jaw ticked as he clenched his teeth. His hands curled into fists at his side so tight his knuckles bleached white, but I was too far gone in my rant to notice how the energy in the room had electrified.
“I had nowhere else to go, no one I could turn to, but at least he took no for an answer, unlike some of the other assholes I’d been stuck with, so I stayed. I let him hit me. I put up with it until I was able to squirrel away enough money for a bus ticket out of the state. I got myself settled, thought things were finally looking up, so I put myself out there again. The very first asshole I took a chance with stole every single dime I had. I had to pawn the locket that had belonged to my mother. It was all I had left of her, and I had to sell it, and that still wasn’t enough. I couldn’t afford my shitty little apartment anymore and was crashing at a women’s shelter where I met Malachi Black.”
I wasn’t sure how it was even possible, but at that man’s name, Dalton’s entire body strung even tighter.
“I thought he was my knight in shining armor, and look how that turned out,” I said with a self-deprecating laugh.
“Charlotte—” he tried, taking two steps closer to me, but I wasn’t done yet. I needed to get this poison out, and I couldn’t do that if he was touching me.
I moved back and kept going. “Don’t you get it? I’m broken, Dalton. I was used up a long time ago. The filth I associated with, that I went to bed with, left me so dirty, it rubs off on everything I touch. I’m not pushing you away because I don’t have feelings for you. I’m doing it to save you! Besides Micah, you’re the only good man I’ve had in my life since my dad died, and I don’t want my filth touching you.”
I knew he was done giving me space when he moved across my apartment so fast I didn’t have the chance to get away from him. His hands came up to cradle my face between his palms. I didn’t realize I’d started crying until he brushed the dampness from my cheeks with his thumbs.
He was staring into my eyes with an intensity so strong it made my knees weak. I had a fleeting thought of, God, I wish he’d kiss me. Then, as if reading my mind, his lips crashed down on mine.
And just like that, I was lost.
Chapter Eleven
Charlotte
Just like our one and only kiss, this one started out full of heat and passion. If his lips on mine and his tongue invading my mouth didn’t feel so damn incredible, how hard we went at each other might have felt like a punishment.
But it was just too perfect.
He tasted like mint and man. The best thing I’d ever tasted in my life. His beard abraded my skin in the most delicious way, and I found myself pressing up on my toes, my fingers curling in his overlong hair so I could get him even closer.
His strong arms wrapped around my waist like steel bands, the unforgiving grip impossible for me to escape, not that I had any intention of doing that.
My breasts swelled, my nipples pebbling, and I pressed harder against him, rubbing across his chest like a cat, searching for some kind of relief from the fire building in my body.
On my needy whimper, his arms moved, one going up and yanking out the elastic I had holding my hair up so he could fist his fingers in the long strands, while the other traveled down, his large palm grabbing my ass and squeezing almost to the point of pain.
I moaned, long and low into his mouth at the roughness of his touch. I loved that he didn’t treat me like I was made of glass. I was tough; I could take a razor-fine pinch of pain. In fact, I craved it when a man knew how to do it right. And Dalton was doing it oh so right.
I was on the brink of asking for more, begging that he take me in every way, when he did the last thing I wanted him to do. Breaking the kiss, he pressed his forehead against mine while sucking in ragged breaths, like he’d just run an entire marathon at a full sprint.
My chest heaved as