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I grip her hand, my breathing heavy, needing to tell her my thoughts as much as I need my next breath. “And you’re wrong. You aren’t a shadow. You’re glorious—a shooting star at night. You don’t need thesun because you burn brightly all by yourself. People worship at your feet. People trust you with their wishes. You, Olivia Lin, are bewitching, breathtaking, fucking incomparable, and I seeyou.”

Her lips part, her eyes widening. A gasp slips out.

Then she pulls my head down and kisses me.

For the first time in my life, I feel it.

Peace.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Our kiss spins outof control. We’re oil and water, gasoline and a match. We aren’t supposed to be together, and yet, nothing else makes sense. An inferno scorches through me as I hoist her in my arms, my mouth plundering hers, needing to taste her, to stave off the poison inside me with her antidote.

I’ll protect her.The words bang around inside my head because I know we’re taking a risk, that she’s putting her career on the line by kissing me in public.

I’ll protect this woman with my life. Anyone so much as looks at her in the wrong way will suffer the wrath of The Andersons.

“Rex,” she moans when we break apart for air.

“My Olive. My sweet, sweet Olive.”

Groaning, I crush my lips to hers again. This time, I invade her mouth with my tongue, and she fights back, teeth nipping my tongue, my lips, anywhere she can reach.

My body thrums, the heat going straight to my head, and my cock throbs against the waistband of my pants.

“Fuck,” I exhale, “you fucking undo me.”

I need her. Over me, under me, any part of me inside any part of her.

I want to drown in Olivia Lin and never resurface.

Wordlessly, I set her down, taking in her flushed face, her swollen lips, the way her perfect tits heave as she drags in breath after breath, her dark, hard nipples showing through her shirt.

My dick twitches and I growl, taking her hand in mine as I haul us out of the courtyard.

With my mind mad with need, lust, and other turbulent emotions I have no business naming, I drag her down the streets. I’m probably walking too fast for her, but I can’t slow down.

She follows me, no questions asked, like I can lead her to hell and she won’t object.

She submits so beautifully.

Wetness seeps out of my rock-hard dick. If I don’t get inside her now, I’ll blow inside my pants like an untried teenager.

I spot a motel ahead and make a break for it because I can’t last that long. I can’t wait until we get back on the cruise ship.

After handing the attendant more money than he’s probably ever seen behind the counter, I grab the room key and dash up the stairs.

Our labored breaths are loud in the narrow hallway, but I barely notice as I slide the key into the lock, my hand shaking.

A second later, the door opens, and we’re on each other.

“Olive, Olive, Olive, my bewitching Olive.” I fist her tits as I grind on her against the closed door.

She lets out a mewl when I scrape my teeth over her neck, zeroing in on her throbbing pulse.

“Rex,” she cries out when I bite down.

She loves it when I bite her there. The pain, the agony, the pleasure. I make a note of that to add to my thick file of everything Olivia in my head. I want to catalog a hundred ways of making her scream with pleasure. Then, I want to invent more. Thousands. Millions. I want to make her cry, shriek, and shatter from ecstasy.