Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars 1)

Rage spiraled through his body. Barely contained.

I blinked, my head shaking. “You don’t owe me anything.”

He laughed a bitter sound, and he took another step forward, his voice a growl. “Maybe not, but that doesn’t mean you didn’t just become my responsibility.”

“What does that even mean?”

His head shook, his expression grim. “You don’t know what vultures I might have just led to your doorstep. The bullshit I’ve been drowning in my whole life. If it followed me here? I’m out. But not before I’m certain there won’t be any bastards who come sniffing this way.”

I almost laughed. This was absurd. Absolute craziness. “I think we can be sure my life is a much bigger disaster than yours, and the last thing I can do is ask you to be my savior.”

It was bad enough I was here staying with Lyrik and his family. One day, and I was already questioning that decision.

Leif huffed out a laugh, something menacing and twisted in the rumbling sound as he took another step my direction.

The space between us shivered.

God, he was beautiful.

Terrifyingly beautiful.

His head tipped to the side. “I’m no savior. You can be sure of that. But I’ll gladly stand in the flames if it means keeping you from the fire.”

“You don’t even know me.”

He was in my space.

Invading.

Plundering.

Wrecking me without even a brush of his hand.

Oh, but then he did touch me, and that plundering turned into an all-out ravaging.

His hand slipped to my neck. Palm stretched out as he ran the tip of his thumb along the length of my jaw. Warmth streaked. A flashfire. And I knew without a doubt that I was the one who was standing in the flames.

“Like I said, you’re easy to read,” Leif murmured.

“And what do you see?” My question was shaky.

“Hope.” He edged in closer, intense eyes raking over me.

“Horror,” he continued, that thumb caressing.

He inched in until our noses brushed. His aura all around. Intoxicating.

Clove and the vestiges of whiskey.

“Hunger.” It was a grunt of need, his desire finally spilling free. “Tell me, what is it you are hungry for, Mia?”

There I was—right up against that crumbling ledge. I should scramble back. Rush for safety. But I stayed right there. At the mercy of his big, brutal hands.

“To feel something bigger than me. Something bigger than my circumstances. Something stronger than the grief and the hopelessness. You’re right, Leif. I want to feel hope. I want to feel peace. I want to feel wanted.”

He groaned, and his lips were on mine, no hesitation as he promptly pillaged my mouth.

His kiss was like candy. Crystallized brown sugar. Sharp as a knife.

His tongue tangled with mine in some war I didn’t know either of us were fighting. He groaned louder at the contact, a dark rumble of lust in his chest, and we were an instant mess of desperate mouths and clashing teeth.

He pushed me up against the wall and pinned me with that strong body.

Desire spiraled through every cell. So fierce I whimpered, and my fingers drove into his hair and raked down the sides of his neck before they sank into his shoulders.

Frantic to get him closer.

To quench this feeling that had infected me since the moment I’d seen him sitting in that corner. His draw a virus that had invaded my blood.

“Leif,” I begged, trying to get my legs around his waist, needing to feel his hard length I could feel pulsing from his jeans. He pressed himself to me, to that achy place that throbbed and begged. “Please. Make it better. Can you make it better, just for tonight?”

I thought he might be the only one who could take it away.

He pressed himself against me, grinding his hard cock against my belly. “Fuck . . . Mia . . . what are you doing to me? What are you doing? I can’t . . .”

Both of his hands found my waist the second he said it, and he tucked me against him in a forceful rock of need.

Desire slammed me in a rush of dizziness that I felt from head to toe. I shifted, begging for more. For reprieve. For him to erase our barriers. For him to fill me up and elevate me above it all.

To lift me to the stars.

His hand moved to cup my breast.

Pleasure shimmered and streaked.

He circled his thumb around my nipple.

I whimpered. “Leif. Why does it feel like I have known you my entire life? Like you’re a piece that’s been missing, and now that you’re here, I’m whole?”

It was a stupid, stupid confession. I knew it. But I had never been about playing games.

He groaned. Only this time it was in restraint, his breaths short and rasping as he forced our mouths apart. His harsh pants scraped the vacant space between us, and our foreheads rocked together as we heaved for the nonexistent air.