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This guy. If it wasn’t for that searing kiss and the heat coming off him, I would have hauled off and hit him for the way he grabbed me. Rough and possessive, like his lips were the answer to any question I needed to ask.
They were an answer to something, all right. They were dangerous, dripping with irresistible charm, and laced with just the right dose of alpha energy.
When that energy rolled over me, seeping into my skin through his touch, I straight melted.
That’s right. I was done for. Gonzo. Totally lost in the moment.
Common sense would have had me at least pulling back and sucking in enough air to tell him to back the fuck off until we figured out what we came into my bedroom to figure out. And what I’d learned in the thirty seconds since he’d grabbed me like a neanderthal and kissed me stupid was that I didn’t care.
The idea of losing or even sharing a part of myself was terrifying, but honestly, it was nothing compared to the knowledge that I’d been carrying around an actual physical piece of Hook. On a flimsy ass chain. Around my neck. Like a friggin’ idiot.
I yanked my head away, dragging hot air into my lungs. “Wait,” I breathed.
He didn’t let go, but he pulled his head back, looking down at me with those fiery rings around his irises glowing bright, despite the sunlight bleeding through the sheers. “Do you understand now?”
Did I? Part of me belonged to Hook. Yeah, I guess I did get it.
Was I okay with it?
“Sort of,” I whispered.
“Perhaps I should try again.” His voice dipped low, his eyes dropping to my kiss-swollen lips.
Um, yes please?
No, dummy.When had I become so susceptible to lust? It was making me stupid.
I wedged my arms between us and pushed back. He let me go, but I knew deep in my bones that every inch of space I gained was there because he was allowing it. Because he was a good man who wouldn’t force himself on me, even if he was exceptionally bossy sometimes.
“Give me a minute.” I backed up another step, but that was as far as my body would carry me.
We stared at each other in silence, me trying to get my traitorous body under control and him watching. The man was a predator just waiting for a sign of weakness. And boy howdy, was I weak when it came to him. Weak in the knees and weak as fuck in the rusty old brain box.
“Your minute is up,” he said. No smirk. No smile. Desire still colored his eyes, but he’d gone dead serious.
I nodded. “And what were we talking about again?” It was the only thing I could think to say to buy myself time.
The corner of his lips lifted on one side, and he cocked his head ever-so-slightly. “You and me, Never.” He reached out and snagged my hand, pulling it to his chest. “Quid pro quo.”
The phrase hit me like a blow. Right in the fucking feels.
“Something for something.” Unease snaked through my middle. “Is that why you asked me to give myself to you? Because you gave me back the pendant?”
He shook his head, gripping my wrist so I could feel the beat of his heart against my palm. It radiated up my arm, to my shoulder and chest, until it felt as though my pulse was trying to keep pace with his. It was intense and a little overwhelming.
“I asked because I wanted you. Iwantyou. And I would have asked whether you’d possessed the pendant or not.” He lifted my hand, sliding his thumb along the back as he pulled it to his lips. His kiss on my knuckles was ridiculously gentle given the way he’d just ravaged me with his mouth, but I swear to the gods, I felt it in my damned toes. “It is an apt phrase all the same.”
Because he gave me back the pendant when I needed it, and I gave myself to him when he asked.
When he let go of my hand and stepped back, I had to fight the urge to follow. My brain demanded space, but everything else inside me wanted the opposite.
“What happens now?”
Hook tipped his head toward the bed. “Sit.”
“You mean, sit, please?”
He leveled me with one of his classically powerful looks that left me feeling just a wee bit unsteady on my feet before my saucy side kicked in and shored me back up.
