Page 87 of Twisted Knight

The car ride was silent. The music was low and the streetlights made shadows play all over the interior of Holden’s SUV.

I questioned my sanity. Why I went with him tonight. Why I initiated the kiss in the parking lot other than to prove the way he made me feel was more than just a one-time thing.

It was.

And having him walk me to the front door of my house, I wonder how I thought this was a good idea. Me. Him. The sex I know we’re about to have. And the fallout that’s no doubt going to happen afterward.

Because we are about to have sex. Hasn’t every single moment between us since the auction been foreplay in one way or another?

And to think we’ve only kissed twice and our connection, our attraction, our need for one another is so palpable, that us sleeping together is a foregone conclusion.

Hating a man and finding him desirable at the same time is fucking with my head.

I unlock my front door and step through it, ignoring Winnie whimpering in her crate in the back of the house. When I turn back, Holden is standing there, as devastating in appearance as his lips were to mine earlier.

Our eyes hold through the silence. They question. They challenge. They want.

“Are you going to invite me in?” he asks, his voice husky and the darkened porch only adding to his allure.

“Tonight was a bad idea all around.” I speak the words while every part of my body craves him.

“Probably.” He nods, his eyes unwavering.

“It’s not in the best interest of … everything.”

“True.” He steps into my house, up to me so that our bodies are all but touching. He reaches out and cups the side of my face, his thumb brushing back over my bottom lip like he did earlier. My breath stutters. My pulse races. Butterflies take flight in my belly. “Do you actually think I give a fuck about right and wrong, Rowan? About precedent or decorum, or that I’ll let it stop me from doing what I’ve thought about since that first night we met?” He brushes his lips against mine. “Do you?”

“No.” The single syllable is strained. Desperate.

“Good.” The warmth of his breath is on my lips. The heat of his body emanates off of him to mine. “I’m going to kiss you, Rowan. Then I’m going to fuck you. Take that as a warning or a threat, but just know you’ll take it. Understood?”

His words, that low, even rumble he speaks them in, do things to me.

“I—”

“Understood?” he cuts me off, his voice a mere whisper now.

“Yes. I mean … yes.”

His chuckle vibrates around the room as he slides a hand down to the small of my back and splays it there. “Step into the gray with me, Row.”

And before I can agree or disagree or overthink what is about to happen, Holden’s lips are on mine. They take and claim and possess with the same adeptness as earlier tonight but with a savage desperation that matches the way I feel.

He has one hand under my neck with his thumb and forefinger on each side of my jaw holding my head still as he controls the kiss. A touch of tongues. A tug on my bottom lip. A lick up the line of my throat.

My body convulses as he focuses on the spot just beneath my jaw. Chills chase over my spine with each openmouthed kiss. With each slide of his hand up my side. With every guttural groan he emits in response.

My fingers fumble with the buttons on his shirt until it’s open. I run my hands over the hard planes and valleys of his abdomen. The corded muscle beneath tightens from my touch.

“You have way too many clothes on,” he murmurs against my collarbone as the stubble on his chin tickles in the best kind of way.

I pull my shirt over my head in response. My bra falls to the floor moments after.

“Fuck.” His soft swear echoes around the room as his eyes scrape over every inch of my body while mine begs for his touch. And it doesn’t have to beg long as he closes his hand over one breast and then lowers his mouth to suck on the pebbled peak of the other.

His warm mouth. The cool air of my house. The soft pressure of his tongue as he sucks on me.

“Holden,” I moan, my hands flying to the button of his pants. To his zipper. To his hard, silky cock constrained within.