Page 115 of Shatter

Sockets and a ratchet go bouncing across the concrete with the pieces of the carburetor.

I don't look at them.

She presses the length of her body against mine, her breasts soft against my chest, her hips grinding into me, and pulls back an inch.

"You're mine." Her voice is shaking and fierce, tears running down both cheeks. "Not the other way around, Espen. You're mine."

It goes through me like a blade.

My hands grip the edge of the bench behind me so hard the wood creaks.

Nobody's ever wanted me enough to walk into a dark garage at midnight and claim me.

She grabs the hem of my T-shirt and drags it up.

I lift my arms, and she yanks it over my head and throws it on the floor.

Her mouth finds my shoulder, and she bites down.

Hard, her teeth sinking into the muscle, a hot, sharp sting shooting straight to my cock.

I hiss through my teeth, and my hips jerk forward into hers.

She doesn't let go for a long time.

When she does, she presses her lips to the spot, soft, and I know I'll wear her mark for a week.

"Annika." I bury my face in her hair, and my accent's gone, twenty years of it sanded off in one breath. "Annika, jeg elsker deg."

She makes a sound against my throat, half sob and half moan.

Then she turns around in my arms.

She plants both palms flat on the bench where the carburetor was and arches her back, looking at me over her shoulder.

"Take me like this." Her eyes are wet and dark and steady. "From behind."

I freeze.

My hands hover an inch off her hips.

Her back's to me.

Her neck's right there, bare above the collar of my shirt, and I know what a man behind her has meant to her.

I know exactly what it meant.

"Anni." It comes out low and wrecked. "You sure?"

Instead of answering, she reaches back and pulls my palm down onto her hip.

She presses it there, flat and firm, and holds it.

"I trust you." Her voice doesn't shake at all. "Your hands. I know where they'll go."

My eyes burn.

I put my other hand on her other hip, and I leave them both right where she put them.