He laces his fingers through mine and leads me toward the door, and for the first time in my life, my heart feels whole.
CHAPTER 9
KNIGHT
Daisy is back in my apartment, and I know I’ve won the greatest prize of my life.
She’s pressed against my body, arms wrapped around me, and I’m shaking so hard I’m not sure my legs will hold. My eyes fall on her tattoo.
“I’ve got you,” she murmurs. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Promise?” The word comes out broken.
“Promise.”
I hold her tighter, breathing her in. The kittens wind around our ankles, meowing. But I can’t let go. Not yet. Maybe not ever.
“I’m sorry.” The apology scrapes out of me. “I was scared, and I pushed you away—”
“I know.” She pulls back to look at me, thumbs stroking my cheeks. “I know.”
“I don’t deserve you.”
“Stop.” Her voice is firm. “You don’t get to decide what I deserve. I choose you.”
My blood thunders in my veins, and the last pieces of the walls I’ve built come tumbling down. I’ve shared my ugly past with her, and she’s still here.
I kiss her.
Her lips part under mine, and I’m pulling her against me, hands sliding into her hair, tilting her head back to take more.
“Knight—” She gasps against my mouth.
“I need you.” The confession tears out of me, raw and honest. “I need to feel you.”
Her answer is to grab the front of my shirt and walk backward toward the bedroom, pulling me with her. We stumble through the doorway, mouths still fused, hands already tugging at fabric. My shirt hits the floor. Her cardigan follows. Then her blouse, buttons scattering as I lose patience with the tiny fastenings.
“Those were—”
“I’ll buy you a new shirt.”
I unhook her bra and let it fall, and then she’s bare from the waist up, the completed tattoo stark against her flushed skin. My art. My heart. Permanently part of her now.
I press my mouth to it, tracing the lines with my tongue as my hands find her heavy breasts and tease her nipples. She shivers, fingers digging into my shoulders.
“Every time I look at this,” I murmur against her skin, “I thank fate that you walked into King Ink. Finding you was finding someone who recognized my soul.”
“Knight—”
I kiss my way across her collarbone, down the swell of her breast. “Let me show you what you mean to me.”
I take her nipple into my mouth, and she arches into me with a moan that goes straight to my cock. I work her with lips and tongue and the careful edge of my teeth, one hand coming up to cup her other breast, thumb circling until she’s writhing.
I walk her backward until her knees hit the mattress, then follow her down. The kittens scatter with indignant meows. Right now, the only thing that exists is the woman beneath me, flushed and wanting.
I work my way down her body, pausing to trace my tongue along the curve of her waist, the dip of her navel. Her hands fist in my hair as I peel away her clothes until she’s completely bare beneath me. The sight of her makes my heart ache. The soft curve of her hips and her trembling thighs. The slick evidence of how much she wants this.
Wantsme.
