I was barely breathing by the time he broke it, maintaining his hold on me.
“Hannah,” he whispered. “You’ve been mine since the moment you smiled at my daughter, since you talked about Kurt Cobain’s poetry, since you shook my fucking hand.”
All I could do is blink at Beau, my breath leaving me in a whoosh and my ears ringing at the admission. I might’ve hoped for it, dreamed for it. But never could I have thought my hopes and dreams would come true. I’d long buried them in damp dirt in Virginia, along with scraps of my childhood innocence and joy.
Beau wanted me.
I was his.
I had been his.
Since the very start.
twenty-three
HANNAH
I was Alice,tumbling down a rabbit hole into a whole new world where Beau Shaw kissed me like I was the most precious thing on the planet, like I was irreplaceable.
Just as I was about to open my mouth to tell him he was mine too, that hehadbeen mine, the fire that I had been expecting caught hold.
Not a fire.
A firestorm.
A volcano.
His lips caught mine again, his strong hands at my hips, lifting me. When I wrapped my legs around him, his palms found my ass, and he pressed me tighter against his body, his hard length, our mouths still moving desperately.
I knew we were moving through the house, but I only faintly registered it. Time and space ceased to exist. All there was was Beau.
Then there was the soft sound of a door closing before my back hit a mattress that smelled of Beau’s all-natural fabric softer, juniper, andhim.
Beau’s bed. I was on Beau’s bed. In his room.
I had never been in Beau’s room. That would’ve been crossing boundaries. Boundaries were now a thing of the past.
At least I hoped to hell they were.
As much as I wanted to take it all in, there were more pressing things demanding my attention.
Beau. Kissing my neck. My collarbone. His hands clasping my hips before rolling my pants and panties down at the same time. No hesitation, no devastating slowness. Only pure, frenzied passion.
My intention from the moment I crawled toward him on the couch was to end up naked in his bed.
In that moment, I was halfway there. The scent of his sheets already seeping into my skin. I immediately felt self-conscious at my pussy essentially staring at him while he was still fully clothed, my knees instinctively knocking together. Beau’s hands met my knees right away, exerting gentle pressure to pull them open.
“No.” A thread of dominant desire hummed beneath the single word.
I found the courage to look at him. He wasn’t looking between my legs as I’d expected. His eyes were glued to mine.
“Nothing about you, Hannah, is going to be less than perfect to me,” he rasped. “And you do not have to be self-conscious about the pussy you’re going to present to me. The pussy I’m going to taste every inch of. The pussy I’m going to fuck. Cover with my cum.”
I physically felt his words between my thighs, the pussy in question throbbing with need.
As his thumbs made tender circles on my kneecaps, the veins in his muscled forearms were ridged, showing the way he was clenching his body, forcing it to be still. “Do you feel comfortable with me, Hannah?”
Unable to speak, I nodded. I felt unbearably nervous. Excited. More turned on than I ever had in my life.
