Give Me a Reason (Redemption Hills 1)

Eden whimpered as she opened to the kiss.

Bliss streaked down my spine.

Intense.

Blinding.

While my mind began to spin with the impossibility.

Words on repeat.

What if I don’t want to let you go?

What if I don’t want to let you go?

Wanted to make it real. Hold her forever. To be the guy who could be right for her. Be good enough for this amazing woman who looked at me like I could be something better. Even after the evil that’d gone down tonight.

Fuck. I wanted to trust in this. For her to trust in me.

Guilt constricted at the thought. So tight. But I couldn’t do anything but shove it down when Eden whispered against my lips again, “Don’t let me go.”

She breathed the plea through the kiss. Tender fingertips ghosted over my shoulders and across my chest, like this girl was asking for permission. Begging for that invitation I wasn’t quite sure how to give. She broke away to peek up at me. Autumn eyes sucked me right down into the depths of who she was. “Don’t let me go.”

This feeling speared through the middle of me. Something bigger and brighter than I’d ever felt before.

My palm spread across the side of her head, fingers dipping into her hair, my thumb tipping back her chin.

Eden pinned me with the raw truth of who she was.

“Because I’m right here, and I’m going to hold onto you, too,” she promised.

Her gaze traced over me through the steam-hazed light in the bathroom.

My chest tightened in this war of need and loyalty. Who I was, the promise I had made, who I had to be, up against this goodness I wanted to get lost in.

But how did a sinner, a demon like me, stand in the light?

My thumb brushed against the delicate angle of her jaw. “Want to be right, Eden. Wish that I was.” The confession was gravel.

“And what if you’re exactly what I need?” Eden’s words were a breath of desire mixed up with this gush of adoration that I didn’t deserve. “What if you are what I’ve been waiting for?”

I spun her around. A gasp of surprise raked from her throat when I had her belly pressed to the counter, my body pinning her to the stone. I took a fistful of her hair and leaned over her shoulder so I could swipe the mirror. Our reflection came to life through the heated mist.

Eden’s face was flushed. Flesh kissed in pink. Those eyes so real and that face so pretty.

Goodness spilled out, shrouded by the darkness of who I was as I hovered behind her.

“Look at us, Eden. Look at you against me. Don’t you get it? I’m no good.”

My free hand splayed across her trembling stomach, pulling her back against the rigid planes of my body, my mouth pressed to her ear, “And still, I want it. I fuckin’ want you. Want in you. To be with you. To live and die for you.”

Blasphemy.

At the greatest expense, I was given a second chance.

And there I was, slipping into treason.

Eden’s expression deepened. Every line slashed like a sworn oath. “It doesn’t matter who you were or what you’ve done, Trent. It matters who you are now. And that man? He already has me.”

She took my hands, weaving our fingers together and stretching our arms out wide. A perfect picture of who we were. Darkness getting ready to swallow the light.

And she lifted her chin.

Succumbing.

And I was done. No reserves left. Nothing to do but spin her around and hike her up, her perfect weight in my arms. “Eden…baby…what have you done to me?”

A tiny jolt of a moan escaped her as she wrapped her legs around my waist. Her arms curled around me, way up high as I held her sweet body against my chest.

She gazed down at me, those eyes nothing but a soft caress. “I’m yours.”

And it was Eden who kissed me, girl slanting down to consume my mouth. To consume my soul. Calling me into a sanctuary. A minute’s reprieve.

Heaven.

Knew I was holding it in my arms.

I kissed her back, our tongues a tangle of need. Of desire. Of something bigger than the both of us.

Because I could feel it pressing against the walls as I carried her back out into my room.

The energy that lashed.

Shocks of intensity.

Sparks of life.

I carried her toward my bed while the girl writhed over me. Tiny whimpers of need slipped between our mouths and whispered from our tongues.

There was no rational thought left. No restraint. No good sense.

The only thing that was going to happen right then was a claiming.

This girl was mine.

A frenzy made its way into our kiss.

Eden kissing me like it was what she’d been born to do. Like this moment was destined. Like she wouldn’t go back if she could. Like she wouldn’t change the mistake of ever walking into my club.