"Say it," I demand, one hand moving to tangle in her hair, tilting her head back. "Say you're mine."
"I'm yours," she whispers, the words sending a jolt straight to my cock.
"Fucking right you are." I attack her neck, teeth scraping against her pulse point, sucking hard enough to leave a mark. She gasps, her body arching into mine. "Every inch of you. Mine to protect. Mine to pleasure. Mine to breed."
The word makes her tremble against me. I can feel it, the way her thighs clench together at the word.
"You like that idea?" My hand slides up her side, thumb brushing the underside of her breast through her cardigan. "Having my baby growing in here?" I move to press my palm against her flat stomach. "Getting round and full with what I put in you?"
"Butch," she gasps, her hands clutching at my shoulders. "You can't say things like that."
"I can say whatever the fuck I want." I nip at her earlobe, relishing her shiver. "Especially when it makes you wet. Does it, Julia? Does thinking about me filling you with my cum, putting a baby in you, make you wet?"
Her face flames red, but she doesn't deny it.Christ.This innocent little bookworm has depths I'm dying to explore.
Outside, thunder cracks so loudly the windows rattle. The storm's getting worse, not better. Like the need building inside me with every second I hold her.
"I saw you the moment I walked into this store," I tell her, my voice rough with desire. "And Iknew. Knew you were made for me. Knew I'd do anything to have you."
"You don't even know me," she protests weakly.
"I know everything I need to." My hand moves from her stomach to cup her face, thumb tracing her lower lip. "Knowyou're kind. Know you're smart. Know you need someone to take care of you, protect you, keep you safe from the world. A daddy.”
Her eyes glaze over that last word before they search mine, looking for something—sincerity, maybe. Or madness.
"Why me?" she asks, voice small.
The question hits me in the chest. Because it's honest. Because she genuinely doesn't understand her own value, her own appeal.
"Because you're everything I'm not," I tell her, the most truth I've spoken in years. "Pure. Good. Beautiful."
"I'm just a bookstore owner."
"You'reeverything, baby.” My forehead presses against hers, our breaths mingling. "And I'm going to spend every day proving it to you."
The power flickers, emergency lights casting strange shadows across her face. For a moment, she looks otherworldly, like something from one of her storybooks. Something too good for a scarred, broken man like me.
But I don't care. I've never deserved good things, but I take them anyway. And Julia Carter is the best thing I've ever seen.
"When this storm breaks," I tell her, my voice dropping to a rumble, "when we leave this place, nothing changes. You're still mine. I'm still yours. The world can try to come between us, but they'll have to kill me first."
Her breath catches. "This is crazy. We barely know each other."
“You’re going to have to stop saying that, baby. You’re starting to sound like a broken record. And some things you just know." My lips brush hers, gentler now. "Some things are written in your bones."
The storm rages outside, wind and rain battering the small bookstore. But inside, something else is building—something just as powerful, just as inevitable.
I lift her from the counter, her legs instinctively wrapping around my waist. The feeling of her pressed against me, soft where I'm hard, sweet where I'm bitter, nearly breaks my control.
"Derek," I growl against her mouth, "or any other man tries to take what's mine, I'll destroy them. You understand me?"
She nods, those innocent eyes wide. She should be terrified of me. Should be running for the door. Instead, she clings tighter, like I'm her anchor in the storm.
"No one else," she whispers. "Just you."
Just me. Just her. Just us, while the world drowns outside.
I carry her toward the back of the store, toward the small office with its couch and privacy. Toward the place where I'm going to show her exactly what it means to be mine.
