“Well, I’m not giving you up. So yeah, it’s working. I still don’t like it, babe. And I can’t promise that will change.”
She captured his face between her hands. “It doesn’t have to. I don’t dance often, only when I need that escape, that distraction.”
Gripping her hips, he pulled her hard against him. “Let me be that for you. Let me give you the distraction you need. Don’t you think I can be that for you?”
He already was . . .
“I know you’re scared—”
She pulled her head back and tilted her chin up to look at him. “But that’s just it, Rafe. You don’t know me.”
Hurt flashed through his expression, but he smiled through it, his lips curling in that uneven way that melted her. Every. Single. Time. And this time was no different. She felt out of her own skin, completely thawed against him.
His palm cupped her cheek, his touch calming her erratic pulse. “I know you,” he whispered, the rough pad of his thumb caressing her bottom lip. “I know that your kiss tastes like cherries.”
He picked up her hand, watching as his thumb now rubbed soft circles on her wrist. It was his spot, his direct link to every sensitive part in her body, including her heart. It squeezed, then picked up a gentle, thrumming, hypnotic pace in tune with his fingers as he continued to swirl featherlight patterns on her skin. “I know that the insides of your wrists make you shiver and are just as sensitive as the soles of your feet.
“I know the beautiful freckle on your shoulder and the two on the small of your back. I know the color of your eyes when you’re holding back tears and I know the sound of your laugh and the ease of your smile. I know you don’t like to be touched while you sleep but that you love to press against me in the mornings. I know that you bite when you shatter, and I know the way you tremble when you do.
“I know you, babe. I’ve memorized you. And if you’d let me, I’d memorize your heart. I know how to make it beat a little faster. Just tell me how to make it mine.”
“I don’t know, Rafe. God, I want to let you. I want to love you the way you deserve to be loved. But I don’t know how.”
He smiled. “You don’t need to know how. That’s what you’ve got me for. Fuck, babe. I’m not going to let you walk away from me because you’re scared. Let me love you until you don’t know anything other than my love for you.
“You own me, gorgeous. My heart already belongs to you. You just need to give me yours.”
Heat swelled behind her eyes, stinging; intruding hot tears filled above her lashes, wanting desperately to spill. Grabbing his hand, she laced her fingers through his and placed it on her chest over her heart. “It’s been yours. You stole it a while ago.”
That wasn’t true. She’d given it to him, placed it inside his own chest, the very moment he gave her his. She just hadn’t realized it.
His mouth connected with hers, slow and determined, and she felt his beautiful, damaged lips pull into a smile against hers. “I love you, gorgeous.”
Stalling, the words caught in her mouth. If she did this, said this, there was no going back.
She was so completely broken because of him, surrounded by the shards of her walls, yet irreversibly mended.
He opened his eyes and she was lost. Lost in their depth, their honesty, their tenderness. But she was enslaved by their desire, imprisoned by their ferocity, their passion.
His lips smoothed against hers gently, almost careful, and she ached. He wasn’t kissing her; he was loving her. Telling her with his mouth.
His taste assaulted her, his tongue tangling with hers, caressing the inside of her mouth. She felt it in her soul, her heart.
Brushing a single light kiss to her lips, he looked at her.
There was a quiet intensity in his eyes, an unspoken passion. A promise that didn’t need words.
He licked his lips, tasting her, and she went weak. Everything changed in that one moment. She dove at him, her mouth sealing over his, quick and powerful. Gone was the hesitance he’d instilled in her when he stole her control, her heart.
A heavy growl, luscious and needy, vibrated from his mouth as he flipped her beneath him, pressing his body hard against her softness, sliding effortlessly inside her as her body welcomed him.
His arms tucked underneath her, wrapping her in his arms as he rocked into her, hard, claiming, controlling.
She couldn’t get enough. She needed all of him.
“I love you,” he mumbled, scattering kisses over the hollow in the dip of her throat.
“I love you too,” she whispered. “The true kind.”
He stilled inside her, his eyes flashing to hers, and he laughed once, a sweet, comforted laugh, then brought their hands to his mouth, brushing a featherlight kiss to the inside of her wrist.