Page 32 of Poisoned Promise
“You’re as beautiful as the day I lost you,” Felix murmurs, his voice low. “I never stopped dreaming of a moment like this.”
“A dance with a ghost?” Our eyes lock and a pulse of white-hotwantsurges through my chest.
“Every day,” he whispers. “Every day I’d live in what-ifs, praying I could go back and stop all of this from happening.”
“Are you sure?”
“More sure of that than anything else in my entire life.”
“Felix…” He doesn’t talk like a man who knows the truth. That makes him even more dangerous, but in this moment, it’s just us.
“Dove.” He says my name like a prayer, soft and desperate, then he turns his head and very gently presses his lips to the bruise on my wrist.
A shock of sensation jolts through me and something swells deep in my heart.
I’ve spent years by myself. Years struggling to keep myself and Alex safe, years being a mother and a protector and a worker.
In just two hours, Felix has reminded me I’m also a woman.
A woman who hasn’t felt this desired in over a decade.
Against all my sensibilities, I lift my hand from his arm and cup the side of his neck.
Felix gently parts the kiss on my bruise and turns his head to face me.
That’s all it takes.
A second of eye contact, a second of warmth that makes me feel like the only woman on the planet, and I lean up onto my tiptoes and kiss him.
Everything about it is achingly familiar, almost enough to bring me to tears.
Years spent hating a man who didn’t have anything to do with what I quietly blamed him for, years of wrestling with love and betrayal in my heart when I had it all wrong.
This is a bad idea.
But he tastes exactly like I remember.
His lips are as soft as my memories, with the only difference being a new, small scar on his lower lip that grows prominent when he draws me into a tight embrace and deepens the kiss with a low, soft growl.
This is a bad idea.
Felix deepens the kiss further.
His tongue slips past his lips and presses against the seam of mine, licking up and then down until I open my mouth.
He delves inside and an achingly familiar dance begins between the two of us.
He always wants to be in control but I always refused to give it up, and that won’t happen now without a fight.
A fight that switches to his mouth as I step into him and arch my body, then I withdraw my tongue and nip faintly at his lower lip.
Felix’s head snaps back and he gasps, staring at me as we pant into the same inch of space between us.
Our eyes lock.
My heart’s hammering, my skin heating up like I’m over an open flame, and every sensible thought inside me is being drowned out by the heated, gnawing desire in my gut.
Felix’s mouth crashes against mine and we stumble back until we hit the table and suddenly everything is different.
