Page 128 of Venomous Throne

Those words were a warm balm to my heart.

The next cut deep.

“You should have confessed. If you’d just explained who and what you were! We could have avoided this,” she bit out.

“I didn’t want to see the pain in your eyes.” I bent over her. “I didn’t want the truth to hurt you.”

“Well, it did,” she snapped. “But then I couldn’t find you to sort it out. To make it better.”

I lifted her into my arms. She didn’t protest. Those slim arms coiled around my neck as her legs wrapped around my waist.

“You’re not a stray, Jaxon,” she whispered, pressing her lips to mine in a swift kiss. “You’re mine. So quit acting like you’re not.”

Her words hit me like a hurricane, tearing down walls I’d built over a lifetime. My chest heaved as something primal and possessive ripped through me, an emotion so raw it threatened to bring me to my knees.

“You still want me,” I growled, crushing her against me, inhaling her scent as if it were oxygen and I'd been drowning. My hands trembled as they moved up her back, cradling her head, tangling in her hair.

“Of course, I do, you idiot,” she choked out, burying her face in my neck.

My entire body trembled against hers.

For the first time in my blood-soaked existence, I wasn’t a weapon to be wielded or a shadow lurking at the edges of other people’s lives. I was wanted. Claimed. The realization broke something open inside me, unleashing a flood of emotion I couldn’t contain.

“Here’s the facts.” I walked toward the front door, opened it, and stepped inside. A beast, who belonged. “I love you, Isabella. Although it’s a simple explanation, it’s the only one a mutt like me can come up with.”

She shuddered in my arms.

I kept walking, up the stairs, down the hall. I knew the path without having to look.

“You are the thing that made me come back from the dead,” I said, my voice rough with the emotions I couldn’t contain. “And I know you feel the same way. I will have you.”

Chapter 47 – Isabella

Too long, I’d been lying to myself. I fought these feelings with every fiber of my being. My heart was hurt. Wounded. And my brain leapt to the defensive, logic arguing that Jaxon wasn’t good for me.

But I was only delaying the inevitable.

I knew that if I went outside at night, if I walked around, sooner or later, he would crawl out of the shadows.

He would come to me.

As Jaxon stood there beside the plush king-sized bed, I breathed a sweet sigh of relief.

His own breaths rough, he watched, waited. His eyes grew hot. I reached up and took his face and kissed him deeply. A second later, his tongue was in my mouth, stroking and searching.

“The walls in here are soundproof,” I murmured, breaking away.

“I know, bella.” His voice was husky. “That was a smart move.”

He dropped me and crawled over my body. The abrupt change in balance made me squeak.

That noise earned me a small grin.

“I want to earn your screams,” he growled, tugging at my clothing.

I helped him untangle the trench coat and then pull my shirt over my head, eager for his touch. Jaxon’s eyes brightened to silver as he took in the sight of me, his fingers making quick work of my bra. When he tossed it aside, I reached for his shirt, desperate to feel his skin against mine.

“Patience,” he whispered, but helped me undress him anyway.