Kings of Anarchy (Brutal Boys of Everlake Prep #3) - Caroline Peckham Page 0,212

around us.

Something about the way she was looking at me was stealing my concentration from the piece and as it drew close to the end, my hand slipped and I hit the wrong note, a curse spilling from my lips a moment before her mouth met mine.

My hands fell utterly still on the piano and the last echoes of the music died before I gained enough of my senses to kiss her back.

Tatum's lips were soft and hesitant against mine but as I pressed forward, they parted for me so that our tongues could meet and she turned away from the piano so that she could run her hands up the front of my shirt.

Our kiss deepened and I swear I could feel the un-played notes of that music thrumming through my veins as I drew my fingers away from the piano and slid them into her hair.

It wasn't like the kisses we'd shared before which were all hot and needy and desperate. That kiss was like the joining of our fractured souls, the taste of the sweetest kind of deliverance and the promise of something so much better than I deserved.

As our tongues moved together and a soft moan escaped her lips, I felt something deep inside me pull together. Like with her by my side I could take on the whole fucking world and make it burn just to make her smile.

Tatum's hands slid down my stomach and she pushed her fingers beneath the hem of my shirt, but I pulled back.

"Do you think that a hawk ever feels bad the moment before it strikes?" I asked her in a rough voice, pulling her closer while keeping her back at the same time.

"What?" she murmured, her eyes full of lust but laced with vulnerability too. She wanted something from me that I wasn't sure I was even capable of. And I knew I definitely wouldn't be able to offer her anything with even a semblance of it while her hatred for me still simmered close to the surface and her mistrust in me ran so deep.

My gaze ran over her slowly, taking in everything about the way she was looking at me and the clear offer in her eyes. I could take her now. She wanted it too. She wanted to dive into this fire that blazed between us and let it burn her skin deep, but that was it. And as much as it killed me to admit it to myself, that wasn't enough for me.

This girl had become my one truest and most desperate obsession. When I took her, I wanted to claim all of her. Every deep, damaged, hurting part. I wanted her to give herself to me completely, not just in her flesh. And I wanted that enough that I knew I couldn't just take this from her now.

"I'll walk you back to The Temple," I said, my grip on her tightening as I stood and placed her down on her feet.

"Okay," she agreed, her hand sliding into mine like that was the most natural thing in the world.

I looked down at our clasped fingers with a faint frown before leaving them entwined and walking her back out of Ash Chambers and down the darkened paths towards The Temple.

We walked in silence, our breaths fogging before us and tension filling the air as the point where our hands met drew altogether too much of my attention. This was…sweet. And I didn’t know how to do sweet. There wasn’t any sweet in me. I was bitter and broken and toxic, but I didn’t release her hand all the same.

When we made it back to the door of The Temple, I turned her to face me, my hand sliding from hers until I wasn't touching her anymore and I stood looking at her instead.

I pressed my arm to the door above her head and leaned down until my lips were brushing hers and stayed there as we both just looked at each other like we were questioning whether something had changed between us or not. The tension and want in our bodies rose until it was filling that inch of space that divided us, demanding we close the gap and take what we ached for. It was like causing myself a physical wound to hold myself back, especially as a breathy moan escaped her full lips once more, impatient this time and drawing a smile to my own mouth.

"Goodnight, Tatum," I murmured, the movement of my