Secret Heir (Dynasty #1)(80)

Raph’s lips brush against mine again and again with such passion and deep heart-wrenching emotion, that I can feel something inside me shattering at the deep rooted knowledge that nothing this good can ever be right. Nothing this intense can ever last. Even the brightest stars burn out. But as all the pent up longing and emotion that we’d both denied since that first day on the beach in Arcadia washes over us, drowning us, it’s almost impossible to remember caution or reason. It’s impossible to think of the consequences of indulging in this kind of earth shattering passion, for allowing ourselves to fall into the chasm that’s gaping before us. I can’t remember the hate that I once felt for him and the equal hate that he has felt for me. Except the way that he’s kissing me, the way that he’s touching me, makes me think now that perhaps it hadn’t been hate at all.

His hands are everywhere, as if he can’t touch enough of me, can’t hold me hard enough and everywhere he touches, my skin burns and awakens. He is the fire and I throw myself into it.

We’re both gasping for air like two divers resurfacing when we break away from each other. He’s still holding me against his body and my legs are still wrapped around his waist when he touches his forehead to mine. My lips feel swollen and still tingle with the ghost of his kisses. My skin feels raw and aches at the absence of his touch.

Raph’s eyes are locked onto mine, his chest rising and falling rapidly. The emotion smouldering in the depths of those midnight blue eyes convince me that all those months, it hadn’t been hate that I thought he was feeling. It hadn’t been hate at all.

I draw a shuddering breath as I try to speak then.

“Raph …”

My voice is barely a ragged whisper and I trail off because I have no idea what to say in the wake of everything that came before.

But he smiles then, a small smile that wraps itself around my heart. There’s something like wonder in his eyes, so fragile and so at odds with that icy glare that I saw that first day on the beach, that it takes my breath away.

“Say it again,” he says.

I don’t know what he means.

“That’s the first time you’ve ever said my name to me.” The realization that it’s true, hits me then, too.

“Not asshole, not prick …”

I let out a laugh, and it sounds shaky as hell, because my senses are still fried from those kisses.

“Or dickhead, or fucker …” I add, which only makes his smile widen.

That smile turns wicked as he nips the bottom of my lip with his teeth.

“I want you to say it again. But next time, I want you to be screaming it when I …”

He whispers something in my ear that sends shivers through my body and makes me feel like I’m going to burst into flames.

“Let’s go home,” he says, the promise of that whisper in his eyes.

I remember where I am and a few months ago there was no way anything could drag me back through that portal and back to that world. But now … now the only place I want to be is in these arms. As foolish as that might sound, and as much as I don’t want to think of that place as home, I find myself nodding in response and when I open my mouth, it’s to tell him to take me home.

I take one last look at the night sky above us, and it seems like even the stars are smiling down on us.





25





The moment we crash through the portal, Raph’s lips are on mine again and this time, the first touch is anything but soft and tentative.

I’m aware that my bedroom is dark and of my back hitting the plush rug in front of the fireplace, but not much else as Raph kisses me with a hunger that shakes me to the core. He devours my lips and I meet his hunger with equal intensity.

Distantly, I can sense him setting the fireplace ablaze as he covers my trembling body with his powerful one. He breaks the kiss only long enough to tug off his soaked shirt and my mouth goes dry at the sight of his bare body. Every single part of him is corded with muscle. His chest and abs are ripped like a diamond, so defined, that I can see shadows against his golden skin from where the muscles cut. My gaze lands on the row of suns tattooed on the side of his left rib that I’d seen once before and again, I can’t help but think how freaking sexy those tattoos are.

It’s not like I hadn’t noticed Raph’s physical frame many times before, but the sight of that large body over mine makes me realize just how big and powerful he is and how small my frame is in comparison. The sight thrills me in a way which sends delicious shivers down my spine. I want him, I want him so much, and I let myself feel all of that just then.

He reaches out to touch his fingertips to my cheek in an achingly tender caress, which a few months ago, I could never have believed he’d be capable of. But I’d been wrong about him, wrong about that hate which I knew now was not hate at all. But something far deeper, something far more dangerous.

The tremors racking my body are telling me that I should be terrified, but I know that it’s more than just fear racing through me because I can almost taste the desire in the very air I’m breathing. Mine or his, it’s impossible to tell.

His eyes lock onto mine, dark with hunger and a need that takes my breath away and his words have an equal effect.

“God, Jaz, you’re so goddamn beautiful. I want you so much, I feel like I can’t even breathe when I look at you.”