Rogue Security operators converged on Dree and Maxence.
Maxence grabbed Dree away from Magnus, whisking her up in his arms. She clung to his neck, where the scents of his cologne smelled like she’d been swaddled in a clean, clove-scented sheet.
Rogue Security and the French military personnel coalesced into a phalanx around them, and they were whisked back into the palace.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Rear Window
Maxence
Maxence slammed the door to their palace apartment, the wood hard against his palm, and he twisted the locks.
The Rogue Security medic had manhandled Dree when they’d gotten back, checking her over for gunshot wounds or injuries from when Magnus Jensen had mashed her into the pavement.
The other guys had swept the suite, checking closets and curtains, dipping to their toes and fingertips like humanoid spiders to peer under the bed.
They’d checked Max over, too, but no guns had been pointed at him. He hadn’t fallen or been crushed.
But they’d stayed in the room,talkingto Dree,touchingand manipulating her.
Maxence had stood over on the side of the room, his body quivering.
Hisneedsmoldering.
She’d caught his eye a few times over someone’s shoulder or turned to look at him when the medic was kneeling in front of her, cleaning a few bits of gravel and dust out of the scrapes on her palms with a squeeze bottle of water and gauze pads.
Her eyes were wide, almost terrified. She’d started to walk toward him twice, but the medic kept pulling her back to flash his penlight in her eyes or run his filthy fingers over the back of her skull.
Dree kept looking at Maxence.
And he couldn’t take his eyes off of her.
But she was fine.
Or she’dsaidshe was fine.
Trembling, but fine.
The Rogue Security medic finally packed all his crap in his bag and left them the hell alone.
Maxence strode across the room in a heartbeat, standing in front of where she sat on an ottoman with his hands hovering near her shoulders. He growled, “You’re sure you’re all right? No nicks from shrapnel? No sprains or cracks to be attended to?”
She stood and nodded, the light from the chandeliers above flickering over her delicate features. “I’m fine. Shook up, yeah, but—”
Like a hard shove between his shoulder blades, Maxence grabbed Dree and drove her back against the wall. His mouth found hers, slanting his lips and plundering her with his tongue.
His soul rattled against the flesh and bone of his body, and a desperate, clawing hunger blighted his mind.
She jumped, and he caught her with his hands under her ass. Her thighs cinched around his waist.
He slammed her back against the plaster again, his cock pushing at the front of his tuxedo pants as he ground his hips against hers.
Dree whimpered and dropped her head back, and he sucked and bit the slim column of her neck.
God,that sound, that throaty whimper of surrender drove him insane. He needed to possess every inch of her and feel the wildness returned on his skin.
He bound her tightly against his chest with his arms and moved away from the wall, kicking the bedroom door out of the way as he chewed on her neck and shoulder.
