Chapter Five
Katriona
It’s crazy that I want to make him promise all those things and more. This is all wrong and so right on so many different levels. It’s insane I want to know what it’s like to belong to a man as powerful as he is, and I’m suddenly filled with an unsettling wave of shame. He’s supposed to be the bad guy, the monster everyone fears. And here I am wanting him to pleasure my body past anything I’ve ever felt before. What kind of person does that make me?
I chance a look up into his eyes as he works my foot between his powerful hands. He’s like a vortex and I’ve been sucked in. His firm hands are divine, and I’m imagining what they’ll feel like on the rest of my body.
I’m drawn to him not only because he’s gorgeous with his perfect jawline and dark, haunted eyes and rough smoky voice, but because of how he makes me feel.
The material of his shirt pulls across his broad shoulders and he’s rolled the cuffs up to reveal thick forearms that flex with each movement. With each stroke of his thumbs across my arch, I feel myself relaxing.
Power swirls around him like a force of protection and something to fear all at once. It’s so thick it fills this room and makes the hair on my arms rise from the currents rushing through the ample space.
He rests my foot on his chest and runs a hand up the inside of my leg, never taking his eyes off my body.
“You will never fear me, mo chroí. As long as you are in my arms, in my bed, in my home you will never have reason to question this.” He’s not looking at me and reading minds aren’t exactly a thing, so how is it he knows my thoughts?
“I’m not the monster you may think I am. I’m firm when I have to be but fair, and I protect what is mine. And Katriona. In case you don’t know it. That means you.” Now he raises his gaze, and I’m shocked by the intensity that I see. “You’re mine. Now and forever. Mine to love, mine to keep close and mine to protect.” His voice climbs, and my heart starts pounding hard and fast with every word he is saying.
I pull my foot from his grasp and sit up. “I never said I thought you to be a monster, Sy. Did you hear those words come from my mouth? No.”
A mask slips over his features and he closes himself off to me. Damn it.
“You don’t have to. Your eyes do all the talking. You play a good game of distraction always running your mouth while you shield your true thoughts. But I can see.” He pauses and I can already feel him cutting the ties between us one tethered string at a time.
“Maybe you should leave. I’ll provide you with the protection you need and set you up with accounts. You’ll never lack again. This I can promise.” He strokes a hand down my cheek before slipping it behind my head and pulling me within an inch of his lips. He presses his forehead against mine. “But I can’t have you looking at me like you can’t trust me.”
The shame I felt only moments ago ghosts me, morphing into a fear that he will reject me and return me back to the shell of a life I’ve been kidding myself with. Because without him I know my life will be meaningless.
“How is it possible I want you so much that it scares me? That’s the real fear I have, Sy. I can’t trust my own feelings because I can’t wrap my brain around the idea that I feel connected to you in a way that is beyond my understanding.”
I fall to my knees between his legs and take his lips in a warm kiss. He drives his fingers into my hair and tightens his hold, and I fall under his power instantly.
I moan and swallow his growl, teasing his tongue with mine. I taste the soft, warm confines of his mouth. I don’t have to tell my body to relax. I melt into his arms, the contours of his bulging muscles and nip at his lower lip, pulling back enough to see the fire ignite in those dark eyes of his.
“I want to be yours. If you’ll have me,” I say against his mouth.
He smiles and I see the man behind the mask once again. He stands and pulls me with him, and I’m back in his arms.
His lips claim mine.
Pleasure explodes in me, and I’m lost in his addictive taste once again.
“Turn around,” he mutters against my lips, and it’s then that I realize we’re across the room standing in front of the windows.
“Put your hands on the glass.”
I do as he gruffly orders. The hiss of the zipper to my uniform hits my ears, and I tremble as he lowers it an inch at a time. He peels the harsh material forward and leaves me bare to him in the morning light, my uniform a yellow puddle of cloth at my feet.
I hear him inhale harshly and turn to look over my shoulder to see a hunger in his eyes I’ve never seen in a man before.
“I’ve waited a long time to have you. I’m going to be hard and fast, make you come and then I’m taking you home. Once I have you there you won’t be leaving until I have my fill. And that’s not going to be for a very long time.”
He brushes the tips of his fingers over my arms, down the dips of my waist and rests his large hands on my thighs.
“You’re breathtaking and absolutely perfect.”
He knows I am about to contend his assessment of me. How I don’t know, but I clamp my mouth shut when he continues.