Dauntless (Sons of Templar MC #5)(114)

I blinked away my tears, everything that had happened hitting me in one fell swoop. “Don’t you see? Up until recently, death was the one thing I didn’t fear. It was life that scared the shit out of me. No one would care whether I lived or died. Only me. That’s Darwinian, ingrained into our psyches, as a survival instinct. I didn’t want to die. But I wasn’t afraid of it. If it came, it came. I don’t think about the future.”

His hands circled my neck. “Firefly, there’s so much wrong with that it breaks my heart to hear those words. If I could find f*ckin’ Doctor Who I’d steal that f*cker’s Tardis so I could be by your side the moment life started dealing you those blows. I’d take them myself without hesitation.” His hands tightened and his eyes twinkled. “But as much as it pains me to admit, Doctor Who is trapped in the world of TV and I’ve only got the future with you. The past, I can’t change. The future, this present moment, is mine. You’re mine. So I need you to hesitate. To think about the future. ’Cause someone cares if you live or die. A lot of someones, actually. But right now it’s just me, pleading with you to have some self-preservation. Still be fearless, babe. Still be you. But be mindful of the fact that, if your light goes out, mine does too.”

“I’ve got to be fearless,” I explained. “If I’m not, it’s surrender. It’s weakness. They’ll get me. Consume me.”

“Who, baby?” he asked gently, stroking my spiky hair.

I met his eyes. “The demons. The ones I live with every day.”

His entire body jolted as if I’d struck him, and he was silent for a long while. Then he grinned. It was small, but it was there. “Good thing you’ve got a scary-as-f*ck biker as your old man, then,” he told me. “I’m bigger, tougher, and a hell of a lot more attractive than any demon you can conjure up. I’ll conquer them all, babe. If it takes the rest of my life, I’ll do it. So you don’t have to be fearless. I’ll protect you, from everything. Even yourself. A little fear’s good, firefly. Means you’ve got something to lose. If you’ve got something to lose, you’ve got something to live for. To fight for.”

“I’ll fight,” I promised.

His nose brushed against mine. “Good,” he murmured.

My eyes went hooded. “But right now, I don’t feel like fight. I feel like surrender.”

His body stiffened. “You mean what I think you mean?”

I nodded slowly.

He kissed me, slow and rough. “You scared?”

I nodded. “Terrified.”

“One thing in this world you get to be dauntless with, baby, is me. This. Us.”

He led me into the bedroom as he spoke, his eyes darkening as he did so.

His mouth captured mine once more. “Clothes off, now,” he ordered.

The tone of his voice had me instantly wet, his eyes almost black as I stripped and stood naked in front of him. He didn’t touch me, but the weight of his gaze was a thousand hands on my body. In a good way.

“On the bed.”I did as he asked, watching as he shrugged off his cut and yanked off his tee. I drank in his body hungrily.

He rounded the bed slowly, lithely, like a panther. Opening the drawers beside his bed, he unearthed two sets of cuffs. Unease tainted the desire in his eyes. “You sure, Becky?”

“I’m sure.”

I was, like eighty percent. But this was Gabriel. I was safe with him.

He nodded and bent down, but he didn’t cuff me immediately. Instead, he kissed me, rough and brutal. Then he moved down, past my neck and aching nipples to my shoulder. He trailed kisses all down my arms until it was white-hot with his touch. That was when the icy steel encircled my wrist. I flinched at the click but managed to chase the ice away.

Gabriel’s gaze burned into me as he climbed over my body to reach my other hand. He repeated the same process, trailing his other hand past my bellybutton to my magic spot. I cried out in pleasure as he clicked the second set of cuffs on.

He kept working me while he moved his mouth to my nipples, giving them the attention they yearned for.

On the edge of release, he stopped.

I wanted to scream in frustration at his wicked grin.

“You don’t come on my hand,” he growled. “You’ll come in my mouth, and then around my dick.”

He lowered his head and moved down. Slowly, to torture me. Then his lips fastened around my clit, working it relentlessly until reality become fluid and soft and I exploded into a million pieces.

My hands rattled against my cuffs as I struggled to touch him. Realizing they were bound, the ice came back.

Gabriel’s body was on mine before it could settle and corrupt the moment. He clasped my neck. “Becky?” he rasped.

“I’m okay,” I whispered.

His eyes searched mine. “Gonna f*ck you now. Hard. Can you take me?”

My entire body twitched at the sex in his tone. “Yes,” I breathed.

The word was barely out before he surged into me, his hands curling up with mine.

“Fuck,” he growled.

Then he f*cked me. Hard.

And it was brilliant.

Magnificent.

I never feared cuffs again.





Chapter Twenty-Seven





“The enemy doesn’t stand a chance when the victim decides to survive.”