Page 124 of Temporary Vows

I march right up to her, jarring her enough that she flinches. I don’t give her the chance to back away. I grab her arm and pull her flush against me.

She tries to break free, but I hold her in place.

“What are you doing, Dorian? I?—”

I crush my lips to hers and kiss her, swallowing her protest. She goes still in my arms, and I take the chance to find the real Elodie beneath the coldness.

I kiss her, searching, waiting, but she’s still lost to me.

I cup the back of her head and deepen the kiss. Only then does her body loosen. Her guard seems to crack, and suddenly, she’s there, kissing me back like she did weeks ago.

But then she shoves me hard in the chest and pulls away.

It barely moves me. I let her go anyway, because the fury in her eyes is worse than before.

“No.” She shakes her head violently.

“No, what?”

“You’re not going to do this to me again.”

“Elodie.”

She steps away from me. “You with your stupid mind games andmindfuck kisses. Not tonight.”

I hold her gaze, savoring the one thing that stands out to me in that whole rant. “You chose the third kind.”

She glares at me as if I just spat in her food. “What are you talking about?”

“The mindfuck kiss.”

She falters, just for a second, but it’s enough. Like she’s been caught. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“I want you, Elodie.”

She stills, her face trapped in confusion. Her breath quickens, and she tries to compose herself, but it doesn’t quite work. “No. You don’t.”

“I do.” The words sound no different from how they did when I took my vows.

I step back into her space before she can move away again. She tilts her head slightly, and I reach for her again.

My fucking cock hardens when she doesn’t resist and moves to me willingly like the good little lamb she is.

I claim her mouth again, and her lips part for me. I feel her—therealher. She’s back, and I want her more than I ever did before.

I deepen the kiss, my mind already mapping out all the dirty things I want to do to her.

Every mistake I’m about to make with my little wife will be worth it.

And I’ll have no regrets.

Chapter 28

Elodie

Our bodies crash into the wall and Dorian pins me against it, caging me in.

The consuming kiss he gives me sends shivers through my mind, unraveling every thought, and every promise I made to myself about him.