AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Family.
I was shocked he would even mention it.
“But we know that can’t be, don’t we?” My fingertips were still brushing his face, gliding over the scruff that lined his sharp jaw.
“How about we don’t talk about me having to let you go and instead focus on this.”
“And what is this?” It was a breath.
“It’s me showing you that you are in control. Me showing you that you deserve pleasure. Me erasing that motherfucker from your being and writing myself on it instead. Gonna mark myself on you as deep as that tat on your arm. Permanently. Make you remember exactly what you want. What you need.”
Need raced through my body. “I’m afraid you’re going to break me.”
He brushed the pad of his thumb over my lips. On instinct, my tongue stroked out to lick it.
His eyes flamed as he released a surprised growl that reverberated through the room, and he pressed his thumb into my mouth.
I sucked, and a moan got free.
A storm roared in his gaze before arrogance kicked up at the edge of his mouth. “Nah, I’m not going to break you, Charleigh, I’m just going to ruin you for anyone else.”
The man rose higher on his knees as I sank deeper into the couch cushions.
Anticipation made my limbs heavy. Laden with want.
“Did you know how fuckin’ bad I wanted you when you came through the door of my shop that first night?” he asked. “Did you know how badly I wanted to peel you out of your clothes and take you right on my chair? I’ve spent weeks fucking my hand to thoughts of you. Thinkin’ about every way that I’m going to have you.”
The vision of it blazed through my mind, and my thighs quivered as I was rushed with a current of desire.
He inhaled heavily as if he smelled it coming off me, and he pulled his thumb from my mouth and ran it over my lips, coating them with my saliva.
My throat went dry, but still, I managed to force out, “I haven’t wanted anyone to touch me in years, for so long that I’d forgotten what it’s like. And my breath was gone the second you came to stand in the doorway to your station. Though it might have had something to do with the way you terrified me, too.”
River’s expression went predatory. “You should probably still be scared.”
“Part of me is. Of this. Of what you make me feel.”
His eyes turned to pitch, greed dancing in their depths, prancing with the shadows that played on the walls. His thumb moved to my jaw as the rest of his fingers splayed out to hold me by the side of the neck.
My pulse beat frantically against his touch.
“I don’t let my mind go there when I’m tattooing, not ever, and there you were, making me break every rule I’ve ever set, and I’ve been wanting to break them ever since.”
“What rules?” It was a rasp, wispy thin air that no longer seemed to exist.
“I don’t get numbers, I don’t stand outside women’s apartments, and I sure as fuck don’t invite them to my house.” Leaning in close, his mouth just barely brushed the angle of my jaw. He rode it all the way up until he was murmuring at my ear, “And most of all, I don’t fuckin’ get attached.”
My spirit flailed, and logic screamed. We already knew what this was. He was a safe place. Sanctuary. A place of healing.
But right then, my heart was veering into dangerous territory.
He edged back and pinned me with the viciousness of his stare. “Gonna warn you right now, I’m not a good man, Charleigh. Need you to know it so you don’t mistake me for something I’m not.”
“I already know who you are, River. I know who you are right here.” I let my fingertips wander down to the ravaging in his chest. “I don’t care about the rest.”
“Fuck,” he groaned, and he wound his hand up in my hair and pulled me toward him until our noses were almost touching. “But you should. You should. I’ve done terrible fuckin’ things.”
Turmoil played through his features. His ghosts. His shame.
