Kieran sank to his knees beside the bed. My scattered thoughts no longer mattered. I stared openly at his broad frame bowed down next to me. For once, I was slightly higher than him, and I realized then that our physical size difference really didn’t matter. Because even now, when he was at a “lower” level,he was still commanding. His energy still somehow overpowered mine.
When he reached for the buttons on my shirt, my breath caught. My arms slipped to my sides like limp noodles, eyes devouring the sight of his thick fingers popping them open one by one. The farther down he got, the more my stomach fluttered until goose bumps covered me from head to toe.
I was thankful for the comforter lying across my lap and hiding the raging boner I’d popped from just watching him undo some buttons. With bated breath, I waffled between hoping he would stop before he realized and hoping hewouldrealize and wrap those capable fingers around me.
“Baby doll.”
The endearment caused the breath I’d been holding to whoosh from my lungs. I lifted my eyes to find his blue ones already watching me, the azure depths bleeding into obsidian.
Overwhelming lust swamped me, nearly suffocating in its potency. Never in my life had I everwantedanyone the way I did Kieran. If he didn’t touch me, take me,ownme, then I would simply cease to exist. Attempted murder, bodily harm, and the suspicion this man had lied about who he really was seemed inconsequential in comparison.
His fingertips brushed across my bare skin, and a low whine slipped from between my lips.
“You wanted to see, baby doll.” He reminded me, fingers peeling back the sides of the fabric to reveal my torso.
Those injuries no longer mattered. I no longer cared. How could I look when I was blind to everything except him? I reached for him, the warmth of his skin intoxicating.
“We can’t,” he rasped, denying the polarizing force between us despite the flush to his cheeks.
“Please, Kieran.”
Under my hands, his curled into loose fists. “No. Not for a few more days.”
An all-too-familiar feeling of fullness squeezed my chest, the ominous precursor to panic. The feeling spread like a fast-moving infectious disease, shriveling rational thought to make room for chaos.
Tears welled in my eyes. “I didn’t take your phone number.” The quiver in my voice vibrated my lower lip. “When I was hiding, I wished I had.”
An expression I’d never seen crossed his face. I couldn’t look away, addicted to the way it pierced my heart.
A tear dripped from the welling pool blurring my vision. “I could be dead in a few days.”
He shot up, his very being rejecting the words. The truth. He was over me instantly, body hovering so close but still not close enough. “Youwill notdie.”
Such conviction only increased my desperation, and I spread my legs so he could settle between them.
It still wasn’t enough. And it made me do something I swore I’d never do.
Beg.
“Please.” The plea fell off my tongue without a second thought. “Don’t make me wait another day, another hour. I’ll be so good for you, Kieran.So good.”
Both hands slipped to the back of my neck, thumbs gently caressing the front of my throat. “You’re pretty when you cry for me,” he said, leaning down to lick the tears from my cheeks.
I nodded, more tears falling. With a warm hum, he licked those away too. His eyes stayed focused on me as he eased to his knees and reached behind him to pull off his shirt in one sexy, fluid move. The tattoo covering the left side of his shoulder and chest was just as large and abstract as the one on his right upperthigh. My eyes were greedy, roaming every line and curve as if a shadow had permanently affixed itself to his skin.
Dragging lower, I admired the cut muscles in his stomach, all the way down to the thatch of dark hair disappearing into his pants.
The sound of his belt buckle coming undone made my aching erection jerk, and I watched hungrily as he shoved down the pants and boxers, revealing part of the tattoo on his leg.
Vertebrae by vertebrae, anticipation climbed my spine as he silently towered over me. A man in a battle with darkness as if it were trying to consume him but wasn’t quite strong enough to do so completely.
How powerful must he have been to not just tame darkness but harness it.
Kieran stood from the bed to peel off his clothes completely and rip the blanket covering my lower half down to the foot of the mattress. Cool air brushed my newly exposed skin, but I barely noticed with the way his biceps bulged as he grasped the sides of my shirt and pulled. The last few buttons gave way under his strength, and my over-eager dick appeared.
I sat up to tug the clothes off my arms.
“Leave it,” he ordered, glancing at the IV, which I’d forgotten was hooked through the rip he’d made in the sleeve. “Lie down and let me look at you.”
