling on them if they used it, and Alec always put on cologne that probably cost more than what she earned in a month. Alpha had always smelled like he looked. Raw.
Before she could think another thought, he angled her head with his grip and slashed his mouth upon hers.
Her heartbeat fractured.
Coffee.
Mint.
Him.
His taste exploded on her tongue, his mouth moving over hers expertly, tongue gliding along with hers in a way that made her thighs tighten around his torso in memory.
He could kiss. Like really, really kiss. He always could.
She felt the scar tissue on the side of his mouth press into hers, the sensation not unpleasant but one she was unfamiliar with, his short beard creating subtle friction that really did something for her. She'd never have thought she'd be into facial hair but damn.
