Lead Me Home (Fight for Me #3)(131)

Her body felt so delicate against all my hard—my cock and my heart and the muscles rippling in my arms as my hold tightened.

“Go out with me,” I whispered at her ear. But this time it didn’t sound so careless or aloof. It was curious. Filled with a primal need to figure out what this was.

The rush of chills sliding down her back was palpable, slipping into me.

She pressed her hand over mine, holding it closer. “I can’t,” she whispered just as low, though it sounded like it actually hurt her to force it from her mouth.

“Why?”

“You don’t understand.”

No, I definitely didn’t.

“I like you.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“Maybe I want to.”

I hugged her a little closer in an attempt to change her mind—her sweet body tight up against mine—and I was sure I hadn’t felt anything so good in a long time. For the briefest moment, she let me, and God, if holding her didn’t feel right. Like she was supposed to be there.

Then she untangled herself and took two steps forward, her shoulders slumped and her head dropped toward the ground.

Defeated.

Pausing, she looked back at me. Warily. With sadness? I wanted to wipe that look from those caramel eyes, eyes whose golden flecks glinted in the light above us.

Maybe that’s why I was here, because I could feel her inner turmoil, something deep and dark, just like me, something hard and tainted that was searching for freedom.

I felt my control slip a little further.

I knew it then. What I wanted.

To lose control.

Just for a few hours.

And I wanted to lose it with her.