Chapter 11 #2
Admiration flickers in her expression—the kind that reaches straight through my ribs and squeezes.
When she looks at me like that, like I’m someone worthy of her respect and her affection, I almost believe it myself.
I forget the darkness, the blood on my hands, and the lies I’ve built between us. For a few moments, at least.
“It still has to clear state and federal hurdles. I don’t like tempting fate.” I hold out my hand. “Dance with me.”
The words stop her mid-sip. She blinks, not expecting the invitation. After a moment’s pause, she places the glass on a server’s tray and slides her fingers into mine. Her touch is warm, with the barest tremor running through it.
“I should warn you, I’m terrible at dancing like this.” She steps closer. “Put on some Taylor Swift or Rihanna, and I’ll show you moves that’ll make your head spin, but this fancy footwork?” She glances down between us. “You might be sorry you didn’t wear steel-toed shoes.”
I guide her onto the polished floor. “I’ll take my chances.”
She barely reaches my shoulders, her hand small and delicate in mine. Despite her protests, her movements are graceful, her body responding to my lead like we’ve done this a thousand times before.
The orchestra swells with something slow and haunting. She settles into my arms, her free hand coming to rest over my racing heart.
“See?” I guide her through a simple turn. “Not terrible at all.”
Her lips quirk up at the corners. “That’s your expertise talking. I’m just trying not to maim you.”
A sound escapes me, something between amusement and disbelief. When was the last time someone made me smile at one of these events?
“You could step on both my feet, and I wouldn’t care.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
We drift together across the floor, her body molding to mine like she belongs there.
Heat radiates from every point where we touch—my palm against her back, our fingers intertwined, the whisper of space between her chest and mine.
The urge to close that distance claws at me.
I want to crush her against me until I can feel her heart hammering against my own and press my face into the curve of her neck where her perfume mingles with something uniquely her.
I want to wrap myself in her until she’s all that remains, until everything else fades into nothing.
But I can’t. Not here. Not now.
Even as I tell myself that, I pull her closer. My hand spreads wider across her back, feeling every breath she takes.
“Thank you for bringing me tonight.” Her voice flows between us, soft and private. “I can tell these events aren’t your thing, but what you’re doing for animals… it matters, Damien. It really does.”
“You know what matters?”
“What?”
“This. How good you feel in my arms.” The confession tumbles out unfiltered. “How right this feels.”
She stumbles. Just a small misstep, but I catch her, steadying her against me. Her face flames red. “You can’t just say things like that.”
“Why not?” I dip my head until my lips brush her temple. “It’s true.”
Her fingers curl into my jacket, gripping the fabric. “Because you make it very hard to remember this is just...”
“Just what?” I prompt when she trails off.
She looks up at me, conflict written across her features. “I don’t know anymore.”
“Good.” I hold her gaze with mine. “Because I stopped knowing the moment I met you.”
I’m moving before I can think better of it. The space between us vanishes, inch by inch, until her breath ghosts across my lips. Warm. Sweet. My pulse pounds in my ears.
I need to taste her again. The need claws through me, sharper than hunger, more vital than air.
“Luna.” Her name escapes, hoarse and desperate.
She lifts her face to mine, and the light catches in her eyes, hazel depths flecked with gold and green—open, trusting, and so beautiful the rest of the ballroom fades into meaningless noise.
At this moment, she’s the only real thing in my world.
Everything I want and everything I fear I’m destined to lose.
The ground shifts beneath my feet, and I’m falling, not gracefully, not with control, but like a man stepping off the edge of the world.
I press my lips to hers, the softest touch, designed to look innocent to any casual observer, but the moment our mouths connect, lightning shoots through my bloodstream and scrambles every coherent thought. The careful control I’ve built crumbles to ash.
Her sharp intake of breath vibrates against my mouth, and that tiny sound shoots straight to my cock. I bite down hard on the inside of my cheek to keep from making a sound that would scandalize half the room.
She draws back a fraction, her brows pulling together in the way they do when she’s thinking too hard.
“Should you be doing that here? In public?”
“Why not?”
My arm tightens around her waist, drawing her against me until there’s no question of distance, no pretense of casual affection. The logical part of my brain that governs these situations has gone silent. All that remains is the need to mark her as mine in front of every damn person in this room.
“Because you don’t want people to get the wrong idea about us.”
“And what idea is that? That you’re my date and you’re beautiful and I—”
The words slam into an invisible wall.
I love you.
The declaration hovers there, desperate to escape, but speaking it now would detonate everything between us. “I’m crazy about you?”
“Damien.” She breathes my name, and her entire face transforms, her eyes going soft and liquid, and pupils expanding until they swallow the hazel.
“I don’t care what people think, Luna. I’ve been dying to kiss you all night. Since you walked down those stairs in that dress and made me forget how to breathe.”
A war plays out across her face. Her lips part on a shaky exhale, her tongue darting out to wet her bottom lip.
Want radiates from every inch of her. Every line of her body says yes, but something invisible holds her back, some chain of guilt wrapped around her conscience.
She thinks she’s betraying him. Her wolf.
You’re not betraying anyone, little doe. You’re kissing the same man.
Her fingers clutch my shoulder. The air between us hums with electricity, stretched so tight one wrong breath could shatter it. Then she lifts her chin, eyes falling closed, lips parting in unmistakable invitation.
I don’t make her wait.
My mouth finds hers. The kiss begins soft, a question more than a statement, but she answers by pressing closer, and the careful restraint I’ve been clinging to dissolves. Her lips are warm silk, sweet with champagne and the unique taste that belongs only to her.
A sound escapes her lips, and my body responds like she’s thrown a switch. Arousal slams through my system like a sledgehammer. Blood rushes south so fast it leaves me dizzy. That tiny, breathless moan rewires every circuit in my brain.
Her soft curves fit against my hard lines, silk and heat melding to me until there’s no space left between us. Her heartbeat hammers against my chest, rapid and wild, matching the chaos in my own veins.
This. This is what I’ve kept from us with my masks and lies. The knowledge sits like acid in my stomach. I’m the architect of my own hell.
I keep the kiss as gentle and controlled as I’m capable of, but a wild current of need pulses beneath the surface, a riptide that could pull us both under if I give it an inch.
I can taste her want. It’s there on her tongue, sweet and desperate.
I feel it in the bite of her nails into my shoulder and the way she tilts her head and opens for me, inviting me deeper into the wet heat of her mouth.
I deepen the kiss by degrees. A gentle pull of her bottom lip between mine, the slide of my tongue against hers, and the change in angle that lets me explore the corners of her mouth.
Every small gasp she makes, every shift of her body closer to mine, stokes the fire building in my chest until it threatens to consume me.
When we finally surface, the world feels different.
Her breathing stutters out in quick, shallow pants that echo mine.
Her mouth looks claimed. Swollen, darker, and thoroughly kissed.
The sight of them is so beautiful it’s hard to look away.
The war I witnessed play out in her eyes has ended, leaving only molten desire, hot enough to reduce me to ash.
“Wow.”
The single syllable floats between us as she lifts trembling fingers to her mouth, like she needs proof of what just happened.
Wow, indeed.