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“Julian,” I whisper as I move closer to his mouth. His breath is warm against my lips, and my head is spinning out of control.

“Yes,” he gasps. The word desperate, sure, and entirely unraveled.

And with that, the last shred of our restraint is completely obliterated.

He stands in one fluid, violent movement, the piano bench scraping harshly against the floor. His hands find my face before I can even draw breath and then his mouth slams into mine.

I stop breathing. Entirely.

His long fingers fist into my hair, tilting my head back as his tongue explores my mouth with a desperate and deprived, starved intensity that makes my knees instantly buckle, leaving me completely helpless.

I wrap my arms around his neck, my fingers digging hard into his skin, pulling him closer, pulling him deeper into me. I can’t get enough. Our mouths are breathless, a magnetic symphony of everything we have been trying to suppress for too long.

I let out a low, ragged noise against his lips. I can’t help it. I can’t control a single part of my body anymore. This kiss, this blinding heat—it’s entirely too much and not nearly enough all at once.

He breaks the kiss by a fraction of an inch, his forehead resting against mine as his chest heaves.

“I am so bad for you, Ellise.”

Yes. Yes, you are.

So completely, indescribably wrong for me in every sense.

I pull back just enough to look into his intoxicating eyes.

“Kiss me, Julian.”

I’m not even trying to hide it anymore.

Something deep inside him instantly ignites.

“These lips…” he growls, his mouth slamming back down onto mine. “That fucking noise you just made.”

His lips trace a burning path down to my jawline, not breaking contact for even a second. His hands slide down my back, heavy and possessive, gripping my waist before sliding lower beneath my hips. His palms are wide, his fingers splayed as he feels his way over the fabric of my sweats, pulling me completely flush against him.

Something primal takes over my system. A dangerous version of myself I didn’t know existed until this exact moment.

My hands reach beneath the shadow of his hood—my fingers tangling in his thick dark hair below it, tugging him closer as he groans deeply into the hollow of my neck.

He squeezes my hips, lifting me effortlessly off the floor. I let out a sharp breath, as my legs hook around his waist, my thighs gripping him tight while I search his mouth again, desperate for something deeper, something more.

He walks backward into the shadows of the room, holding my entire weight against him without a single stumble. His mouth completely devours mine, never breaking the contact, until the backs of his legs reach the piano bench.

He lowers himself—lowers us, onto the padded leather.

Suddenly, I’m straddling his lap. Our bodies in this position sends a sudden jolt of electricity to my core. I try with everything I have to maintain a shred of sanity to stop myself from grinding against the hard length of him between my thighs, but my body utterly defeats me. The restraint is entirely gone.

We begin to move against each other in a desperate, rhythmic search for the friction we both crave. The bench creaks beneath us as we consume each other in every sense.

The pressure between my thighs builds instantly, becoming almost too intense to bear—a massive tidal wave of sensation that makes me feel like I’m completely losing my mind and myself to him.

The rough, calloused slide of his hands moving underneath my hoodie over my breasts, tugging at my nipples. The burning heat of his tongue against my throat. My senses have taken over, leaving no room for logic or for me to breathe.

The frantic friction lights something explosive inside me.

He pulls his mouth away, barely an inch—just enough for him to look at me through the dark. His chest is heaving violently, his dark eyes are wide and predatory.

His fingers slide down, digging deep into my hips, anchoring me as whispers against my flushed neck, “Lose yourself, Ellise. You’re perfect when you do.”