Sorrow, sorrow, sorrow.
So deep and dark that my heart fisted in my chest. Emotion squeezing so tight, the tension binding us in that bare, naked moment crushing us under its weight.
“Don’t,” he commanded again, and I knew he was back to making demands.
Pride and arrogance filled his demeanor. The man control and dominance.
And I wanted to beg that he let me in. Let me hold a little of that pain.
“Tonight, you’re mine,” he repeated, those eyes spinning that ferocity through the air as he slowly climbed down onto both of his knees.
A god making an offering.
I didn’t know what to do with my hands when he reached down and unzipped one of my boots and pulled it from my foot, then turned and did the same to the other.
Ian never released me from that unnerving gaze as he did.
His tongue darted out to wet his lips when he edged up a fraction and tugged at the button of my jeans, and I was shaking more, this moment becoming so unbelievably real.
The fact I was going to give myself to this man.
Wholly.
Completely.
The sound of him dragging the zipper down hit the air like a sonic boom.
“Oh,” I whimpered at the sound, at his stare, at the emotion that twisted so tightly, as tightly as the need that rose higher and higher inside me when he hooked his fingers into the heavy material of my jeans, digging all the way down to get my underwear in his grasp.
He dragged both down my legs.
Slowly.
Purposefully.
“Shit,” he hissed, head dropping for a beat as if maybe he could possibly be half as affected as me, those hands at my calves and working the jeans off my ankles and tossing them to the side.
“You are a fucking vision.”
Hot hands smoothed up the outsides of my legs, from my ankles, over my calves, to my knocking knees, all the way up to caress my thighs.
“Did you know the second I saw you, I wanted to get lost in these legs?” He glanced up, so damned beautiful the breath I was trying to inhale hitched. “I chased you down that night, Grace, because I couldn’t imagine not getting the chance to feel them wrapped around my waist.”
His fingers dug deeper into my thighs, but I swore that it was vulnerability that flashed through his gaze. “Because I hadn’t ever been so instantly attracted to someone in all my life.”
He pressed his nose to the inside of my thigh, inhaling deep. “It was so intense, I knew I had to take the chance and go after you. The thought of never being inside of you was almost unbearable. I wanted you that fucking bad.”
His hands rode higher, under my sweater to my bottom that was bare underneath. “And now I’m going to have you.”
Those big hands squeezed my ass.
Possessively.
As possessive as his stare as he looked up at me.
And the words were falling free before I could think to stop them. “You have me. You have all of me, Ian. You have me in a way I’d never imagined a man could.”
Ian nudged my legs apart, teeth raking his plush bottom lip as he hissed, “So sweet.”
The movement inched up my sweater and bunched it at my waist.
My bare pussy was right in his face.
And I was trembling. Trembling and trembling as he looked at my nakedness as if he were being offered a gift.
He slicked a single finger through my lips, my body so wet and achy and needy that I whimpered again. “Ian. Oh God. Please.”
A dark chuckle rumbled from his massive chest. “Barely touching you, and you’re already shivering. How bad do you want me, Grace?”
He pressed two fingers into me, my walls clenching in a plea. “Why are you teasin’ me?” I whispered.
“Teasing you? I’m not teasing you, Grace. I’m just making sure you’re prepared for what I’m getting ready to do to you.”
“Ian.” It was a choked sound of surrender. My body on fire. Flames and lashes of need. A dark intensity held fast to the atmosphere, bouncing from the walls, the man the air that I was breathing.
I only sucked it down deeper when he burrowed his shoulders between my thighs and dragged one of my legs over his shoulder.
It spread me wide open.
Exposing me in a way I was sure I’d never been before.
Heart and body and soul.
All of it for him.
My fingers scraped at the wall, searching for something to grasp onto when I was certain it wouldn’t matter anyway.
I was falling.
Falling fast and hard and completely.
Crashing to the ground was going to hurt. But somehow, my spirit understood that one night with this man would be worth the pain.
Angling down, he swept his tongue through my throbbing center.
On a growl, he jerked back, those eyes flashing like a red, violent storm. “Just what I thought. A sweet, juicy plum. I want to fucking tattoo the way you taste on my tongue. Or maybe I could just taste it every damned day.”