I turn toward the sound, breath already catching, and she steps out of the shadows. Hair loose, falling around her shoulders. Lips parted. A glint in her eyes that doesn’t match the shy smiles she gives Sadie or the polite ones she gives strangers.
This Delaney is made of hunger.
She walks toward me slowly. Hips swaying, chin lifted. Danger curling at the corner of her mouth.
I should be the one in control here.
My dream.
My subconscious.
My damn rules.
But she stops in front of me, tips my chin up with one finger, and says in a low, devastating whisper…
“Get on your knees.”
My stomach drops.
Heat slams into my spine.
I don’t move at first, not because I’m resisting, but because the shock is so sharp it rattles through my ribs.
She watches me, amused. Patient. Almost predatory.
“Boone,” she murmurs, leaning down until her breath skims my jaw, “don’t make me ask again.”
My knees hit the floor, and I can feel her smile without even seeing it.
Her hand slides into my hair and pulls my head back until I meet her eyes.
“Good,” she says softly. “You listen.”
My chest twists, low and feral.
Her fingers tighten in my hair. Just enough pressure to make my pulse stutter.
“I’ve seen the way you look at me,” she whispers. “All that restraint. All that control. You think you’re hiding it.”
I swallow hard.
She shakes her head once, tugging my hair just enough that a groan rumbles out of me.
“You’re not,” she says. “I see all of it. You want to devour me. Don’t you?”
My breath leaves my lungs in a single harsh exhale.
“Yes.”
She rewards the honesty by dragging her nails down my scalp, hard enough to make my eyes close, soft enough to make it torture.
“Boone, now I need you to take off my panties.”
My hands are clumsy at first, too big and rough for the silk and the skin beneath.
I feel the tremble in her thighs, see the glittering challenge in her eyes, and my own hands steady, every instinct bowing to the command in her voice.
I hook my fingers under the delicate edge, breath catching when I brush the softest part of her, and she lets out a humming, dangerous sound that echoes in my blood.
