Relief and panic crashed together in my chest.I swallowed hard.“Are you certain?”My voice wavered as I searched his eyes.“Your protective nature might run wild because I’ve ruined so many of your shirts with my tears.”
He huffed a quiet laugh.“I knew I loved you before you ever got here.”
My brain shorted out.“What?”
He looked almost sheepish.“You walked up to me at the diner, shoved a cup of coffee in my hand, and seemed nervous as hell.But you thanked me.After I left, I couldn’t stop thinking about you.Then you showed up at my house in the middle of the night.Every step after that just made it worse.”
“Worse,” I repeated.
He corrected me.“Stronger.Deeper.Whatever word you want.My feelings aren’t some rescue high, Jade.I worked through my own shit.I never slapped emotions on top of adrenaline.I chose you.Every time you opened a door in your head and let me see inside, my choice became easier.”
The knot in my chest loosened.I leaned in and kissed him.
Kane met me halfway, one hand cupping my jaw, the other sliding to my hip.The kiss began soft but grew hungry fast.
Weeks of fear and tension poured through me.I slid my fingers up his chest, over his shoulders, around his neck.He pulled me onto his lap as though I weighed nothing.Soon I straddled him, my knees braced on either side of his thighs while his hands held my waist.Heat flared low in my belly.The feel of him under me, solid and hot, made my breath stutter.
He broke the kiss long enough to rest his forehead against mine.“You’re driving me crazy.”
I kissed him again, deeper now.His tongue slid against mine while a low sound rumbled in his chest.When he shifted, his hips pressed up enough for me to feel how hard he’d become.
“I want you.”My cheeks burned.
His eyes softened.“You have no idea how hot you sound when you say those words.”
“You’re impossible,” I muttered.
“I exist very much in reality,” he said.“Though maybe not tonight.”
I laughed, shaky but real.
He carried me to bed and laid me down gently.Crawled in beside me and pulled me close, my back to his chest, his arm draped over my waist.
“Jade?”he murmured in the dark.
“Yeah?”
“I’m glad you knocked on my door.”
“Me too,” I said.I rolled over to face him.
His eyes darkened as he looked at me, his gaze dropping to where his shirt had ridden up on my thighs.The heat in his eyes sent a shiver through me, different from the fear I’d felt before.This was anticipation, desire -- something I’d almost forgotten existed.
“Come here,” he said, voice low.
I shifted closer, and his hand came up to cup my face, thumb brushing over my cheekbone with a gentleness that made my heart ache.When he kissed me, it was soft at first, questioning, but it quickly deepened as I responded.
My hands found their way under his shirt, palms flat against the warm skin of his chest.I could feel his heart racing beneath my touch, matching the frantic rhythm of my own.He groaned into my mouth when I scraped my nails lightly down his torso.
“Jade,” he breathed against my lips.“Tell me what you want.”
“You,” I said simply.“I want you.”
He pulled back slightly to look at me, his eyes searching mine.“You sure?”
Instead of answering, I reached for the hem of his shirt and tugged it upward.He helped me pull it over his head, tossing it to the floor beside the bed.I ran my hands over his bare chest, tracing the defined muscles, the scars, the tattoos that marked his skin.
“Your turn,” he said, fingers playing with the bottom of the shirt I wore -- his shirt.
