Queen of Quarantine (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #4) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,41

my heart catapulted into motion once more, blood pounding through my veins at a furious pace as the need to go to her overwhelmed me to the point of immobilisation.

My grip on the railing before me tightened until I was certain my fingernails were gouging crescents into the wood. Neither of us moved. We just stood staring at one another while a storm built between us and my skin prickled with the energy that was entirely her.

If I moved so much as an inch, I was going to break. My control would snap. I'd take her, possess her, consume her and devour her in every way possible until there was nothing at all left of either of us.

She broke the stillness between us first, holding my gaze as she began to walk. My jaw clenched with tension as I held myself immobile, watching, waiting, trying to figure out this enigma even though I knew I'd never get an answer to her.

She was an impossibility. An answer to all the things I'd been missing. An itch I'd been needing to scratch for longer than I could recall. A piece to a puzzle which I'd assumed would always remain incomplete.

She took the stairs slowly, pacing up them one at a time, my heart thumping with every step she took, my limbs trembling from how tightly I held them contained. If I broke now there would be no coming back from it.

My head turned slowly as she climbed the stairs, keeping her locked in my gaze until she made it to the top of them and moved towards me at that same, measured pace.

There was an orchestra starting up in my head, playing a piece I'd never heard before but was desperate to compose. Because it was the music of her. It was every beautiful, intricate, complicated note of her perfection, it was a symphony in the making, a story with unbound potential. It was dark and brutal and light and powerful, pure and tainted. Her. The girl who tamed monsters. The one who owned me.

My dick swelled with an ache that I felt right through to every single bone in my body and for each step she took towards me, the throbbing need in my entire being only grew.

Tatum fell still at my side, her blue eyes flaring with so much heat that it burned me as she met my gaze. Her skin had regained its healthy glow, her lips like two red rose petals and her eyes the most stunning shade of sapphire I'd ever encountered. Her nipples were hard and pressing against the fabric of the white shirt she wore, visible through it even in the patchy moonlight that spilled through the stained-glass window. It gilded her in a rosy silver colour which only made her seem more ethereal than ever.

I wasn't even sure how long we stood staring at each other, my normal grasp on every precise minute of time slipping away like it didn't matter at all as I looked upon the face of my deity.

Her tongue swept across her bottom lip, making a growl of desire rumble in my chest as her eyes dragged down my bare torso to the less than subtle outline of my cock which bulged through my boxers for her.

Tatum shifted, her knees bending as she began to sink towards the floor, but my hand snapped out and I caught her wrist before she could kneel, shaking my head as confusion grew in her eyes.

"You don't kneel for anyone tonight," I said, my voice raw as I fought to contain the worst of me, desperately clinging to the chains that bound the demon in me as they began to slip through my grasp.

Her lips parted on what I was certain was a complaint, but before she could utter so much as a sound, I turned fully to face her and dropped to my knees instead.

Tatum sucked in a sharp gasp and my resolve began to shatter, my fingers brushing against the tips of her toes as I gave one final bit of energy into trying to resist her before realising I was fighting a battle I'd already lost.

I slid my hands forward, my fingers slowly carving lines across the tops of her bare feet before encircling her ankles. I dragged my hands up her calves as her breaths came deeper, my chin tipping back as I looked up into her eyes. I continued the path of my fingers up her legs, caressing the