“Saint.”
“No. What did I say?”
My warning wraps around each word. I want her to say it, want her to acknowledge just how fucking serious I am about this, abouther.
I couldn’t give a shit that we’ve had years apart; I need her to know every word I’ve said is like gospel, that I won’t allow another ounce of harm to come her way.
Or for her to run head fucking first into it.
Maybe I’ll buy her a leash.
She licks her lips, intensifying that fleeting urge as she stares up at me. “You wouldn’t risk me.”
I brush a loose strand of hair behind her ear, tracing my thumb across her temple. “Exactly.”
She huffs, shaking her head, but she doesn’t move away from my hold. “What if I don’t want to risk you? Why should you go alone?”
There’s a twinge in my chest.
“Because if Rex goes in there, he’ll blow the fucking place to the ground,” I answer.
Her tiny hands fist around the material of my shirt, and she lets out a harsh breath. “Then let me go with you.”
Those glacier-like eyes plead with me, and if she’d asked me for anything else in this world, I wouldn’t even hesitate to say yes, even if it was physically impossible to give her.
I’d make it happen.
But this?
“Have you not been listening to a word I said?” I growl, placing my free hand over hers. It feels like an eternity we’ve been like this; I might radiate a calm demeanour, but I’m fighting every ounce of control not to take her in my lap.
Her throaty laugh coaxes a smile from me, despite the seriousness of the conversation. Hearing her laugh, seeing her so full of life and fire, settles something in me.
She looks up at me through her lashes. “I’ve heard every single one, Saint.”
Indie might have hardened herself to survive what she has, but it’s somehow made her more breathtaking.
I didn’t think it could be physically possible.
She’s the type of haunting beauty that makes me question why anyone would ever attempt a masterpiece, because unless it’s of her, nothing could be crafted more masterfully.
“Then you know why.”
Before she can even get another defiance-coated word past her lips, my hand slips behind her neck, and my mouth smashes to hers.
She instantly melts beneath my hold, and I hook my hand under her thigh, giving into the urge to pull her into my lap.
Every breathless moan that escapes her, I swallow like a famished man, and when she grinds herself against my hardening dick, I reach around and grip her ass, wrangling with my self-control on tearing the leggings clean off her.
I want to take it slow with her. If my restraint snaps, she could panic. I need to move with her pace, no matter how fucking hard it is for me. But the way her hips roll against me, she’s fucking testing it.
I reluctantly pull away from our kiss, and she huffs a laugh, dropping her head to my shoulder.
“You’ve done that twice now; it’s beginning to piss me off.”
A laugh of my own fizzes from deep inside. This firecracker that’s within her…fuck.
It’s setting sparks off in my chest.
