Chapter 43
REGGIE
She’s still shaking beneath me, every breath a tremor I can feel through my palms.
Her eyes are glassy, her lips parted, the kind of beautiful that makes a man forget what mercy is.
I should move. I should give her space.
But I don’t.
Because I can’t.
I drag my thumb over her throat, feeling her pulse still hammering against my skin.
It’s the most dangerous feeling I know. It’s proof she’s alive, proof I could break her.
And God help me, I want to.
She doesn’t even realize what she does to me when she looks at me like that. It’s the look that makes men start wars. And I’ve already lost mine.
She whispered his name once. Not loud. Just a breath. I’m not sure she even knew she did it. But I heard it.
Rowan.
My brother. We share everything—money, blood, the same darkness. But her? I don’t know if I can.
I saw the flash in her eyes when he walked by tonight. The want. The curiosity. The fear. I should’ve been angry. Instead, I felt it too. The image of her between us. His hands on her, my face between her legs.
Me dominating her while she makes him cave. It nearly unmade me.
I could give her that fantasy. Easily. Rowan would say yes before the words left my mouth. But I know what it would cost me. Because once I see another man touch her, I’ll never unsee it. Brother or not. I want her to myself, and I know he wants the same.
Bella King isn’t an agreement. She isn’t just a fuck.
She’s more than either of us could ever comprehend.
I press my forehead against hers, forcing my thoughts to quiet. Because right now, she is mine.
Her fingers brush my jaw.
That simple touch wrecks me more than any sound she’s made tonight.
“Don’t look at me like that,” I whisper.
She blinks, confused. Fuck, that innocent look on her face makes me weak.
“Look at you like what?” she whispers.
“Like I’m safe,” I say. “I’m not.”
I pull away before I forget why I shouldn’t stay.
Before I tell her the truth that the only thing stopping me from giving her every dark fantasy she’s ever dreamed of is the part of me that still wants to keep her. To be selfish.
To make her mine and mine alone, even if it destroys us both.