Page 136 of Anton

“Well, if we walk right past the trees and head to the right, there is the most beautiful lavender field. It’s one of my most favorite places, and I wanted to share it with you.”

I haven’t seen her this happy since she told me what was going on, so I open my door, but she’s already rushing from the vehicle before I can circle around to help her. She slips her fingers through mine and leads me toward the path. As soon as the bright flowers come into view, she grins and breathes in the lavender-sweet air.

Releasing me, she strolls ahead through the field, her hair stirring in the warm breeze. Sunlight washes over her face as she tilts it upward and closes her eyes. She looks like an angel, like the very light my mother reminded me I needed in my life, a purpose I never understood or fully grasped until this very moment.

My feet move before I think to stop them, and with every step toward her, the rest of the world quiets until the only thought left in my head is Thora. Her beauty and laughter. That stubborn nature I’ve become almost fond of, even when it makes me want to lock her in a room where no one can ever touch her.

It’s hard to put into words what she does to me, but I don’t want to keep fighting it. Maybe I don’t understand it the way other men do, but I understand enough to know it’s real.

I keep walking until I’m right in front of her.

She opens her eyes, and that little line appears between her brows. “Are you okay?”

No one has ever asked me that and made me want to answer honestly.

My fingers lift to her face, and when my thumb brushes her bottom lip, her mouth parts beneath the touch.

“Never better, detka.”

Her eyes search mine as my palm clasps her cheek, and when she covers my hand with hers, her warmth nearly undoes me. Her breathing quickens, her chest rising faster while my gaze travels lower, drawn to every reaction I pull from her.

She owns me. In every sense of the word.

Leaning down, I brush my mouth gently over hers, hoping not to let my inexperience show.

Her hands slide up my chest and into my hair, and the groan she makes against my lips sends every thought in my head scattering. I grab her jaw and pull her against me, my control snapping as I take her mouth and end this self-inflicted torture.

She moans and parts her lips, and the kiss consumes every part of me. Her tongue meets mine hesitantly before growing bolder when a groan breaks from my chest and I pull her closer.

I kiss her with more hunger, taking each soft sound she gives me until her need becomes impossible to separate from my own. I gather her hair at the nape and tip her head back, and she follows without hesitation, opening herself further to me.

When she breaks away to breathe, her smile brushes my mouth.

“My God…” She massages my scalp. “You’ve been keeping that from me all this time? I had no idea you could kiss like that.”

I press my forehead to hers, holding her at the waist as I try to understand what just happened between us.

My lips graze hers again. “Neither did I.”

Her laugh reaches a place inside me no one has ever touched, and I know I’m already too far gone to deny what this has become.

Maybe I was lost from the beginning. The instant she looked at me like I was worth touching, I never stood a chance.

Thora traces her thumb along my jaw, her eyes holding mine, and I kiss her again, giving her a part of myself I’ve never offered another living soul. My fingers dig into her hips as one hand travels up her spine. I draw her tongue into my mouth, teasing it with mine before taking the kiss over completely, driven by the need for more.

Thora’s fingers slide into my hair, and the slow drag of them sends my hunger surging. I pull her flush against me, desperate for the full press of her body against mine.

She fits against me like she was made for me, and I need to believe she was. That this isn’t another cruel game my father arranged from beyond the grave, placing something good within my reach only to destroy it, like the puppy he gave me before forcing me to shoot it two months later.

The memory of bloodstained white fur flashes through my mind, and I force it away. He doesn’t get to taint this moment for me.

My lips rove down her neck, nibbling and sucking along her throat to her shoulder, my teeth catching the thin spaghetti strap of her dress.

“I want you, Thora,” I whisper against her throat, her pulse beating beneath my touch.

She moans, a soft, feminine sound that shoots straight to my rock-hard erection. As she pulls back only enough to breathe, her lips still graze mine while her fingers trace the side of my neck, and the look she gives me makes my chest ache in a place I used to think couldn’t feel anything.

“Anton.” She clasps my cheeks, emotions filling her eyes.