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“You’re not stupid. You’re vulnerable…”
“And why the fuck would you care? Is this some kind of sick game to you? Find the freak and bring her home so you can toy with her?”
“Dammit, you’re not a freak, Cedara! And I would never toy with you. I care about you.”
“How could you care about me? You don’t even know me. You’d never even met me a week ago.” Her eyes are wild, her hair a golden cloud around her face, and even in the storm of her fury, she’s the most beautiful damn thing I’ve ever laid eyes on.
“A week was all I needed.” I set my jaw. “Hell, an hour would have been enough.”
“Enough for what?”
“Enough to know this…” I close the distance between us, grip her wrist, and pull her against me. Her eyes fly wide a moment before my lips fasten over hers.
I crush my mouth against Cedara’s, unable to hold back any longer, kissing her with an urgency that borders on desperation. My hands slide into her silken hair, cradling the back of her head as I angle her face for deeper access.
Her answering whimper vibrates against my lips. Instead of pulling away, she presses herself flush against me. Heat lances through me at the feel of her curves molding to the hard lines of my body. I’m rock hard in an instant, and I groan into her mouth, the sound low and guttural.
Cedara’s hands fist in the fabric of my shirt, clinging to me as our kisses grow more frenzied, more needy. I grind shamelessly against her, seeking friction, craving the delicious heat building between us.
Her nails score my chest through the thin cotton as she arches into me with a desperate little mewl. The sound spurs me, and I want her…no, I need her.
I tear my mouth from hers with a ragged gasp, trailing scorching kisses along the column of her throat. She throws her head back on a broken cry, exposing the creamy line of her neck.
“Barrett,” she pants, the syllables of my name fractured with want. “Oh, God…” I trail biting kisses up the slope of her shoulder, groaning against her fevered skin. I want to devour her, to lose myself in her softness and heat until there’s no separating where I end and she begins.
When I raise my head, I’m gasping for air. So is she, her eyes dark and dazed.
“Tell me you don’t feel that.” My chest is heaving. “Tell me you don’t feel the bond between us.”
“I…I…” she chokes out. “Barrett, I…”
“You’re mine,” I stop her from talking herself out of what this is. “Mine, Cedara. Say it.”
Chapter 17
Cedara
I inhale sharply as the words tumble from my lips, my breath shuddering as I admit the truth I can no longer deny. “Yes…I feel it, too. All of it.” My voice is hushed, hoarse, as I confess the depth of this bond that has been steadily weaving itself around us.
A yearning unlike anything I’ve ever known consumes me from the inside out. It’s as if every cell in my body is reaching out for him, craving his touch, his closeness. I’ve taken comfort from him these past few days, but it’s been more than that. My need to reach out to him has been just a thin veil masking the raw need simmering beneath.
I catch his gaze, my eyes burning with want. “I want you,” I whisper fervently, the words seeming to spark the crackling tension between us. “I want you so much.”
“You’re sure?” There’s an air of barely restrained need radiating from him that makes me burn. I nod without hesitation. In a single fluid motion, Barrett scoops me into his powerful arms, cradling me against him. Our lips crash together in a searing kiss as he carries me toward the bedroom.
It’s a journey that can have only one destination, and I suddenly can’t wait to reach it.
He sets me down on the soft mattress as if I were made of glass. And then his hands move swiftly, peeling my shirt over my head and unbuttoning my jeans. I toe my sneakers off quickly, then lift my hips as he rolls my pants down my thighs.
“God. Look at you…” When he runs his eyes over me, it’s like a touch. I shiver, watching as he straightens and then pulls his T-shirt off with a ripple of muscle that shouldn’t be legal.
I stare up at him, drinking in every inch of his powerful form as he slowly undresses before me. My gaze rakes over the hard planes of his body, each muscle gliding sinuously beneath tanned skin as he strips away the layers separating us.
He’s even more magnificent than I remember from that charged moment in the cave when I’d stared at him in a way I hadn’t understood then. Back then, everything was shadowed and indistinct, but now I can clearly see every defined line, every carved ridge in the warm lamplight.
My eyes trail hungrily over the broad expanse of his shoulders…so goddamned strong. I imagine how it would feel to have those muscular arms wrapped around me, holding me close against the solid wall of his chest. My breath catches as I take in the ridges of his washboard abs, the grooves deepening enticingly with each rise and fall of his breathing.
A flush of heat blossoms through me as I linger on the tantalizing ‘v’ of muscle disappearing beneath the waistband of his boxers when he drops his pants and kicks them aside. I bite my lip, desire heating my blood as I wonder what lies beneath that final scrap of fabric.
