Misted (Team Zero #5) by Rina Kent

“I’m sorry,” I blurt out, my breathing harsh and ragged as if I’m about to combust.

Whoa. This is harder than I ever thought. I’m barely holding it together and I feel like I’ll disintegrate into thin air by a mere word from him.

“For what?” he asks with deceptive calm.

“Everything. I’m sorry for ever hurting you. Just…” I lick my dry lips. “Just know that it never brought me joy.”

His hands finds my hips and he squeezes. Hard. Too hard. I can sense the bruise already.

“Why?” It’s that fake calm before the storm. “Tell me why.”

“Don’t…” I gulp down the tears trying to escape. “Don’t ask me for explanations I can’t give right now. I promise I’ll tell you soon.”

“When is soon?”

“Give in to me this once, Hawk.”

He doesn’t answer. He just continues watching me with an unnerving energy that gets my body warm and cold at the same time. Silence stretches between us like a dark, deep tunnel and I’m praying that there’s some light in the distance.

“I gave in to you once upon a time, remember?” He tightens his grip on my hips. “You said it was over, remember? You said you got rid of it, remember? You called a human life an it as if it weren’t our entire fucking future. You never looked back as I was beaten to near death, do you fucking remember?”

A sob tears from my throat. Every calm word he says is like a slice to my half-dead heart.

But even if I’m a monster in his eyes, I can never turn my back on him anymore. Those days I pretended everything is fine are over.

I’m not fine.

I’ve been dying a slow, torturous death all this time.

“I’ll tell you everything. I swear I will.” My words come out brittle and choked. “Please.”

Once again, his impenetrable silence is the only sound in the room. I want to reach inside him and yank the words out.

“Why did you come back?” he finally asks.

I can tell him that Crow and Scar tricked me into returning, but there’s no tricking me. I could’ve turned around and left, but…

“I’m tired of hiding and running away.” I confess my deepest, darkest secret. “I’m so tired.” Of being without him. Of dreaming about sleeping in his arms only to wake up to a gut-wrenching emptiness.

“Kiss me, Hawk.” My voice is a little above a murmur. If it weren’t for the slight tick in his jaw, I wouldn’t be sure he heard me.

I can seal my lips to his and kiss him like I always dreamt of, but I want him to do it.

I want the proof that he still wants me in such an intimate way as kissing. That I still mean something in his heart.

That I didn’t lose him once and for all.

“Why did you leave?” His fingers dig deeper in my hip drawing a whimper from me.

Both my hands ghost up to his face, stroking the slight stubble. “Kiss me.”

“If you left, why did you return?”

“Kiss me.” I’m begging, barely holding in my tears.

“How much more do you plan to fuck me up, Hellion?”

“Kiss me, Hawk. Kiss me – ”

Words die in my throat when he crashes his lips against mine. Something inside me shatters. A noose. A chain. A fortress that I’ve been building for whole fifteen years.

A tear slides down my cheek as he uses my hips to pull me closer to his body. His mouth pries mine open and his tongue clashes against mine.

I meet his ravenous strokes with my own. He groans with a ferocity that I feel straight to my soul.

I want to cry with gratitude. With love. With everything I lost all these years.

Hawk is kissing me again.

And it’s not just any kiss, it’s a claiming and a promise. Something tells me he’ll never let me go now, and although that should scare me, I mold myself closer into him and grab his nape.

Still clutching me by the hip, his other hand wraps possessively around my back.

He groans into my mouth. I whimper in his while threading my fingers through his hair.

We kiss for what seems like forever. Like we’re teenagers starving for each other’s air. We kiss until my lips are swollen and my head swims from the lack of oxygen. We kiss until I’m ready to die kissing him.

When he pulls away, my mouth grieves the loss. Both of us pant, inhaling and exhaling each other. I suck in stuttering, needy breaths as I stare at his hypnotising turquoise eyes.

I dreamt about kissing him for years and now, I don’t want to stop.

“Hug?” I lean in, but he stops me by his harsh stare.

“If this is a game, then I swear, I’ll get us both fucking killed.”

I smile, remembering my similar thoughts just now. “I’m fine with that.”

And my lips are back on his. Hawk pulls my hair free until the red waves cascade down my shoulders. His other hand snakes up my thigh underneath the dress. I moan against his lips when he reaches my knickers and pushes them aside. His calloused fingers find my slick core and rubs so sensually, but also so possessively as if he’s staking his claim all over again.

I fumble with his shorts until I free his proud, thick cock. I don’t stop kissing him while I try to bring him close to where I need him the most.

His hardness pokes at my entrance, but he doesn’t remove his fingers from my slick core.