Page 123 of Deathless & Divided

“You’re allowed to.”

“I can’t accept it.”

“You don’t have to,” Damian replied quietly.

“But I love you.”

Damian nodded. “Yeah.”

“It is going to take a while for me to be okay. I need you to understand that.”

“I get it.”

Lily wet her lips. “So no matter what you say, I have to believe you’re a good man who does bad things because otherwise, you’re just a man who hurts the things you love for no other reason than you can.”

“I love you,” he said.

“I know.”

“That’s the hardest part for you, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Lily replied. “It really is.”

Damian leaned down just far enough that he could sweep his lips over Lily’s. He hated her tears; despised that he’d been the one to cause her any pain. The best way he could think to apologize, if his words weren’t doing the job, was to show her. Instead of kissing her hard and deep, demanding she pay attention to his distraction and let it do the job for him, he took his time loving her mouth with his until she slowly began to kiss him back.

“You are, Lily,” he said, stroking her cheek as he brushed his lips over hers again.

“Hmm, what?” she asked, breathless.

“Everything to me.”

Another sliver of a tear fell from the corner of her eye. Damian wiped it away with the pad of his thumb just as quickly.

“I wish that didn’t hurt you to hear,” he said.

Lily shook her head. “It doesn’t.”

“It’s true.”

“Damian?”

“Yeah?” he asked.

“Stop talking and kiss me again.”

Damian cocked a brow. “Don’t you want to—”

“I want you to shut up and kiss me again. And not like I’m some fucking China doll ready to break into pieces at any moment. Just kiss me. Please.”

How could he deny her when she asked so nicely?

Damian fisted Lily’s flimsy sleep shirt and pulled her up from the ground. The thin fabric covering her chest ripped at the force, tearing from the neck line straight down to where he held it tight. Lily gasped a second before Damian’s lips crashed down on hers with a bruising force. Her tongue fought with his, her teeth scraping to his mouth as her breaths turned ragged and harsh.

Lily grabbed his shirt in her tiny hands and moaned, spreading her legs wider. Damian couldn’t help himself; he grinded his growing erection into her core, knowing there was nothing but his jeans and soft cotton shorts separating his dick from her pussy. A pressure built in Damian’s chest the longer he kissed his girl. Nothing would ever be as honest or true as how he felt when Lily kissed him.

“Fuck,” Damian ground out when Lily’s teeth bit into his jaw. She kissed the spot with the softest touch of her lips before her tongue struck out against his skin to taste. Heat and blood flooded his cock. “Lily—”

“Shut up,” she hissed, biting him again.