Slowly, she lifts her head, her eyes meeting mine. They’re empty, void of emotion. “You were going to kill him.”
It’s not a question. She knows.
“I was,” I growl, not bothering to deny it. There’s no point now. She saw what I am, saw the monster I have to be when someone threatens my family.
She nods her head, but I’m not sure anyone’s home behind those honey-brown eyes.
Then I watch in horror as a single tear falls. Then another.
And suddenly they’re flowing like a dam has broken inside her.
“Fuck.”
I did this to her.
“C’mere, baby.” Reaching over, I unbuckle Frankie’s seatbelt and pull her into my lap, cradling her against my chest.
She clings to me, her small hands fisting in my shirt as sobs wrack her body.
“I was so scared,” she chokes out between ragged breaths. “They were going to take her, Bane. They were going to… to hurt her.”
“I know, baby,” I murmur into her hair, one hand rubbing circles on her back. “But you’re safe now. I won’t let anything touch you.”
And I mean it. Every fucking word.
I’ll kill anyone who tries.
“Bane?” she whispers, lifting her head and hitting me with her red-rimmed doe eyes. Something in the air shifts, and time stands still.
“Yeah, baby?” I whisper back.
My eyes drop to her pink pouty lips.
Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Don’t—Oh, fuck it.
Closing the distance between us, I kiss her.
Just a touch at first, my lips barely grazing hers, testing the waters.
Her body stiffens, freezing for a heartbeat, and I’m about to pull back when she makes a small whimper in the back of her throat.
I press my lips to hers again, harder this time, and she responds, her mouth moving tentatively against mine.
She’s mine. Frankie’s mine. The claim plays on repeat in my head as I slide my hand into her hair, cradling the back of her head. With a growl I deepen the kiss, tracing the seam of her lips with my tongue.
Frankie gasps, her lips parting, and I take the opening, sweeping inside to taste her more.
She’s hesitant at first, unsure as her tongue meets mine in shy touches that tell me more clearly than words ever could that she wasn’t lying about her inexperience.
The thought sends another surge of heat straight to my cock.
Frankie Camden is untouched.
A goddamn virgin.
Pure in a way I’ve never known.
The thought is exhilarating. I want to show her everything. Teach her what I like and show her what she needs. I want to be the first man to make her come, the first to feel her tight cunt pulsing around my cock.
