Page 127 of Breathe Like Hell

“Show me,” he murmured, fingertips brushing my jaw, just barely. A whisper of comfort in the storm. “Give me a reason to believe you.”

I nodded, then turned and crawled a few yards to the cliff’s edge before laying on my back, the top of my head just barely off the edge. Micah stood up and walked in my direction, gazing down at me lying on the ground for him.

“Farther,” he ordered.

I obeyed him without thinking.

I trust you so much. More than I should.

I listen to you.

I pushed back further off the edge of the cliff, the wind sweeping under my skull, twirling in my hair. Micah wasn’t touching me still, but he was here. I’m safe with him here.

“Farther,” he ordered again, standing over me.

Again, I followed his instructions instantly.

I used the heels of my boots to push my whole body back a few more inches, my head unsupported now, the tops of my shoulders breaching the edge of the drop. Shallow, nervous breaths slipped between my parted lips, my stomach all fluttery. I swore I could feel the heat of his body from here, softening the bite of the wind.

He knelt, his knees on either side of my midsection, bringing his warmth so much closer.

“Show me,” he started, “how much you trust me.”

My palms were sweating now, my heart slamming on my ribcage as I got a fresh hit of my drug of choice. Pure fear. Clear and liquid, dumping into my veins with my adrenaline. It was only made better by the promise of obedience I exhaled in every wind-veiled breath.

I pushed backwards until every other thought in my brain disappeared, all of them dropping off the cliff and hitting the ocean-wrapped rocks below me. Micah was the only thing that existed, kneeling over me, watching me obey him to the edge of my own life.

His hand wrapped sacredly around my throat, fingers laying over my pulse.

A shuddering exhale escaped me as he pulled my body back onto the solid ground below him, lowering himself to put his forearms on the ground next to my shoulders. His eyes hooked on mine, his irises made of silver steel and blue ice and cold satisfaction.

Micah leaned down. I didn’t move an inch, hardly breathing.

Nothing more than the space of a single exhale existed between us.

I looked down at his mouth.

And then he kissed me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

DAKOTA

Micah kissed me deep and hard and rough and messy. He kissed like he was fucking me with his mouth. Ferociously claiming every breath of mine for himself.

I clung to him, parting my lips for his tongue, whimpering into his perfect mouth, all of my longing cascading into our kiss.

“Fuck, Dakota,” he groaned, rolling my body over on top of his, my long hair falling on either side of us like a curtain, separating us from the rest of the world. A predator and his prey, reuniting in the dark. “You belong to me.”

“I do.” I nodded.

“You’re fucking mine.” His voice was pure gravel, pure sin, pure dominance over me. Utterly uncontested.

“I am,” I panted, the hint of a desperate whine bleeding into my tone. My eyes were flicking rapidly back and forth between his, seeking reassurance.

“No matter what.”

“No matter what,” I echoed.