His laugh rumbles through his chest, low and naughty. “You’re asking for it, sunshine.”
“Stop that.” Even I hear my lack of conviction.
He kisses my cheek before running his nose up my neck and then nipping under my jaw. “I’m going to call you that until we’re eighty.”
My knees give, and I feel a rush of warmth between my legs. I grip on to him so I don’t fall to his feet—he’d really like that, I’m sure.
Hell—who am I kidding? So would I.
He lifts his head, and a slow grin spreads across his face—a grin I’ve always known has ruined countless women before me. Only now it feels different. It feels like it’s mine.
For better or worse, I decide right here and now that I’m claiming it.
I rise onto my toes and close the distance, pressing my mouth to his.
His breath catches, and his lips are still under mine for a heartbeat, like I’ve stunned him.
I lift and press again, a whisper of contact. Then I part my lips and lick at the seam of his mouth, like I’m asking for permission to enter.
Luke makes a low sound that goes straight through me. His arm wraps around my waist and pulls me flush against him, rough and demanding and certain, like he’s spent weeks fighting the urge to touch me and finally lost.
Or won.
Looking into my eyes, he fists my hair, pulling it just enough to send a shot of excitement through me. “Listen to me verycarefully, Harper. Once I have you, really have you, there’s no going back. You understand that?”
I nod.
But he pulls my hair tighter, forcing my eyes to stay locked on his. “Words. I need to hear you say it.”
My breath catches in my throat. “I understand.”
“Good.” He brushes the faintest kiss on my lips, a direct contrast to his hard-edged words. “Because I’m going to fuck you hard. I’m going to make you come so many times you lose count. I’m going to own every inch of your body, every sound you make, every orgasm that tears through you.”
My heart beats hard in my chest, wanting all of that, over and over and over again. “Then get to it, Bennett.”
His eyes glittering, he places another soft kiss on my mouth. “You’re going to bemine, Harper. And once I take you, I’m never letting you go.”
His free hand slides down my back, gripping my ass and pulling me against him so I can feel exactly how hard he is, exactly what he’s promising.
“I’m going to strip you down and taste every fucking inch of you,” he continues, his voice dropping to something darker, more primal. “I’m going to bury myself inside you and make you scream my name so loud the whole county hears it. I’m going to mark you, inside and out, so you never forget who you belong to.”
My breath comes in short gasps. My thighs clench.
“I want to hear you beg,” he says, his mouth hovering just above mine. “I want to feel you come around my cock while you’re crying my name. I want to own you completely—your body, your pleasure, your surrender. That’s what I want, Harper. That’s what I’m going to take.”
He pulls my hair back, exposing my throat, and his eyes are dark and dangerous and uncompromising. “So I’m going toask you one more time, and I need you to be absolutely sure. Because once you say yes, you’re mine. No hesitation. No taking it back. Just you and me and everything that comes with it.”
I nod, unable to form words.
“Say it,” he demands. “Tell me you’re mine.”
“I’m yours,” I whisper, and the words feel like a vow.
His eyes go dark, almost black with want. “Damn right you are.”
Then he kisses me.
35