I quirked a brow in silent question.
“It’s common for children who’ve been abandoned to cling to items they own. They become territorial and protective of what belongs to them.” He paused. “That doesn’t make them selfish. It’s just something they can control, something nobody can take from them.”
Did he have to be a shrink?
“Are you psychoanalyzing me again?”
“Of course, this has impacted your preference in men,” he went on. “Older, reliable—to use your term, Daddy material.”
Oh, big whoop, I had some minor Daddy issues, as if that was new. “I feel like you’re psychoanalyzing me.”
“Likewise, it’s made you competitive, protective, caring, generous… Because you’d never put someone you love through what your parents did to you.”
A breath of defeat gusted out of me. “You’re definitely psychoanalyzing me.”
He smiled faintly and took another step closer. “What was it you said? Knowledge is king, baby.”
I smashed my lips together in a thin line. I fucking hated having my own words thrown in my face.
“But I wasn’t psychoanalyzing you, Kellan.” He unnerved me when he kept easing toward me. Mere inches to go. His knee touched the side of my leg, and then his hands slid down my arms. “I was just listing some of the contrasts that make you who you are.”
I swallowed dryly, and my heart started pounding. “Oh.” My stomach flipped and tightened when I felt his fingers brushing along the backs of my thighs. “I, uh, I’m not looking for an actual Daddy. With all the kinks, I mean. That’s not my scene. I-I like dirty role-play, that’s all.”
Jesus Christ, what was he doing to me? He was moving excruciatingly slowly and flicking his warm gaze from one point to another on my face like he had all the time in the world. Meanwhile, my pulse was skyrocketing, and I didn’t know how to act.
“I didn’t think it was your scene,” he murmured. “The way you just said that—I don’t understand why you felt the need to reassure me.”
I didn’t want him to think I was into whips and chains and shit. Or that I was submissive to the point where I wanted a kink dynamic. I wasn’t.
He applied some pressure to the maddening featherlight touch of his fingers on the backs of my thighs, his firm hands kneading my flesh until he found purchase right below my ass. “I already know what you need.” He leaned in and rested his forehead to mine. Could he hear my heart race? I fucking heard it. “Someone you can let your guard down with.” He tightened his hold further, then picked me up and smoothed his hands down the backs of my legs, locking them around his hips.
I sucked in a breath and grabbed on to his shoulders.
This is it. This is it.
“Someone you don’t have to be tough with.” His low, rich voice reverberated through me, and if he didn’t kiss me soon, I’d lose my fucking mind. I felt his lips grazing my jaw, setting off shiver after shiver. Something rumbled from within his chest, and if a beast’s surrender had a sound, I’d just heard it. He dipped his chin and dropped an openmouthed kiss against my neck.
It was everything I hadn’t anticipated and everything I craved.
He pulled me flush to his body and tasted my skin while his hands roamed my back.
“Fuck,” I breathed. My fingers disappeared into his hair, and I gave him all the access he wanted.
“I never knew a boy could be so intoxicatingly dangerous.” He lifted his head again, and I was there immediately, meeting him in a hard, hungry kiss.
With my heart threatening to pound its way out of my rib cage, I poured everything into the first kiss that really mattered. I pressed myself impossibly closer to him, I swept my tongue into his mouth, and he palmed my ass and held me in place.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, I imagined hearing the echoes of metal restraints breaking and falling to a concrete floor with a thuddy, clanking sound.
I felt him growing hard against me, catapulting a ball of lust through my body.
Fuck, I was shaking. I brought one hand to his jaw and sensed how my fingers trembled against his beard.
He drew a husky breath and slipped his hands down my briefs. “I can’t find the words.” He kneaded my ass cheeks roughly, spreading them, squeezing them.
“Fuck words.” I kissed him again, and he returned with so much passion that he fried my fucking brain. He pushed his tongue into my mouth and swept it around mine, and at the same time, he ghosted a middle finger between my ass cheeks.
“I need you trembling under me,” he whispered raggedly. “I have to take it all, boy.”
I moaned and thought I’d explode with impatience. “Let’s go,” I panted. “Before you change your mind.”