“Not until now. I’ve never said that shit to another living soul.”
It’s all she needs to hear.
Her hand comes to my face, covering my bottom lip, her finger lingering. Stroking. Teasing. Caressing me to sin.
She leans in, her tongue tracing the inside of my lip before I feel the harsh tip of her teeth.
I’m out.
I’m no longer in my own fucking body in this state.
With a rough snarl, I scoop her up in my arms, toss her over my shoulder, and start moving with my hand grabbing her ass.
Dakota lets out a messy squeal.
“Lincoln! What are you doing?”
I don’t answer. Not with words.
I just carry her to the outdoor sofa behind us and fling her down under me. I need to cool off in the night before I self-combust. I pull her on my lap, already addicted to the soft contrast of her hair in my hand and all the ways I want to take her apart.
“Look at me,” I whisper hoarsely.
“What?” Her eyes are glowing.
“You heard me.”
The moment she does, I twine her hair around my fingers. I clasp it and pull, firmly but gently, worshipping the way her head falls back. Her eyelids flutter shut and a gasp slips out of her.
I almost come in my pants.
“Goddamn, Nevermore,” I whisper. “God fucking damn.”
The side of her face moves against my chest and she wraps her arms around me. We stay like that for a fraught minute, both of us trying to breathe, obsession running like a current in my blood.
“It’s a beautiful night,” she whispers.
“You have no idea,” I growl back, making sure she knows I mean what’s laid out in front of me.
I’ve been on fire since our lips met, and the way she’s pressed so snug against me isn’t helping one bit. But the smile she gives me a second later makes my desire go nuclear.
“Now who’s teasing?” Her eyelashes sweep low and her face glows red.
I have to devour her. Have to.
Have to do it right now in the quiet hole of night while I’m a flaming wreck, leaving any grim consequences for morning.
“You drive me insane,” I tell her.
“Oh, please. You have no idea what it’s like to be at arm’s length—always a kiss away from disaster every day.”
Away from you, she means.
Her confession makes my entire being throb.
“No, but I do know what it’s like fighting tooth and claw to keep an enticing woman away even after you know she’s thought about fucking you. Hell, after knowing she’s written about it.”
She blushes and bites her lip and I am so completely gone.
I grab Dakota’s waist, my fingers digging into her skin, raw hunger strumming every nerve I have like a heavy metal ballad.
“It was totally inappropriate,” she whispers.
“That’s a funny way of saying it was hot as hell,” I growl back. “I only gave you shit about it because of the effect it had—”
“Effect?”
“You don’t know? You don’t know how many times I’ve jacked off to being your Ivory Adonis, Nevermore? And I’m not a man who makes a habit of using my hand.” My voice is rough gravel being tossed around. “Even before you butt-emailed me that poem, the times I thought about it—”
“No way!” she hisses, shaking her head in disbelief.
“What?” I narrow my eyes.
“You’re just playing it up now. I can’t believe you thought about that with me. I’m just average and you’re...” She swallows thickly without finishing that thought.
I smile like the devil.
“Average isn’t a word I’d ever use to describe you. I only wish you knew your own worth, Dakota Poe,” I whisper, moving in.
“What worth?” she whispers faintly.
My nostrils flare as I inhale her, my soul bristling at how close, how aroused she is.
Her stubborn disbelief makes me want to show her how wrong she is. A lesson in red madness that’ll take all night and leave us both spent.
“Now, you’re just pissing me off,” I whisper. “You refused to sell me a cinnamon roll for five hundred dollars. You’re not intimidated by me, and you’re so beautiful it almost knocks me on my back. When I tell you how special you are and you don’t believe it...you don’t even know, Nevermore. You cannot comprehend the shit I want to do to you to prove it.”
I feel her shudder.
“God, you’re shameless, Mr. Burns,” she whispers.
“Don’t call me that.”
She blinks at me.
“Mr. Burns. We’re past that. I’m Lincoln when we’re alone like this, and nothing else,” I breathe against her lips, my cock throbbing every time I remember how much I love hearing my name on her tongue.
“...do you think we’ll be alone like this more than once?” she asks eagerly.
“You think we won’t? You’re the one who wants this to last forever. I’m no poet, but forever usually means more than one night.”
“Fair point, Romeo.” She picks up my hand and kisses my fingertips, slowly and softly and one at a time, turning me inside out.