No Perfect Hero(62)

But I can feel it in my heart now.

I didn’t do anything wrong. I didn’t deserve it.

I don’t have to carry the pain they gave me because that’s just letting them win.

And the reason I know is thanks to this huge, handsome complication staring down at me.

I can’t help smiling at him. Warren cocks his head. “I like this look better, Hay. That smile you're wearing?”

Suddenly, he puts his fingers to his lips and lets out a wolf whistle. I burst out laughing, slapping playfully at his chest.

“Mama, lock your boys up –”

“C'mon!” I whack his pecs again, this time a little harder. “You're being ridiculous.”

“Nah. We've got a live one here. She's beautiful and happy.”

I shake my head. “Just thinking through some things. Working my way to a better place.”

“Good,” he rumbles warmly, giving me another squeeze.

I can’t help leaning into him. He makes everything stable just now.

“Hey,” I murmur.

“Hm?”

“You know, I really didn’t give you a fair shake from the start. I just want to say I’m sorry for that.”

He lets out an easy, warm chuckle, gentle and not in the slightest bit mocking. “You serious, Hay? The first time we met, I grabbed you and started barking shit at you.”

I crack a grin. “Okay, fair.”

“And you hit me with a purse.”

“You earned it,” I squeal, poking a finger into his side.

“Yeah, maybe I did.” He shakes his head with an amused sound. “Point is, we got off on the wrong foot in all the wrong ways. We’ve had a few cease-fires since then, but–”

“Not a real truce,” I finish.

“Right.” He tilts his head, fixing those deep blue eyes on me. “What do you say we change that today? If you’re with me, if you're ready...”

His hold on me shifts, gathering me closer, my thigh sandwiched against the powerful bunch of muscle in his leg. Oh, wow.

My body fits against his hip, his side, all too well.

Fits in a way that curls warmth deep inside me and makes me think of far more than just waving the white flag of peace. And when he holds his free hand out to me, I nearly shudder.

Because the thought of touching him is doing things to me, giving me wicked and dark and crazy ideas.

“I’m calling truce,” he says. “You game?”

I know what he’s asking.

If we can start over. If we can try to be friends. If we can see each other as people, but I think it’s already too late for that.

I’ve stopped seeing him as a complete nuclear asshole for some time and started seeing him as someone who makes my days here in Heart’s Edge worth it.

Someone who only makes me so angry because it frustrates me how strongly I react to him, how easy it is for this strange man to make me laugh or hurt. How being so vulnerable to someone again terrifies me.

Terrifies me, but deep down, I kinda like the thrill.

And it's the thrill pushing me to do something crazy. Something wild.

Something I’ve wanted to do since he kissed me.

“Hay?” he whispers my name again, his eyes searching mine.

So I lean closer, slipping my hand into his. “I’m with you,” I whisper. “I’m with you all the way, Warren.”

Then I push myself up, sliding my body against his, and kiss him like the world just flipped upside down.

He’s still for only a second, lost in a startled breath where I think he might push me away, laugh it off, tell me no, that’s not what I meant...

Then suddenly he decides.

There’s nothing but him and me and crashing together as he kisses me back, as he slants his mouth hard against mine with a groan that sounds almost pained, like a beast breaking off its leash.

Searing, wild, furious, he takes over my mouth and leaves no doubt who’s in control here, even if I started it.

I'm breathless, swept away as he bruises my mouth with a kiss that’s all violence and sweetness and everything I need to feel like myself again.

To feel like a living, breathing woman and not some grieving, tattered castaway on the shores of my own life.

I don’t know how I end up straddling him, his body pushing my thighs apart until I’m open for him.

There's just his endless strength against me, under me, and then his hands clutching hard at my ass.

He pulls me down into him as he savages me with a deepening kiss. Every time his tongue chases mine, I feel it in the wettest depths of my pussy.

Like he’s already slipped inside my depths when he’s barely laid a hand on me.

It doesn’t help that he’s so damn hard against me.

His cock rubs between my thighs, dragging against my shorts, already throbbing.

That mad, mad pulse in his hard-on does some wild things to my bloodstream. Just knowing I can do that to him with one sharp, hungry kiss.

I can make him want me, as much as the heat in my blood craves him.

He breaks his kiss off, pressing his forehead to mine, snarling half breaths. “Fuck. Fuck, Hay.”

Those thick fingers kneading my ass nearly make me come right there.

He digs in hard, pulls me down harder against him. His friction and rhythm move me head-to-toe, my breasts caught heavy between us and my nipples aching against my tank top as they drag against his chest.