Read Online Before the Fall by Sable Grace - Free Book Online

mind at the moment was staring up at him with such pleading in her eyes, he died a little.
    â€œShanna, I—”
    She pressed a finger to his mouth and shook her head. “Whatever you’re going to say . . . just . . . don’t.”
    Shanna sat up, slipped her shirt over her head and lay back down—on top of the blanket this time—teeth chattering. She pressed as tightly to Zach as she could get, needing far more than his warmth to get her through what was to come.
    Even when they’d been apart she’d never been able to let her feelings for him go so she could move on with her life. That was one mistake she couldn’t repeat this time. She didn’t belong in his world. Didn’t want to belong in it for a second longer than it took for those he trusted to make things right again. And this journey—the things she’d seen—had proven to her that he didn’t belong in her world either.
    She didn’t know what tonight would bring or what they’d feel tomorrow. But right now, she was going to tell him she loved him in the only way she could. With her body.

 
    Chapter Ten
    10:55 p.m.
    1 hour and 5 minutes before the fall . . .
    S hanna kissed Zach with all the longing and all the regret that had been living inside her for the past six months. She traced his lips with her tongue, saying all the things in her head she wished she had the courage to say to him.
    His arms tightened around her waist, but when he tried to ease her onto her back, she stopped him. She wanted to take her time, to explore every inch of his body. To burn him into her memory in case it was the last time she saw him.
    Fisting his shirt, she tugged it off, then pushed him onto his back. She straddled his waist and ran her hands over his smooth chest before following with her lips. Though his skin was hot to the touch, tiny goose bumps danced across his chest, causing her hands and lips to tingle.
    She unsnapped the button of his jeans and tugged slightly. Zach lifted his hips, allowing her to pull the denim off his body. Revealed to her, she drank in the sight of him—the scars she knew as well as her own, the bruises he’d sustained over the last few hours. All visible, even in the dark, cramped quarters they’d been given.
    She kissed each mark, loving them tenderly with her tongue. Not even the ragged scar on his arm missed her ministration. He tensed as she tended the puckered flesh, but he didn’t pull away. She didn’t know how he’d gotten it, but knew it had been the reason he’d left his old life behind. She loved the wound as much as he seemed to hate it. Had he not been hurt, she never would have met him.
    When she moved to a scar on his ribs, Zach sighed her name. She smiled, empowered by the tiny quivers of his muscles and the faint perspiration dampening his skin that she was sure had nothing to do with their confined space.
    Satisfied that she’d found every tiny wound, she worked her way back to his belly. His hands gripped her shoulders, the graze of his callused thumbs sending spirals of heat all the way to her toes.
    Zach tightened his grip on Shanna’s shoulders and pulled her up his body so she covered him. He knew exactly what she was up to—taking power in a situation she could control, unlike the one raging outside. But he wasn’t going to play her game. She was going to receive as much as she was giving—whether she liked it or not.
    He ran his hands lightly over her back and cupped her ass. He wanted to fill her, claim her, brand her forever as his.
    He stroked her ribs, the side of her breasts. Tiny shivers of desire caused her to quake. He pulled her legs forward so she rested on her knees, then leaned in to capture her nipple. Her soft whimpers were like fire to his blood.
    Tightening his arms around her waist, he rolled them so he was cradled between her thighs. She rocked against him and he cursed