He reached up, tenderly cupping her face in his big palm. “I know what I’ve cost you, Leni. In killing Travis Parrish tonight, I’ve taken away your home, your business and livelihood . . . Christ, in telling you what I read in that bastard’s sins, I’ve even taken away your faith in your sister’s safe return.”
“No, Knox.” Leni gave a slow shake of her head. “I needed to know what you learned about Shannon. You didn’t take away anything by telling me the truth.”
He uttered a curse. “The point is, I want to give those things back to you. All of them. Instead, because of me, you’ve lost everything you once had.”
Overcome with emotion, she lifted her hand to the rigid line of his squared jaw. “If being with you means leaving Parrish Falls for a future somewhere else—anywhere else—that’s all I need. You, Knox. And that little boy sleeping in the room behind me.” She slid her hand around to his nape and pulled him down for her kiss. “Knox, I love you. I started falling the moment you stood up for me in the diner against Dwight.”
He growled in response, the amber fire in his eyes exploding into twin infernos of heat. She wasn’t prepared for the possessiveness of his kiss. It seared her, igniting her veins and sending a hot spiral of need shooting into her bloodstream.
When he drew his mouth away from hers, his gaze nearly incinerated her. “You are mine, Lenora.”
“Yes.” It was all the breath she had in her lungs, the only word she could muster when her senses were consumed with the desire—and the love—she felt for this Breed male.
Hers.
Knox snarled in response, triumph gleaming in his eyes and in the brief flash of his diamond-sharp fangs. He lifted her into his arms and strode down the hallway with her, bringing her into one of the large bedrooms at the far end.
Far enough not to disturb the innocent child sleeping at the head of the long corridor.
With the door quietly closed behind them, Knox brought Leni to the king-size bed and undressed her with hands that moved with both precision and impatience. When she lay naked before him, he kissed every inch of her bare skin from forehead to toes, leaving her quivering and breathless, and so aroused it was a miracle she didn’t melt right into the crisp, cool sheets.
His own clothes came off with equal efficiency.
Leni sat up, moving to the edge of the mattress as he disrobed for her. She couldn’t keep the hunger out of her eyes, no more than she could resist reaching out to run her hands over his magnificent body and the beautiful patterns of hisglyphs.
After dreading she might never be with him like this again, seeing Knox standing before her naked and pulsing with raw male power made everything female in her awaken with a fierce need to claim what was hers.
She stroked his heavy shaft, teasing the elegant arcs and swirls that tracked like multi-hued vines from the root of his thick cock nearly to its blunt crown.
Leni licked her lips, glancing up at him in fascination and overwhelming desire. “I love looking at you, Knox. I love knowing all of this belongs to me.”
His reply was a groan that rumbled in his broad, muscled chest. It cut short on a hiss when Leni pulled him toward her and drew him deep into the heat of her mouth. The taste of his silky skin on her tongue lit a hotter flame inside her. The salty bead of wetness that slid down her throat as she took him all the way inside made the coil of hunger in her core twist into something ravenous.
She took her time savoring the feel of him moving over her tongue, filling her mouth and throat the way she knew he would fill the other part of her that ached to have him. His muscles bunched in her grip as she clutched his tight backside with one hand and stroked his length with the other.
He cursed, low and guttural, as a jolt traveled the hardness of his shaft. Power vibrated through his limbs and torso, his pleasure a jagged growl as his palm cupped the back of her skull while she licked and suckled and teased him.
“Fuck,” he ground out hoarsely. “That feels too good, baby.”
She wanted to keep going, take him right over the edge with her mouth, but on a tight groan he jerked out of her grasp. Then his hands were under her arms, lifting her up and onto the bed. He spread her legs with shaking hands, his dark head lowering between them.
Leni gasped as his mouth settled over her sex and he began a slow, merciless assault on her clit. She couldn’t hold back the orgasm that had been building simply from the taste of him on her tongue. Now, that wave of arousal and need crashed into her. She bucked against Knox’s mouth, her release engulfing her, pulling her beneath a velvet tide of pure pleasure.
When she opened her eyes moments later she found Knox watching her from between her thighs, a satisfied smile glittering in his amber-drenched gaze.
“I could watch you come all night,” he murmured, his low voice thrumming all the way into her bones. “First chance we get to be alone, I’m going to do just that.”
Leni smiled. “Promises, promises.”
“I don’t make them if I can’t keep them.” He smirked, rising up to cover her body with his. “Right now, I need to be inside you.”
She nodded, then let out a shuddery gasp as he entered her body and seated himself to the root. With his eyes locked on hers, he began to rock against her, pushing impossibly deep, then withdrawing in a slow slide that drove her mad with need.
Each thrust and retreat made the fire in his transformed eyes burn even hotter, his irises as bright as lit coals. His pupils were thin and catlike, elliptical slits hardly discernible amid the intensifying glow that swamped them.
Hisdermaglyphspulsed and churned with variegated colors, the intricate patterns filling with deep shades of indigo, burgundy, and gold. She’d seen these hues whenever they kissed or made love, and had guessed they were the emotional markers of Breed desire and arousal.
Yet there was another shade competing for dominance in Knox’sglyphs.
