Viper (Fallen Angel #2)(64)

Halo jerked me forward and attacked my mouth with surprising force, taking my lips in a brutal kiss that made my head spin.

This battle of wills had just begun.





Forty





Halo





ANGER. HURT. LUST. As the three emotions battled for supremacy, I twisted my hands in Viper’s shirt and scraped my teeth along his lower lip. The lip he’d taunted me with, knowing there’d be no way I could resist.

I twisted my fingers around the material and for one second imagined it was his skin I was sinking my nails into, that he could feel the bite of pain I was so desperately trying to inflict in that moment because…how fucking dare he do this to me.

How dare he come here after everything he’d said tonight and make me want him again. But he had, and I did. I wanted him so badly that I couldn’t stop myself from reaching out and taking hold of him, even though I knew this was it. That this was our goodbye. I could read the apology in his eyes: I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for things to end this way. But that didn’t stop me from drawing him in.

Closer… Closer… I wanted him so close that Viper would never be able to forget the way it felt to have me touch him, kiss him, consume him the way he did me, and then? Then I’d let him go. Just the way he wanted it.

I shoved Viper back a step and pulled my mouth free, and as his chest heaved beneath my palm, I took in the wickedly hot visual he made standing there. The one that had made me fall for this bad boy in the first place.

Viper’s lips were slick and swollen from my attack, his jet-black hair pushed behind one ear while strands on the other side had escaped to fall down and shadow those broody eyes, and there was no resisting him.

And that was the problem. I hadn’t been able to resist Viper. From the very beginning I’d been intrigued, and ever since then I’d gotten in deeper and deeper with him, fooling myself that I could be as cool about this as he was. That I could be just as casual about sharing his bed, his life, his body, and then walk away—but no.

I had gone and done the unthinkable. I’d fallen for Viper even after he’d told me not to, and now here I was saying goodbye to a person I would forever be close to, but never again in the way I wanted to be. And I knew if I didn’t take this moment, if I didn’t allow myself this goodbye, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

I didn’t want to talk. I didn’t want to hear his I’m sorry or this is how it has to be. All of the words that needed to be said had been said, and those that hadn’t were swirling in Viper’s eyes for me to see. Apology. Regret. Desire and need. It was that last one that had me taking a step forward, so I could pull him back in and say goodbye without words.

Viper opened to me in an instant, just as he always had, allowing me to dive in and explore him in a way that no one had ever done in my life. I slid the hand on his neck up into his hair and tightened, and when he dug his fingers into my hips, I slammed my body up against his and tangled our tongues together.

Viper groaned and angled his head, deepening the kiss, as he began to walk forward and move me back to the concrete wall, where he pinned me in place and held my face steady. Then he fused our mouths together again in a kiss that felt like a battle, trying to see who could make the other give in first, and tonight I wasn’t holding back.

I twisted my hand in Viper’s hair and pulled hard, making him grunt and raise his head, and the fierce, untamed light in his eyes flipped some kind of switch in me. With my gaze locked on his, I was the one to torment this time. I slowly slid my other hand down to his jeans and began to rub, squeeze, and massage the erection I could feel pushing up against me, until a tortured groan rumbled from Viper’s throat.

The sound was so damn sexy that I did it again, wanting to memorize it, and this time Viper’s hips began to move against my palm until he was all but fucking my hand through the denim. He planted his hands on either side of my head against the wall, his eyes not leaving mine, and when that was no longer enough, I dropped my hand so Viper could move between my legs and press that hard cock of his up against me, then I took his lips in a savage kiss.

As he shoved his tongue between my lips, I moaned, the taste of him something I would never get enough of and never be able to forget. But all of this still wasn’t enough for me. This wasn’t how it was going to end.

Viper destroying me.

Viper making my knees weak.

Viper overwhelming every single one of my senses until I didn’t know anything other than him—no. Tonight I wanted to be the one to destroy. The one to overwhelm.

I pushed off the wall, the adrenaline rushing through me now as I grabbed hold of Viper’s shirt and tore my lips free. In an instant, I saw the question stop? enter his eyes, but that was the last thing I wanted.

Catching Viper off guard, I pivoted so our positions were reversed, but even that wasn’t enough, because the truth was that I didn’t want to stop tonight until I’d marked Viper the same way he’d marked me.

As I muscled him back to the wall, Viper’s nostrils flared, my domineering actions inflaming his arousal in a way I’d never expected. His lips were pulled tight in a thin line, his jaw ticked, and his eyes were so dark they were practically black. He moved his hand to his jeans, and as he flicked them open and drew the zipper down, I did the same. But when he went to shove his hand inside, I reached out and wrapped my fingers around his wrist—tight.