Page 25 of Burn Me Down

My breathing was fast and my stomach tight as I opened the door to Beck’s room. She looked up, surprise in her eyes.

“I saw you were still up, so I thought I’d bring you some dessert,” I said, holding up the pie.

Beck closed the book and slipped off the bed, and I sucked in a ragged breath. It looked like she wasn’t wearing anything under the long t-shirt, and every molecule in my body begged me to pick her up and lay her on the bed.

“What kind?”

“Blueberry.”

“One of my favorites, but I bet you already knew that.”

I smiled. “I didn’t, but now I do.”

“You know, for a kidnapper, you’re not exactly what I expected,” Beck said as I put the pie on the table. It was driving me crazy that I couldn’t tell if she was being nice to get out of here or because she was this nice all the time. Everything I’d seen indicated the second, but these weren’t normal circumstances.

“Oh, and how is a kidnapper supposed to behave?” She opened one of the utensil packages and began cutting perfect triangles. “I didn’t bring plates,” I said as she looked around.

“That’s fine.” Beck sat down and forked up a mouthful of the pie, and as it slipped into her mouth, I knew I was done for. She made my heart beat, and my soul feel like it wasn’t sewn together with demons. I wanted to hang onto that feeling as tight as I could and never let go.

“To answer your question, I don’t really know. I mean, getting kidnapped is not something I do regularly, or ever actually, but I expected you to be torturing, raping, or even killing me. Bringing me pie was not on my list of expectations.”

“I thought about it,” I said, and she froze with her eyes wide. “The killing part, but not now.”

“Is it safe to give the person you just said you thought of killing a knife?” She spun the plastic knife in her fingers. “I could be a secret assassin.”

I snatched her hand, and she yelped as I pulled her toward me, placing the knife at my jugular. “If you’re going to try, cut hard and deep right here. I will bleed out in minutes, and you’ll be free to go,” I said and felt her pulse jumping under my fingertips.

“Is that so?”

“It is, but you already knew that, didn’t you,” I asked teasingly.

“I did,” she said, licking her lips, but left a dash of blueberry on the corner of her mouth.

“I wouldn’t have done those other things,” I said, yet I was pretty sure I’d managed to freak her out again.

“The torturing and raping part?”

“Yeah. I hate abusers,” I growled, and her eyes flared with what looked like desire. It could just be my hopeful mind playing tricks on me, but I would swear there was more than fear in her soft grey eyes.

“I hate them too,” she whispered, and I lost all self-control. The plastic pushed into the soft skin of my neck as I cupped her face and kissed over the little bit of blueberry, flicking my tongue over the sweet flavor that would never compare to her.

“What are you doing,” she asked, breathless, but she didn’t pull away.

“Something I shouldn’t.” I kissed her lips softly, begging for her to kiss me back. I’d never felt so close to the edge of a cliff before. At least one I wanted to be on and wanted to fall. Being near her made me want to jump just to see if I could fly.

The plastic knife fell to the floor when Beck grabbed my face and kissed me hard, taking me by surprise. Fuck she tasted good. I groaned as she opened her mouth and let me kiss her properly. Our mouths moved in time with one another, the need to have her building at a blinding rate. Grabbing her by the waist, I picked her up. She squealed and wrapped her arms around my neck like she was going to fall. But I would never let her fall. I would never let anything bad happen to her again. Whether she wanted it or not, I was her dark angel.

Carrying Beck to the bed, I laid her down, and the kiss went from passionate to ten-alarm blaze in a blink. Each stroke of her hand over my shoulders lit a fire as surely as any flame. The heat was spreading throughout my body until I was gasping for air and more at the same time.

“Do you know how beautiful you are,” I asked, breaking the kiss to nibble along the side of her neck. Her blood was pumping fast under my lips, and if I closed my eyes, I could feel the faint thump of her heartbeat. “And you smell so sweet.” Burying my face in her hair, I breathed in. “Just like fresh baked cookies. You make me want to devour you,” I growled, and her fingers gripped my shoulders harder.

Lifting my head, I looked down into her eyes and saw the passion swirling like a storm. So many nights I’d dreamed of holding someone like this, and then that someone took on her face. For so long, it seemed like an impossible fantasy to have anyone in my life who would see me as anything more than a monster…Adalyn had proved that to me.

Beck didn’t look scared, and I knew she had a good heart, one full of love, and I wanted to bask in that for as long as I could. Taking the chance, I kissed her again. I was addicted to her and couldn’t think straight. Being buried inside her was all that played through my mind, but what the fuck did I know about sex?

Breaking the kiss with a gasp, I sucked in a deep breath as I tried to rein in the wild desire threatening to take over my sanity.

“I feel like I’m at a disadvantage. You know what I look like, but I don’t know what you look like.” Her fingers skimmed over the leather of the mask. “Will you take it off and let me see you?”