Ghosted (Team Zero #3) by Rina Kent

I finally arrive at the room.

Elle is still sleeping on her side – the position where I always slip in behind her. The faint light on the side table illuminates her soft features.

She looks so beautiful and at peace, I want to engrave every detail into memory. I reach for a few rebel strands of hair and stroke them off her forehead. Still caressing her hair, I sit on the edge of the bed. My fingers glide over the swell of her cheek. Then, I wrap my hand around her neck and rest my thumb on the pulse point.

Feeling the steady rhythm of her breathing has become my addiction. Not like Omega. This is more intense and satisfying.

Elle stirs, but her eyes remain closed. Her lips part. Then, she moans, “Julian...”

My heart nearly stops beating. My erection surges to life. Just a single word and I’m fucking screwed.

She moans again, and her pupils move in quick succession behind her lids. What is she dreaming about?

Her eyes flutter open. They search sideways before focusing on me. The affection in those deep blue gates catches me off guard. No one has ever looked at me that way. Like they care. Outside my circle, people either fear or hate me. There’s no in between.

Even those in my circle are all screwed up. There’s no such thing as caring.

Why would Elle even care? What is this fucking tightening in my chest because she’s looking at me that way?

Her soft hands cradle mine – that’s still clutching her neck. A small smile tugs on her lips as she whispers. “You’re here.”

I don’t think.

I lower my head and crash my lips against hers. She tastes so sweet and so fucking right. When she opens her mouth and gives me access to devour her, I know one thing’s for certain.

This woman, I’m never letting her go.





Chapter Fourteen





Julian’s lips pry mine open and his tongue swirls with mine.

It isn’t a dream.

His kiss is gentle and passionate at the same time. It’s like he’s slowly tasting me, engraving me to memory. Heat invades my body. My head turns and someone moans aloud. Me.

As if I hit the switch, Julian’s soft phase comes to a screeching halt. He cages my body with his legs and hovers over me while continuing to kiss me. This time, it’s ravenous, animalistic and so out of fucking control.

I thread my fingers through his thick hair and surrender to his relentless onslaught. I’m drifting away and falling apart. The only one I can clutch for balance is the same man who’s blowing my world to pieces.

Sure, I’ve been kissed before, but they’re pathetic compared to Julian’s primal intensity.

My pulse nearly leaps out of my throat under his thumb. The mere sensation of his fingers wrapped around my neck shoots a spark of pleasure between my thighs.

Julian’s hot lips trail kisses along my jaw and down my neck.

He wants me. It’s so obvious from the ravenous way he’s savouring me. His large body is all over mine like he’s trying to fuse himself to me.

And I know. I just know, that from this moment on, I will never be the same.

It’s scary as hell.

It’s thrilling as hell.

Julian sucks on the sensitive skin along my collarbone. A moan and a strangled noise I don’t recognise rip from my throat.

My nipples tighten and peak against the thin cloth of my T-shirt as if begging for his attention.

I’m turning into a puddle of need, and I have no way to stop it. I should. Julian isn’t right for me. Julian is part of the world that took Zoe away, but Julian is all I’ve been thinking about in the last three days.

Without my damn permission, he’s become a constant. An addiction. A drug l look forward to every day. His disappearance caused an unexplainable hollowness inside me. A worry. A need to know if he was fine.

When I slept and didn’t feel his warmth surrounding me, it was like being denied my fix. I planned to return to Scar and forget all about him. Now, I can’t even pretend anymore.

I want him. More than I ever wanted any man in my life.

So I cling to his shoulders, needing more of the friction he’s igniting inside me. Time ceases to exist.

Julian’s strong hands slip under my T-shirt. I melt when his warm skin meets mine. As if that isn’t enough, his fingers brush against my ribs and glide up.

Up.

Up.

I suck in a stuttering breath when his forefinger strokes the swell of my naked breast. His calloused finger finds my engorged nipple and squeezes. Hard. Pain and pleasure shoot straight in my core and I cry out.

Julian grunts. The sound is so primal and does strange things to my super sensitive skin. His heated eyes fly to mine, their golden rings fired up. I lick my lips at the raw lust in them. For me.

That unearthly look is only for me.

I buck against him, silently begging for more.

No idea what’s the more I want, but I need him to do something.

Julian’s lips devour mine again. They don’t kiss, they claim. I can’t breathe. I can’t even think. But I don’t need to.

Not now.

He lifts my T-shirt. Instead of breaking the kiss to pull it over my head, he straight out rips the cloth open.

I gasp against his mouth as my breasts pop free.

Holy. Hell.

This man is a caveman.

The insides of my thighs pulse at the mere sensation. If only he would do that to the shorts as well.