I ran my thumb along her lower lip and groaned when her pink tongue peeked out to moisten her lips. She was killing me.

Her golden eyes were filled with so much turmoil. I wanted to ease her mind, to show her what we could be.

My beast was pacing inside of me. It wanted to taste and to touch. I had to fight against it. Aria wasn’t ready for all of me.

She was too scared of her feelings. She needed tame and gentle, not wild and rough. She needed time to realize that the bond was true.

Not today. I reminded my tiger.

“Look, I think—”

I placed a finger over her mouth to stop her. I knew what she was doing. It’d almost worked, but I cared about this aggravating woman too damn much to let her push me away that easily.

“Open yourself to me,” I said.

Her brows furrowed in confusion.

“What?” She pulled away and folded her arms across her chest, her stance defensive. When would she realize she didn’t have to protect herself from me?

“Open yourself to the bond. Feel what I feel. If you open yourself and accept the bond, you won’t have any doubts about my feelings or intentions where you’re concerned.”

I wasn’t foolish enough to think she’d do it. Not now at least. But I needed to remind her that we were bound together. She was my mate. That wasn’t going to go away just because she tried pushing me.

As expected, Aria shook her head, her dark brown hair swirling around her face.

“No.” Her voice was firm, but I saw the doubt in her eyes. She was considering it.

I tilted her chin up and, before she could say anything else, kissed her again. Hell, I'd kiss her a hundred times and let her keep rejecting me if it got me even an inch closer to winning her heart.

What I hadn’t expected were her delicate fingers coming up to press against my chest as her body leaned forward into my kiss.

A growl of satisfaction worked its way up my throat. She wanted this, just as badly as I did. I deepened the kiss, and Aria responded, her mouth hot and demanding.

My beast wanted to devour her.

I fought to rein in my desire. I couldn’t rush this. Tame, gentle. I reminded myself.

I nibbled her lips and kissed my way down her neck. I pressed Aria back into the nearby wall and brought my hand up to cradle her breast.

She quivered beneath my touch.

I struggled not to rip her clothes from her body and lowered my free hand to the waistband of her pants.

Not yet.

Aria arched her body into mine, and I dragged my mouth back to hers.

“What are you doing to me?” she gasped between labored breaths.

“Loving you,” I said.

She whimpered when I moved in to kiss her again, plunging my tongue into her mouth and ravishing her lips.

Unable to hold back from touching her any longer, I slipped my hand beneath the waistband of her pants.

Aria was pure liquid heat. I growled in satisfaction at her responding moan and stroked her folds as she writhed against the wall.

“Ah, fuck, Aria. You’re so soft and wet. All for me …”

Aria’s hands gripped my biceps for support. I tore my lips away from hers long enough to stare down at her desire-laden face.

God, she was beautiful.

“Declan, we can’t —” To hell we couldn’t.

I kissed her again, hard and demanding as my fingers circled her clit.

She shivered against me and the lights above us suddenly shattered. She sucked in a breath and pulled away as shards of glass rained to the floor.  

I didn’t care if she broke every fucking thing in this room. It wasn’t reason to stop. I caged her in with my arms and bent to meet her gaze.

“If you want me to stop, by everything that is holy, you’d better say so now, and I will. I’ll stop. But Aria, I’m about ready to strip you naked, so if that isn’t what you want …" God, I prayed that wasn't what she wanted.

Her gaze was unfocused, her throat working to swallow. I waited for her rejection. I expected it.

Instead, she leaned forward and bit my lip.

I was lost to her.

I swept her into my arms and carried her over to the bed. Glass shards crunched beneath my boots.

Laying her down, I made quick work of stripping her clothes and bared her to me.

“So fucking beautiful.” Her tan legs were toned, leading to wide hips and a narrow waist. Her breasts were perfect, her dusky nipples begging to be touched.

I pulled my shirt over my head and kicked off my boots and jeans before leaning forward to kiss my way up her body, stopping to worship each of her breasts before finding her lips.

I settled myself between her thighs. She was wet against my throbbing cock, and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to plunge into her in one powerful thrust.

Slow. Tame.

I fondled her bare breast and rolled one taut nipple between my thumb and forefinger as I kissed her mouth. She writhed beneath me, each shift of her body rubbing my cock harder against her slick heat.

And then her fucking phone rang.

I groaned. You’ve got to be kidding me.

Aria started to sit forward, some of the passion now leaving her eyes.

“Ignore it,” I growled. I pressed my body against hers.

Later I would find out who it was and kill the bastard for interrupting us.

Aria bit her lip and looked like she was going to get up to retrieve her phone when it suddenly stopped ringing.

Thank God.

I leaned forward to kiss her and just as my lips brushed hers, the damn thing went off again.

Aria pushed away from me and stood from the bed. I swore and pulled at the short strands of my hair.

Was I ever going to catch a break here?

She pulled the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around her body before carefully avoiding the glass to retrieve her phone from her discarded jeans.

“Hello?”