Page 219 of The Edge of Darkness

She felt absolutely divine.

I leaned into her ear and whispered, “How about now?”

“Almost.” The word was barely audible—lost to pleasure. And I was happy to take her into the depths of it.

Her breaths quickened as I worked my fingers between her legs. Then, she was grinding her backside against my hardened length.

“More,” she groaned with need.

I pressed my body into hers, rubbing my cock against her. “Is this what you want? Do you want me? Because I’m right here.”

There was no misinterpreting this time. No hidden message or challenge. The moan she released was full of need and desire. She lifted her leg, arching her back and awaiting my entry.

I slipped my fingers from her and gripped myself, positioning my thick head at her entrance and lingering only a moment before pushing inside. The sound she made was drowned out by the groan that erupted from my chest.

Wicked hell, she was like nothing I’d ever felt.

I kept my hand on her waist, guiding her right where I wanted her as I moved, inching my way in, letting her adjust to my width. Her back was still turned to me, making it so that I didn’t have to look her in the eyes. Normally that would have been fine—preferred, even. But I . . . I . . . Fuck, I wanted to look her in the eyes.

I pulled out, and turned her in my arms beneath me, pressing her back against the mattress as I moved.

Newly positioned above her, I felt a change between us.

She stared up at me, legs still spread, but something like concern lined her features. Facing each other while we did this . . . it would mean too much. It created too many chances for emotions to thread their way in. I could tell that’s what she was afraid of. She saw emotion as weakness, and she’d push it down or cast it away as soon as she felt threatened by it, just like she always did. She was trying not to feel. I knew, because I’d been trying not to feel every time I was around her too.

From the day she first stared up at me in this very cottage and matched my fury with her own, a fire had been struck somewhere deep inside me. It burned hotter and faster than anything I had ever known before, and left me feeling things I had never felt. Left me vulnerable.

I hated feeling vulnerable as much as any other male did. Yet, I grew closer and closer to embracing it the longer she was beneath me.

I could see the fight she was waging in her own head, and just for her, just because I knew what was at stake, I tried to put a leash on myself. I tried to suppress every feeling and all of my pent-up desire. But lightning flashed again, illuminating her eyes—a striking shade of blue—and I lost my own war with myself.

To hell with it all.

I kissed her.

I kissed her, desperately, and without restraint.

If she drove a dagger into my chest because of it, so be it.

A hand wrapped around the back of my neck, fingers splaying, threading through the hair that was tied above my nape. Her lips and tongue moved in perfect time with mine, welcoming it, matching my intensity, and I’d never felt so close to coming undone from just a kiss. She met me with just as much desperation, arching her body off the bed.

A groan rumbled up my throat, and I took her into my arms, needing to have her closer, dying to have every inch of her skin against mine. I clutched her face in one hand, while the other squeezed at the flesh of her backside, searching for every way to devour her. I’d never kissed anyone this way. It was passionate and full of fury, and borderline vengeful—everything Nivelle was. Everything that set me aflame for her.

The crown of my cock ached as it pressed at her entrance, but I steadied myself and pulled my lips away from hers.

Desire danced in the depths of her eyes.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” I asked her.

She knew what I meant. Knew that once we crossed the line this way, there would be no going back for either of us.

“Yes. I want you.”

“You have me.”

I hooked her leg around my waist and entered her, not taking my eyes off hers.

She took all of me, every inch, wrapping both legs around me and keeping me close—keeping me deep. I slid one hand around the backside of her neck, while the other braced my weight against the headboard as I thrust into her.