Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 17028 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 17028 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 85(@200wpm)___ 68(@250wpm)___ 57(@300wpm)
That one word, my name on his lips in that deep, tormented timbre, seeps inside me and both burns and soothes my soul. I hurt him. I feel that pain in this moment, and it cuts me deeply. He hurt me, too, but I just don’t know how to be with him with all that has happened and has to happen in the future to end his father’s reign.
It’s Damion’s time to sit on the throne, and I won’t stop until I make it happen.
But as empowering as that thought and my mission are, my name on his lips has undone me, weakened me, and, at the same time, heated my skin and made me melt. That’s how much power Damion has over me. That’s why I can’t be here with him.
“I said I needed space,” I reply, and somehow my voice is firm.
“Because you were trying to protect me,” he states with complete confidence, “and I get that. I do. And I love you for it, too, sweetheart, but dividing us is not the right move any more than what you just did on live television was.”
My defenses bristle, and I’m on the attack. “What exactly is the right move? Letting him feel no pain? Letting him own you and destroy you, Damion?” The car starts to move, and I hold up my hands. “Stop the vehicle. Let me out.”
Chapter Four
As if I haven’t spoken, as if I didn’t just demand he stop the vehicle, Damion picks up right where we left off with my demand that he tell me what the right move is, if everything I’ve done thus far is wrong. “This,” he declares. “This is the right move.”
The next thing I know, he’s closed the space between us, and I’m pinned to the door, one of his hands on the window beside me, the other on the side of my face. “This,” he repeats, and then his mouth is on mine, warm and firm, his tongue licking into my mouth in a deep, sultry kiss that has me moaning with the impact, and how can it not? I am in love with this man. I’ve been in love with him for as long as I remember being capable of such an emotion. I want to melt into him, if only for a moment, to absorb how he feels next to me. I want to forget everything and every reason I should not be with him.
I always want to forget the past when Damion’s in front of me.
But a wicked flash of that moment at the cemetery when I found my mother with his father rips through my mind, and I shove against his chest. “Stop. Stop, Damion.”
He drags his mouth from mine, but he doesn’t move away; our breathing is labored between us. “I don’t want to stop,” he says roughly, “and I don’t think you want me to stop.” There’s a rasp of torment in his voice again. And pain—pain I don’t want to cause him.
The pain between us is perpetual, eternal.
“I wanted a lot of things with you,” I whisper, “and none of it has ever been possible.”
He draws back and stares at me. “The past is behind us. We’re beyond it, and we’re finally together, Alana, unless you push me away.”
Anger burns and ignites. “If the past was behind us, my father wouldn’t be dead. Your father killed him, Damion. How can you even say the past is behind us? How?”
“And you blame me.” He cuts his stare, his jaw sharp and hard. “Of course, you blame me.”
I digest this, reject this idea, and I’m holding onto his lapels when I say, “No.”
His eyes jerk to mine, a punch in the new connection as he replies with, “You do. You abso-fucking-lutely do. And that’s the only reason I stayed away from you these past few days. Because if you won’t admit it now, you will later. You hate me.”
“I don’t hate you, Damion. I can’t hate you.”
“He won,” he states. “He put the only thing between us we can’t defeat. Death.” He pushes off the door and sits up, the emotions waving off of him so jutted and sharp they steal my breath.
Regret fills me with my words and my actions, none of which were meant to create this in him. My anger is not at Damion but at his father. “Damion—”
“I won’t touch you, Alana, but this changes nothing. You’re still coming with me.” He slides to the other side of the vehicle and looks at me, his eyes cold and dark now, all the heat and tenderness nowhere to be found. “He won’t stop coming at you after what you did today. He has to be dealt with once and for all, and until that happens, you will stay under Walker Security’s protection.”