Page 86 of The Jaded Notes

Every sound he draws from me is answered with a more brutal thrust and a firmer grip, which I crave.

“Livianna.” He presses his lips to my forehead and lingers there. “You are safe here. With me. Always.”

Something deep in me blooms at those words, and it scares me more than the blindfold or the cuffs ever could.

Because I believe him, and that’s a sure way to a broken heart.

Chapter Nineteen

JAXON/JAX

Then

Leather Cuffs & Soft Cracks

Not being ready is the entire problem.

“Livianna, tell me what you feel.” My voice rakes low and steady, though the pulse in my throat hammers faster.

Her body quivers beneath my touch, wrists suspended and breath shaky. The blindfold keeps her from seeing the war in my jaw and the hesitation I can’t let her know I’m having.

“Vulnerable.” Her word trembles.

“Good. You’re meant to be. Anything else?”

A pause stretches, weighted with her heartbeat thudding against my chest. “Safe.”

Even though that’s the word I was looking for, the answer steals something out of me I wasn’t ready to give.

My thumb drags across the rapid beat in her neck. “Then you’re exactly where I want you.”

She swallows, shifting against the restraints, testing her own suspension. “And where’s that?”

“Right here with me buried inside you. Bound yet still trusting me when every nerve in you screams to fight.”

Her mouth parts. “It feels strange to like this as much as I do.”

“It’s not.” My lips press against her temple, words pressed into her skin like an oath. “It’s real. And you don’t need to carry it alone tonight.”

She moans as she adjusts to me. “Then give me more.”

“You’re taking all of me,” I murmur as my body holds her closer to me.

“That’s not what I mean, sir.”

“Tell me what you want and don’t be shy.”

“I’m not shy.” A smile quirks at her lips. “I want it harder.”

Her words hit me like a spark to dry tinder.

Harder.

The demand sends a rush of heat through me, a mix of desire and something deeper, something I’m not ready to name. A wildfire ignites within me. She’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

That thought trips me up. I tighten my fingers on her neck, not enough to hurt but enough to remind her who’s in control.

But even as I hold her, cuffed and open for me, the cracks in my own armor start to take shape. I’m not ready for the emotion that’s creeping in.