When my eyes flare again, my room’s bathing in darkness, the only light coming from the crescent moon. I tense when the doorknob turns and a shadow slides into my room, soundlessly and predatory and I gasp, looking up at Nate. He’s wearing only a pair of black boxer briefs, his broad chest naked, his strong and long legs bare and he prowls toward the bed. Pinching the corner of my duvet, he pulls it to the side and my heart pounds when he slides into bed with me.
I moan when he pulls me to him, draping himself over me, tangling my legs with his and he wraps his fingers in my hair and pulls my face to his throat. “You came back,” I whimper, my mouth brushing over his skin and I hold onto him with all my strength, running hot when I feel his hardness press against my thigh as if he can’t help it.
“Wanted to hold you,” Nate whispers, his lips trickling over my face and throat, “I’ve wanted to hold you for a long time now, my sweet Amabella.” He strokes a hand down my spine. “But this night I broke. I’ve never been more terrified than when you fell through the ice today.”
“I’m s...sorry...”
He smiles in the dark, clasping my chin and turns me so I can look into his eyes. “Next time you will listen to me, won’t you?” I nod and he holds me closer, brushing his lips over mine and I start shaking. This is so gentle, so tender and warm and safe and he knows exactly what I need.
“You make me feel so protected, Nate,” I croak. “I’ve never felt this way before.”
“You’ve never been with a man?” Nate asks with a slight edge to his tone and I shake my head. “What a wonderful thing to come out of your mouth.” He laughs melodiously. “Now I don’t have to do murder.”
I put my hand on his cheek and now I’m full on trembling with need. “Won’t you kiss me, Nate?” I whisper and he hesitates for a moment, before descending down on me and our lips meet. His are firm and soft and they burn with a sweet ache and the kiss is a love potion. Gentle and caring and just adoring enough to make me need more. My lids flutter and I sigh because this is everything I’ve ever wanted.
And I’m never letting the man of my dreams go.
CHAPTER FOUR
Nathanos
This wasn’t part of the plan. She wasn’t supposed to be like this. When Bryce asked me to come for a visit to his family, I leisurely agreed but wasn’t prepared for whom I’d meet. He’d told me he had a baby sister but I was expecting a thing with braids and braces. Not a flaxen haired bombshell with sapphire eyes and a mouth made for corruption.
The Mallow’s don’t know who I am. They don’t know why I’m here. This place used to be my childhood home and my morbid curiosity made me want to see it again, but the past doesn’t matter anymore.
My past suddenly seems distant, buried now that Amabella is my future.
I’ve decided that I want her. I decided the moment I laid eyes on her and she stood in that dimly lit hallway, dressed in rags and an innocent look on her face and something inside of me screamed that she was mine. If I was a decent man, I’d pity her but since I’m not, the only pity I feel is for whoever stands between us.
She has bewitched me with her laughter, with her trusting ways and with the way she clung to me when I saved her from that lake like I was her liberator. She still looks at me that way, her eyes filled with passion whenever they land on mine and I like it. It makes me feel warm.Shemakes me feel warm.
There was a time in my life when I thought I’d kill for a little bit of warmth, but with Amabella I have an endless supply. She gives it to me freely, lets me take from her however much I want and it spikes my veins and makes me feel alive. It gives me strength, meaning. It makes me feel powerful.
That supply is everything and I don’t know what I’ll do the day it starts declining.
The sheer thought is enough to make me see red, makes my body strain with agitation and I clench my fists. I can never be without her. I don’t just want her, Ineedher. She’s a slow burning fire and she lets me sit close, she lets me listen in on all her little secrets and I blister, I swell and I erupt.
I’ll never let her pull the plug.
She’s curled up by the window, her nose buried in one of her little romances that she claims are entertaining and beautiful. Says they’ve taught her everything she knows about love and it makes me want to laugh because fuck, is she naïve. Those books should have taught her what to do when a man like me stands on your porch.
You slam the door and run.
But my little Amabella doesn’t run. She has her head full of hearts. She has a teenage crush on me and I encourage it. I encourage the rosy, little feelings she has for me out of the kindness of my heart. It’ll be a bleak day for her when those emotions color black and they will color black. I can’t help it. If I could be different, I would be. Trust me, I would but I am who I am.
A sigh crosses Amabella’s lips and she twirls her hair between her fingers, her thighs brushing and I wonder what she’s reading. When a flush covers her throat I grow jealous, because I want to be the only one responsible for her blushing.
When I walk over to her with my hands behind my back, she twitches and looks up. “Oh, you scared me, Nate,” she breathes. “I didn’t hear you. Sometimes you’re so silent.”
“Forgive me, I should have made my presence known,” I say with a smile and she drops the book. “I hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”
Her cheeks turn red and she shakes her head. “I was wondering when you would wake up.” She bites her lip and her eyes shimmer. “I’ve been waiting for you all morning.” Her body fills with yearning and she wraps her eager arms around my neck. She’s always eager, even though I sneak into her room every night to hold her and kiss her but I always leave her aching when going back to my own room before the rest of the house wakes up.
I leave her aching on purpose because I want her overflowing with need when I finally claim her.
She’s raw and innocent between her legs. It excites me and it repulses me at the same time.
Somewhere in the back of my mind where I have some remains of a conscience, I know that a man like me is supposed to leave girls like Amabella alone but she’s too delectable.Appetizing. Her purity is what makes her so tempting to me, it makes her taste sweeter, smell better and feel softer in my arms. If she was a woman with a rough and overbearing demeanor, I wouldn’t have looked twice, ignored her and found her boring.