Tears stung her eyes at that compliment. She’d never been so seen or celebrated in all her life.
For as long as she could recall, she’d never been enough. Even perfection had not been enough.
But to Tom? It was her rejection of perfection that made her glorious.
She let out a shudder and dropped her head back, offering him the curve of her throat.
She did not want him to say another word.
She did not want to say another word herself.
Words, finally, were no longer necessary. For she had found someone who she could simplybewith.
She only wished to revel in his statement, that she had done something so powerful as to choose herself, to save herself, and had chosen him to help her.
His hands roamed over her back. He took her mouth again, his lips teasing, tempting.
She could barely fathom what was happening to her, as her core began to ache with need. As the rest of her felt molten.
She’d never felt anything like it in her life and had no idea that anyone could transform her body so entirely.
Her thoughts danced at the edge of her feelings and she shoved them away. For the first time since she could remember, she allowed herself to simply feel and it was the most glorious sensation that she had ever experienced.
He lifted his head then and stroked her hair back from her face. “I’m so sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?” she breathed, licking her lips.
His eyes…
Good heaven, his eyes. He looked as if longed to devour every inch of her. As if he had every intention of making her drunk onhim.
He drew in a long breath which did the most delicious things to his muscles, expanding his already broad chest. “I must stop now because… if I do not stop, I will take you tonight, and I do not think that’s how we should do it. Not in my office on top of my desk.”
She gasped at the imagery he created in her head. “Why ever not?” she breathed.
He groaned, closed his eyes, and lowered his forehead to hers. “It feels a bit too fast,” he admitted, a breath away from her, “if I’m honest, luv, and I want to savor you slowly. I want to know every inch of you. I want to take your body and chart it like a map and learn the points of pleasure and the secret spots which cause you to moan with bliss.”
(Indent here?)She leaned into him, her heart leaping at the intimate feel of his forehead pressed to hers. “That is possibly the most shocking thing I have ever heard in my life.”
“Good,” he said. “May it be the first of many.”
He leaned away, and gently tucked her locks behind her ears.
She smiled up at him. “To the first of many,” she said before fear laced through her. “But Tom, promise me you will not abandon me. You will come to my aid. You will ruin me as I’ve asked.”
A muscle tightened in his jaw as he cupped her cheek. “Oh, luv, there is no going back now. I’ve decided just as you have, we’re going to destroy those men. And you are going to own your future. Nothing could give me more pleasure than that. Your father will never control you again,” he all but vowed.
She winced at that. She did not wish to think of her father in this moment.
But he was always there. Like a cold ghost.
“You will never have to worry about him again,” he affirmed.
“He’s one of the most powerful men in Europe,” she pointed out.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said with a casual shrug. “The more powerful, the better the fall.” He hesitated as he cocked his head to the side. “Do you want him to fall?”
She tilted her head into his palm then said fiercely, “I want him to know the suffering that he has caused. I want him to know the cruelty that he has evoked in so many and I want him to know that he no longer owns me. I own myself,” she said.