Dark Hearts (Light in the Dark 3)

“Both,” I plead, and I’m surprised by how broken and wanton I sound.

“I fucking love the sound of that.” His hand is on my throat and he tilts my head back. I gladly let him.

As I lean back, he glides his hand from the space between my breasts down to my shorts. My breaths come in quick, short pants. I can’t even be embarrassed.

He leans over my body, and I feel swallowed whole. I’ve never paid attention to the size difference before, but Jace is tall—over six foot—and I’m barely five-two. I feel tiny with him hovering over me. But I don’t dislike the feeling like I thought I would.

His body is warm against mine and I glide my hands over the hard planes of his abs. His skin is hot, like the fire that rages below the surface of my skin is also beneath his.

He kisses me and then pulls back.

“Bed first, counter later,” he says brokenly.

Before I can blink, he’s pulling away from me so he’s no longer stretched over me on the counter. He grabs me and picks me up again, and like before, my legs wind around his waist. He carries me over to his bed, still unmade since he just got up.

He sits down with me straddling his lap.

I gasp, surprised when I feel his hardness pressing against me.

“Don’t be so shocked.” His lips tip up. “I’m in a perpetual state of turned on any time you’re around.”

“That so?” I ask, rubbing my fingers of his smooth jaw.

He tips his head and then moves in to my neck, nuzzling against me.

“Confession,” he begins, “I jacked off in that club’s bathroom in Florida.” Shock courses through my system. He pulls back slightly. “Does that bother you?”

“Were you thinking of me?” I ask, my core clenching at the thought of him hunched over in that club bathroom touching himself as he thought of me.

He nods once.

“Does it bother you if I think that’s hot?” I counter.

“Why are you so fucking perfect?” he growls, taking my lips in his. It’s a searing kiss, one I feel all the way to my toes.

I always thought that was a myth—feeling a kiss everywhere, but with Jace, I realize it’s the complete truth. It’s like all my senses are on high alert the moment his lips touch mine.

I rock against him, my nails digging into his shoulders.

I feel content and needy all at once, and it’s a strange combination.

I was ready for this in Florida, and I think he was too but he was scared, but there is no fear now. Not for either of us.

My hands are on both sides of his face and I kiss him back with everything I have. I want him to feel how much I want this, how much I crave him, just the way he is. He’s intense and controlling and desperate and I don’t want him to hold back. I want it all because I’m the same way and I want to finally unleash that part of myself that he awakens. I spent too much of my life pretending to be a good and sweet but that’s not the real me.

“Don’t go easy,” I whisper against his lips.

His hand fists in the back of my hair, pulling my head back. “Never.”

I close my eyes, my body shaking with desire and we haven’t even done anything yet.

He awakens something in me that’s always been there, lying dormant, waiting for me to meet my match.

I don’t know where we’ll go from here, we’re two broken people trying to piece ourselves together, but maybe with each other’s help we can make something beautiful out of our messes.

Jace kisses me with a ferocious vigor, his lips bruising against mine. His hands find their way under my shirt, and he doesn’t stop until he finds the undersides of my breasts. He makes this desperate groaning sound and I fucking own that. I love knowing I undo him the same way he undoes me.

I arch into him, my body unconsciously begging for more.