Chapter 50
FIFTY
brINLEY
“Brinley.” That time when he murmured my name it was in surrender. A complete giving that surged through him, so distinct I felt his body bow.
It was directly followed by a hammering of possession that seeped from his hands and into my bloodstream as he dragged me the rest of the way against him.
Walls toppled as he crushed his mouth against mine.
It was a dizzying assault that spun me into a jumble of need and relief and joy.
This kiss?
It was desperate and freed.
Wild and untamed and really freaking messy.
Almost as messy as this situation, I was sure, but those were the little details that didn’t matter much right then.
His kiss was close to aggressive in its demand, the muscles in his big body flexing in their need to get me closer.
But there was a smile behind that kiss, both of ours, I thought. A dancing light licking against the darkness that surrounded us.
My heart pressed so full against my chest that I couldn’t breathe. I could only feel, given over to the perfect delirium that thudded through my veins.
Silas choked a laugh into the kiss, and a big palm settled on the side of my head so he could angle me just right as he alternated between kissing me deeper and mumbling, “Is this real, baby? Is this real?”
“It’s real,” I whispered back. “It’s the realest thing I’ve ever felt.”
“How’d we get here?” His arms curled around my waist, and he spun us, lifting me a fraction off my feet.
His hold soft and tumultuous.
“Because it’s where we’re supposed to be.”
I had to believe I was brought here for a reason. That I’d been called. That maybe Dereck had been, too. An unknowing partner commissioned to bring me home.
A euphoric giggle rolled up my throat.
It was really difficult to process it, to fully grasp it, my mind spinning with the truth that this was what I wanted.
After I’d chosen to be alone for so long, thinking that hedge I’d surrounded myself was better. That I was stronger that way when I’d never been so certain or powerful right then.
Silas grinned beneath the manic kiss. “What are you laughing about, Little Wildfire?”
My palms skimmed down the rough stubble on his cheeks. Sensation zinged up my arms and streaked through my insides. “That I get this.”
Without breaking the kiss, he lifted me fully from the ground and began to carry me back through the woods.
He released garbled words against my lips. “You get all of this. All of me. I don’t think there was a chance I could have let you leave.”
A needy moan rose in my throat, and my fingers dove into the soft locks of his hair as he kissed me senseless.
He never broke that kiss as he carried me beneath the branches that whisked and rippled above us and to the front door of his house.
He slowed the kiss a fraction as he fumbled around behind me and opened the door with one hand then quietly latched and locked it behind us.
The energy magnified even more as he slowly climbed the stairs, his kiss verging on adoring as he held me with my feet dangling below me into the dusky glow of his room.
The scantest light babbled in from the window and cast the space in a glittery warmth.
Silas laid me down on the plush linens of his bed. He remained at the end of it, gazing down at me where I writhed in anticipation.
We both knew what this had come to.
He appeared a mountainous shadow. Every rocky, abrasive edge of him held in a frailty that I’d never seen him wear before.
“You’re sure you want me?”
God, why did that make my heart ache?
“I have never wanted anyone or anything the way I want you, Silas Mercer. Maybe it’s inexplicable. Maybe it doesn’t make any sense for either of us. But I know where I belong. With you.”
“Wildfire.”
He murmured it.
Praise.
A claim.
A final decision.
Because when his expression shifted, every crease and corner hardened in domination. He curled his hands in the bottom hem of his tee.
Sparks in his hazel eyes as he slowly peeled his shirt up and over his head.
My breath left me.
A heaving gush as I took him in without a shirt. Solid, packed muscle rippled under his skin. Strength defined in every inch.
My attention went to that tattoo that stood out above all the rest.
It’s your heart.
He set one knee onto the bed, and he slowly crawled over me.
My own heart careened as I set my hand over the words.
He bracketed me with his arms, hands planted on either side of my head to hold himself up.
“That’s what you are now.” His murmur was rough. “My heart.”
My nod was as thick as the lump in my throat. “And you’re mine.” I let a little lightness weave into the heaviness as I brushed my fingertips over his full lips.
“And I’m not about to share you, King.”
He gruffed a sound of amused rebuttal and nipped his teeth at my fingertips. “You telling the president what to do now?”
“Did you expect anything less?”
“No, baby.” He whispered that. Awe fluttering out. “I met my match. The one who was sent to show me my place. Exactly where I was meant to be.”
His stare grew vehement, the mood slipping into seriousness, his eyes flicking all over my face as he reached out and brushed back a curl from my face. “I won’t be touching anyone else but you for the rest of my life.”
My life.
I heard the promise behind it.
“Good because you’re the only person I want touching me.”
He wrapped his hand around my wrist as my fingers continued to flutter over his lips. He kissed across them, inhaling a deep, tremulous breath. “The ways I’m going to touch you, Brinley. The ways I’m going to have you.”
Desire gathered on the horizon. Lighting up my insides in orange and red flames.
“I like the sound of that.”
His chuckle was rough, though his words turned reverent. “I’m going to take care of you. Treasure you. Shower you in everything you didn’t know you wanted.”
My stomach flipped, and my blood pounded.
“I didn’t know I wanted any of this. Not until I met you,” I admitted.
“And I think somewhere in the back of my head, I did want it. I wanted someone who made me feel this way. But I was never fool enough to dream that I might actually have it.”
“It’s yours, Silas.”
A growl rolled his powerful chest. “That’s right, Brinley. You’re mine. Mine to cherish. Mine to worship. Mine to adore.”
Every word swelled through me on a wave of affection.
He dipped down and kissed along my jaw, and I reached up and lightly threaded my fingers through his hair.
Inhaled everything that he was.
The degeneracy and the righteousness.
The corruption and the integrity.
The brash harshness up against all his sweet.
He let one hand slide down my side, gliding over the divots of my ribs. The pad of his thumb brushed over my breast.
Sensation pebbled my nipple.
“You’re so beautiful, Brinley. Stole the breath right out of my lungs the second you stepped from your brother’s car. Knew you were going to be my end when you did. I just didn’t know what that meant.”
I arched, and the fabric of my tee brushed against the rigid strength of his bare chest, seeking the connection.
To feel the violent ravaging of his heart as he murmured his confessions to me.
“My match. The match. The wildfire I didn’t see coming. Burning up my world and setting fire to my heart.”
“I thought you were the most dangerously gorgeous man I’d ever seen,” I whispered into the chaos. “But I never thought in a million years I’d fall in love with you.”
I almost regretted letting it go with the way Silas’s body went rigid, and everything slowed as he pressed up onto his hands so he was hovering over me.
His beautiful face tortured and severe.
“I guess I should have known I’d fall in love with you.
You were a lightning strike in the darkness that ruled my life.
A shooting star falling from the heavens and taking me down with you.
Warmth in the cold. I’ve spent so many years allowing hatred to drive me.
But this love will be what’s driving me now, Brinley.
This massive amount of love that I’ve got for you.
You were the only one who could break through the stone, and now, every broken piece belongs to you. ”
“I love you.” I said it straight.
“I’m so fucking in love with you that I’ve forgotten to breathe without you here. The second you walked out the door…”
His tongue swiped over his lips.
“Even though there was no chance you were getting over the wall…” He quirked an accusatory brow, then the words went gruff, “I knew the wall I’d erected between us was one I couldn’t bear.”
“Who would have thought the one I believed my captor was my ultimate destination?”
“Guess you should have known all along that you belonged to me.” He hooked my leg up over his hip when he said it, just putting enough pressure at my center to feel the hardness that begged back.
He rocked against me, slow but sure.
Tiny fireworks sparked behind my eyes. A promise of what was coming.
I clawed at his shoulders, and he released a low chuckle at my ear. “Not even close to having you yet, and you’re already lighting up.”
“I need you.”
“You have me, baby. And you always will.”
Silas carefully edged back and rose up on his knees.
His skin crawled with lust. With desperate, tapped need. He curled his fingers into my tee. “Gonna strip you bare. You good with that?”
“I’m already bare, Silas. Stripped bare because of you.”
I sat up a little so he could lift my shirt over my head. Cool air brushed my flesh as he pulled it free and tossed it to the floor.
I wasn’t wearing a bra, and he heaved a breath and cupped my left breast. “So damned pretty. So sexy. Nothing but a fantasy that bashed through the armor in my world.”
I pushed into his touch, tilting my head back in pure supplication.
“Please,” I whispered again. Just in case he didn’t get the hint.
“No need to beg, my eager girl,” he rumbled into the tension that hung heavy in the room. “It’s already yours. Lay back.”
It was a soft grunt, and I hurried to comply, the rise and fall of my chest stuttered as my head hit the pillow.