Whatever it was, though, opened the floodgates. Everything I’d been holding in came rushing to the surface, and the lump in my stomach was joined by another in my throat. My eyes burned and no amount of squeezing them shut could hold back the tears.
I’d forgotten Radven was beside me until the mattress shifted.
“You all right, butterfly?”
No, I wasn’t. Not even close. I was terrified, and confused, and lost, and I was tired of trying to keep it all together.
I launched myself at Radven. Not with any particular aim in mind but because I needed an anchor, something to hold onto as the sobs burst free of my chest. I buried my face in his shoulder, no longer trying to fight the tears, and my body shook as my breaths came out in shuddering gasps.
I’d cried in front of an ex once—my very first boyfriend, and he’d freaked out about it and told me I was “too emotional” for him, essentially breaking up with me on the spot.
But Radven didn’t freak out, and he didn’t accuse me of anything. Instead, he reached up and stroked my hair.
From a man like him, it was a surprisingly gentle and soothing gesture, and I was so shocked my next sob came out as a hiccup.
I lifted my head, fighting to catch my breath. “What are you—hiccup—doing?”
He managed to look both amused and mildly offended at the same time. “What does it look like I’m doing, butterfly? I’m bloodycomfortingyou.”
And it was working. With every delicate touch of his fingers against my hair, that twisty, heartbreaking knot in my stomach gave way beneath a stronger, warmer feeling. And when I looked up and saw the heat echoed in his eyes, my body took over.
I kissed him.
Instantly, the knot in my stomach exploded into a thousand butterflies. His mouth opened against mine at once, like he’d been waiting for this all along, and a deep groan resonated in his throat. The hand that had been stroking my hair pressed against the back of my head as he deepened the kiss.
His lips were bewitchingly skilled, moving against mine in ways I never imagined two mouths could meet. In seconds I was gasping again, only this time not from the sobs.
He broke away suddenly, looking down at me with desire all over his face. “I guess this means you’ve changed your mind about me touching you?”
“Yes,” I said breathlessly, desperately, as I pulled his face back toward mine. “Yes, yes, I’ve changed my mind.”
Our mouths crashed together again, and the butterflies danced through me, chasing the heat down to my toes and up to the top of my head. Radven’s other arm came around my waist, pulling my upper body against his. My lower half was still tangled up beneath the blanket, but he released me just long enough to jerk it out of the way before drawing me fully into his lap.
All without pulling his lips away from mine for more than a split second.
Hewasgoing to devour me. His mouth wasn’t just eager—it was ravenous, and every flick of his tongue felt like an attempt to taste the deepest parts of me. Occasionally his kisses turned into nips or even full bites, but I found I enjoyed the pain.
And I was just as hungry for him, my hands moving across his back, then his chest, exploring the athletic planes of his body with an enthusiasm that surprised even me. Ashivermoved through me as I touched him, tingly and thrilling, all pleasure and no pain.
I was tired of being the good girl. After everything I’d been through, after all the physical agony and too many close calls with death, I wanted nothing more in this moment than pure, sinfulpleasure.
And Radven was clearly more than willing to give it to me.
Tentatively, I bit down on his bottom lip, and he growled with such animal lust that it sent a little shockwave through me, all the way down to my core.
He gripped me and twisted me, repositioning my body so that I was straddling his lap, and this new position brought with it so many new and delicious points of contact that I gave an involuntary sigh of pleasure as I sank fully against him.
“We’re just getting started, butterfly,” he murmured against my mouth in velvet tones, his hands skimming up my ribs to caress the sides of my breasts.
I sighed again as a new batch of nerve endings sprang to life, my body awakening to the pleasure I’d long denied myself.
But he was just teasing me again, because his hands moved from my breasts to my back once more, his fingers coming up to tangle in my hair and hold me by the nape. Then his mouth moved away from mine, and he tilted my head back to give himself full access to my throat. His lips blazed a trail down my skin, his teeth continuing to nip as they explored.
“This is where I really start to learn your secrets,” he murmured between kisses. “Like how you taste.” He kissed me at the hollow of my throat. “Or what sounds you make when you’re aroused.” His tongue slipped along my collarbone, drawing a little involuntary moan from me. “Or where all your most sensitive nerve endings are.” He leaned me back and made his wicked way down the slopes of my breasts, which were more than prominent above the low neckline of my stolen dress. His teeth closed around a bit of skin on the upper curve of my left breast, and stars flashed before my eyes.
Some secrets are shared in other ways.His words came back to me, delicious and seductive and with more truth than I’d realized until this very moment.
I wanted to give him those secrets. Not because I was stupid, or reckless—though I probably couldn’t have defended myself against either of those accusations—but because my life had turned upside down, and while I’d never been so terrified, I’d also never felt soalive.This man was dangerous, and I wanted to do something dangerous, too. I wanted to stop living through the characters in my stories and start living the story of my own life—even if that included mistakes.
