A deep rumble vibrated in his chest, and he released my face to wrap his arms around me. One hand fisted in my hair while the other arm wrapped tightly around my back, holding me closer to him.
There was something possessive in the way he was holding me. And for once, I didn’t mind it. Right there in his arms . . . that felt right.
It shouldn’t, I screamed at myself, and tried to conjure images of Kyle, but all that I saw behind my eyelids was a handsome man with a wicked grin wrapped in darkness.
A devil.
Lucas tugged on my bottom lip with his teeth, eliciting a moan from me from the warm, welcome rush that followed the pain when he bit down.
His mouth moved to my jaw and then down my throat, and I tilted my head back, exposing my neck for him in a silent plea for more.
“Let me take care of you,” he begged when his lips found that sensitive spot behind my ear, his voice dripped with seduction. But there was a hesitation that hadn’t ever been there before.
My mouth parted, but I couldn’t make my throat work. I needed to tell him no but didn’t know how. All I knew was his lips and my racing heart and the heat that was spreading from my belly through my body and the need.
I tightened my grip in his hair and forced his mouth back to mine, and shivered beneath him when he growled in response.
The tips of his fingers traced faint, teasing patterns against my body as he moved slowly down my stomach. The barely there touches and eternal patience he seemed to have as he took his time were driving me crazy. The anticipation was dizzying and made it hard to breathe.
Dark, dark eyes captured mine when he broke away from me. His long, strong fingers pulled one side of my shorts down, and then the other, then repeated the process with my underwear. I lifted my hips off the bed to help him and released a shaky breath when the clothing passed my feet and Lucas tossed them on the floor. Like the touches down my body, his movements were painfully slow as he opened my legs and traced lazy designs on the in
side of my thighs.
He was giving me time to stop him.
That time was gone for me. Holding his stare, I nodded subtly and exhaled with a rush when his fingers finally touched where I was now aching. Aching from the need. Aching in anticipation. Aching for him . . .
My head dropped back onto the bed and my eyes fluttered shut as that white-hot knot inside of me tightened. I pressed closer to his hand, trying to get more. But a small part of me shied away, afraid of what more would be like with this man.
“You’re beautiful, Briar.”
I looked up at his hoarse confession to find him watching me with awe.
He captured my mouth with his, but I had to break away when breathing became too difficult. He gripped my chin and brought our lips together again. Taking and taking, a silent reminder of who was really in control. A silent reminder that I would always get the devil with Lucas.
As if I could forget.
My chest ached with the need to breathe, but I continued to give more of myself to that kiss and welcomed the way he took.
With the last of my air, I whispered, “More,” against his lips.
That wicked grin I had seen so many times pulled at his mouth, but no fear entered my body. The sight of it, combined with the look he was giving me, had me vibrating expectantly, because I knew he was about to give me what I’d asked for.
He sat back until I released my hold on his hair, but his fingers never stopped their pleasant torture. My hands fell to his shoulders then slid to his chest where he gently grabbed both of my wrists in his free hand. After brushing his mouth across my joined wrists, he looked up at me from under those thick lashes, and that grin came back.
He bent, his mouth finding my nipple through the thin cotton of my shirt, as he slammed my arms down on the bed above my head and bit down at the same moment he pinched my sex.
I cried out in shock and pain but then moaned at the body-wracking shiver that moved down my spine immediately after.
He sucked on my nipple through the shirt as his fingers brought me to a high I couldn’t explain.
And just when it got to be too much, there was the same pain followed by even greater pleasure, and I wondered if a person could die from this kind of ecstasy.
It felt like our bodies were a battle of the brightest day and the darkest night—and I wanted to lie in the wake of their war.
But somehow, even in that moment, I knew our war was far from over.
My body tightened and my breaths came out broken, ragged. “I . . . I,” I forced out. “Lucas, I—”