“Great balls of fire. You aint got no shame, do you? Beau would’ve killed me if he knew I was snuggling up with you like this.”
“Then I would’ve killedhim,” he slithers in a voice I’ve never heard before. It’s a dark voice, a voice that drips of ferocity and the kind of strength that makes me think of brutal battlegrounds, of sweat and blood splatter and it’s a voice that doesn’t match my image of Revenge.
“You wouldn’t,” I whisper, “you aint got it in you. Aint no bad bone in your whole gigantic body.”
He lets out a sound that’s a mix between a grunt and a snort and I hide an eye roll.Men.Always trying to prove they’re much mightier than they actually are and I hold down a sigh.
“I doan care, Rev, you know that?” I murmur and he tilts his head slightly to the side. “I can tell it bothers you, you aint the man I asked for in the barn but I doan care. I aint trying to ruin your male pride, I just doan want you to feel less than.”
“Right.”
Okay, so he doesn’t sound super happy and I figure I better stop talking about it but then I let out a frustrated sound because I can barely fit in the bed. It’s bigger than my own but Revenge is taking up so much space that I’m close to falling off.
“Mind scooching a little?” I shove at him but my eyes round in surprise because it’s like shoving at a tractor and there’s no way I can budge him.
“I’m fine like this,” Revenge rasps and I gawk at his unwillingness to compromise. “If you don’t like it, then get on top of me.”
My body goes soft and my mind goes blank. Get up on him? As in giddy up? I do wonder what his body feels like and unless I take him up on his offer, I’ll fall off the bed so I roll on top of him. He drags a deep inhale and I can barely see him in the dark, except for when thunder lights up the room. And when it lights up, Revenge’s eyes seem to be swirling with secrets.
His hands go around me and he strokes my lower back until I want to moan. I keep so much tension there, from everything going on with the farm and the death threats but he loosens it up, masterfully. I put my hand up to his face and stroke his symmetric jawline. He doesn’t have stubble as if he borrowed the extra razor in the bathroom to shave.
“Your skin is like silk,” I moan, “you have the face of a statue...like you been carved from marble.”
“I’ve been carved from ice and shadows, lamb,” he says in a quiet tone and I bite my lip because I’m barely listening, so consumed by his features and the feel of him that I don’t hear him.
“Hm?” I whisper and he shakes his head as if to say it wasn’t important. I stop touching his face and feeling bold, my hands trickle down to his buttoned up nightshirt when he clasps my two wrists with his one hand.
“No.”
My eyes flare. “Please, Rev. You’re overheating in all that flannel and I doan want you dying from heatstroke. What are you hiding underneath your clothes?” I throw him a pleading glance. “Let me see.”
He holds me tight before letting go. “Have a look then,” he breathes between his teeth.
Eagerly, I button up Revenge’s shirt and he’s barely breathing and the few inhales he drags are short and sharp and when I’ve finally unbuttoned him, I pull the shirt aside and stare. It looks like some kind of maze of darkness but then lightning illuminates the room and I notice a pattern.
It’s strange with symbols reappearing several times and he’s inked all over his torso and down his muscular arms.
“What are they?” I whisper in fascination because I’ve never seen anything like it.
“Runes.”
“What do they say?”
Revenge cups my neck. “Things that mean something to me.” His eyes bore into mine. “Important things I don’t speak of.”
“Can I touch them?” I whisper in veneration and I’ve never wanted to touch anything more.
Giving a curt nod, Revenge rasps, “Go ahead.” I lift my hand and he adds darkly, “But use your tongue.”
I twitch, my mouth falling but then heat pools in my lower belly and I dip down with my face, flicking my tongue on the ink and Revenge lets out a groan. He likes what I’m doing to him and I fill with triumph. I follow the pattern, slowly kissing it from his abs and up, and once I reach his chest, he clasps me and presses my mouth down on his.
The first kiss is so adrenaline-charged that it stings and it both terrifies and excites me. His hunger throws me, makes me gasp for air but he won’t let me breathe and I whimper when he makes it impossible for me to reciprocate his appetite. His tongue swirls around my mouth and my heart claps in my chest as if it’s cheering this on.
It wants Revenge, wants to beat and pump and be full and loving and overflowing for him.
I’m falling even though I’m lying on top of the hardest man I’ve ever felt and even though his arms are around me, I’m still falling. My lips are soft and his are hard, my body is soft and his is hard and together we melt and concoct and make something that’s entirely our own.
But he’s fierce and he takes and takes...