Tried for Love (TSATD)

Chapter 31

Leah

  No going back. 

  The words echoed in my mind. Once I would give up my side of the game, this man I was to call my husband that stood before me, all peril and height, would win. Didn't he always? He had, after all, just returned home after killing a man that had threatened something of his—

  I inhaled slowly, looking back at dark emeralds. Something of his. Had I given myself up to him completely? Had I damned it all, game and restraint, and allowed myself to finally be claimed as his?

  His fingers brushed over the side of my neck. My eyes shut closed— the victory slipping from my fingers a bit more. It was I that lead this on, I that touched him and dared him.. And a single, burning touch was all it took for him to have my legs threatening to give up on me.

  His thumb brushed over my cheek, caressed my chin, upwards over my lips... Making me ache for the feel of his kiss there, hungry and demanding, the way he had taken my mouth and claimed it back in that bathtub.

  Yet, his thumb merely whispered against my lips, grazing so lightly, I could've imagined it. Slowly, I parted my lips, daring a dangerous growl to catch in his throat.. Daring that teasing touch to trace over my jaw, down my neck, and over my throat. God, how I loved that touch.

  My fingers tightened around the material of his shirt. I could feel his heartbeat, there, underneath my fist. I could feel the burning heat of his body. The vibrating restraint in it. How he touched and craved and controlled.. For far too long, controlled. And I suddenly wished him to let go.

  I felt his tingling breath over my bared skin, light and promising. The spot he bared, the line of my collarbone and the curve of my shoulder now faced the torturing caress of his lips. Kissing my skin, he whispered that promise right there, not daring to share it with another inch of my body. Not touching me anywhere else.

   "Is this what you wanted, Leah?" His lips touched my skin. He pressed a kiss. "To make me a damned madman for you?"

  I returned his attentions, allowing my hand to travel up his chest, where his shirt was slightly unbuttoned and golden, satin skin peaked. Brushed my fingers ever so lightly, before my hands slid lower down his chest, his abdomen.

  With a dark groan, he pulled away from my touch, giving it right back. Revenging it right back. One powerful hand pressed at my waist and he moved behind me; his vigor suddenly untamed as he stopped behind me, pressing me against the wall of his chest.. Against his body.

  His sudden movement had dared a gasp of surprise catch in my throat, dared my heart to pound wildly against my rib cage, but I was far too enticed to move an inch from him. I couldn't.

  Because when he stopped there behind me, holding me to himself, against himself.. We fit perfectly. My softness to his hardness. His hand covered the whole of my neck as he held me there, warm breath in my hair, burning body against my own.

  "Open your eyes." I did, looking at the mirror across from us. "Look at yourself now. Look at this wanton minx that's been haunting my mind for months." I held my breath at his harsh whispers in my ear. "Look at yourself the way I'm looking at you."

  And so I did. I looked at the woman in the reflection, her face reflected with lust, with want. I felt it pumped into my blood with every beat my heart preformed. Saw my flushed cheeks, yet nearly pearly against his bronzed arm, his large hand around my jaw..

  I saw myself the way he was looking at me. With locks escaping and strands falling around my face with the way I had pinned up my hair. And yet even trapped in his strong embrace, I felt powerful.