Page 99 of The Eleventh Hour
Dane growls and circles around me. “You aren’t the most sweetest of creatures, darling.”
“I never claimed to be, Dane.”
“You’re a pain in my ass.”
“And you’re a pain in mine,” I hiss.
We’re both circling now.
“What is it about you? You’re just so untouchable, so far away. All this mystery and drama and so damn independent, so much like-”
He cuts himself short and stands there, nostrils flaring.
“So much like who?” I cock my head to the side.
“Terry. So much like him. It’s infuriating.”
Everything inside me softens at the pain in his voice. “I’m going to find those answers for you, I promise. No matter what it takes.”
Dane lifts his eyes and meets mine. There is something in them, dark and shadowed, pained and furious.
“Not no matter what. Don’t you dare. That’s exactly what I mean. I want you to save yourself, be selfish.”
I shake my head. “I don’t understand you, Dane.”
“You let everyone believe you were in on it when you withheld the truth. You tried to find the answers yourself while suffering. Dammit! You should have gone home, Jax. You should have gotten help.”
“No! It would’ve hurt them.”
“So fucking what?” Dane screams. “So what? Why should you be alone? Why? Fuck sake, Jax. I can’t…I couldn’t bear it if something happened, and I didn’t know…”
I swallow hard around the lump in my throat. I want to tell him nothing will happen, but we both know it’s most probably a lie. Our lives are in flux. Too many unanswered questions from the past ,and the future could tear us apart as easily as wind through tissue paper. This thing growing inside me is as fragile as a seedling. Anything could tear down my house of cards.
We stare at each other, and the anger, frustration, and pain we both feel and share rises up between us and changes to something else. The air is alive with electricity. I can sense him in a way that I haven’t been able to before. It feels like destiny or fate or something. I was meant to be here at this moment with this choice. Will I take it? Will I be brave?
His eyes sharpen and watch me with a hunger that I feel inside me.
“Come to me, Jax,” he purrs.
There is no hesitation when I move towards him. It’s as natural as breathing. It’s as right as anything has ever been.
I move towards him, my hips swaying as I stalk. He mirrors my movements until we meet in the middle, our chests touching with every breath and falling apart when we exhale.
“You-”
“Shut up, Jax,” Dane growls and seizes the back of my hair. He pulls on it, not enough to hurt but firmly, tilting my head back even further. He buries his nose in my throat, drawing upwards in a slow, steady path until he catches my ear lobe in-between his teeth.
“Why don’t you listen?”
I shiver at the dark menace in his voice. “It’s a good thing-”
“Jax, shut up.”
“Stop telling me-”
“I know one way of shutting you up.” Dane’s eyes are dark, his eyebrows lowered, and the light shining through the windows makes his face look even more angular. He swoops down, claiming my lips in a kiss that sears all thoughts from my mind. It’s a dance, a passionate, fiery dual, both of us pushing back against the other.
The hot, hard length of his body presses into mine, and I press myself into him, striving to be closer. I wrap my arms around his neck and pull myself up on tiptoes. I tear my mouth away from him, gasping for air.