Page 55 of Branded By Shadow
“It is.”
“For you, maybe.”
His hands slide up my sides, then back to my hips. Firm. Anchoring. “You don’t have to know everything. You just have to tell me what you want.”
I stare at him.
“What if I don’t know what I want?”
His gaze burns into mine.
“Then I’ll teach you what you like.”
Oh.
Oh, that is absolutely unfair.
“You can’t just say things like that,” I whisper.
“I can.”
“Legally?”
His mouth curves.
A real smile.
Small.
Devastating.
Then it’s gone, swallowed by hunger.
I lower my head and kiss his chest because I need something to do with all the heat rushing through me. His skin tastes like salt and him. I kiss over one scar, then another, following the uneven map of him with my mouth.
His hand slides into my hair and holds there.
The quiet approval in it makes me braver.
“You don’t have to be gentle with me,” he says.
I lift my head.
His eyes are on me, dark and steady.
“You sure?”
“Love, I’ve been shot, stabbed, burned, and thrown off a moving truck.”
I blink. “That was not a yes. That was a medical history of bad decisions.”
His grip flexes in my hair. “Yes.”
My stomach flips.
I kiss lower.
His breathing changes.
