“You have Toni?”
There was steel in his eyes. “Emphatically. I’m even giving her amusing games to play with the guard. She thinks that she’s holding him hostage.” He shook his head, smiling slightly. “You can’t imagine that I would have put anything into motion without securing her safety, do you?”
I swallowed hard. “You have Toni to keep her safe?” Why was my heart beating so fast? I wanted to kiss him, knowing that he wanted to protect my best friend, but what if he failed? What if it wasn’t enough? What if he used her to hurt me, turned her against me, or ended up ruining her life? What kind of villain was he?
He cupped my face and kissed me. I wanted him with every fiber of my trembling body, my weak, disobedient body that didn’t care if we were doing the necessary thing if it went against kissing my sweet obsession. I nipped his bottom lip and arched against him, sliding my way through the maze of hard muscles and taut planes until I fit perfectly against his strength.
I kissed him with a building desperation that made me less gentle than I should have been, because he must have been injured in the Three-Hundred just like everyone else.
When he pulled away, wrapping my body in his arms, he gazed down at me, frowning. “You kissing me like that hurts you. You aren’t allowed to hurt yourself.”
“Not allowed?” I was breathless, and I did hurt, my arm most of all, but I had other bruises on my body, particularly where the straps had held me in place. When I was kissing him, I didn’t feel anything but needy pleasure.
“It’s the rule, as serious as no sex before marriage. There is one small thing we should probably discuss,” he murmured with a curl of growl at the end.
I struggled to recapture his mouth, but he held back, a slight smirk on his lips.
“What small thing?”
“Vengeance.”
I froze, staring into those eyes, deadly serious intensity in them. “Vengeance?”
“Naturally.” He stroked my neck with his talented fingers, but my shiver came from more than desire. “Your cousin, Philipe, can’t have you, not ever. Not a breath, not a hair of you. Even after Christmas, you can get an annulment if you’d like, but you will still belong to me, just as I belong to you. We are mutually enslaved.”
I scowled at him, but my feelings weren’t going along with my mind. Mutual enslavement sounded perfect, except for the part where he got hurt. “I don’t belong to anyone.”
“No?” he murmured and brushed my lips with his. My body reacted without my consent, pulling him into me, starving for more. He pulled away too soon, leaving me breathless and aching.
“That isn’t me, just my body. I’ve been having trouble with it lately, but that doesn’t mean that I’m yours. I’ll take care of your vengeance for you, I swear it, just stay away from my family.”
“The only trouble you’ve had with your body is listening to it. You want me, which is convenient, because I’m yours, permanently. As long as your body belongs to me, I belong to you, all of me, body, mind, heart and soul. I get that you’re big into heroism, or you wouldn’t have lifted up the truck to save Trix, but try to understand that the best thing you can do to keep me safe, is hold me tight.”
I did the only possible thing and held him, grasping him with all my strength. “If you get hurt, I’m going to kill you,” I breathed against his neck. “It’s the rule, as serious as Scooby Doo.”
“My lifestyle is one of various dangers, Princess, so let’s call ‘anything’ permanent harm, otherwise you’d have to kill me every day.” He cradled me against him and pressed a kiss against my hair. “Not that I’d mind you killing me every day. You still owe me that date, the one where you show me your glass knives.”
I held him for a long time. Was it possible that part of his plan for vengeance was to make Philippe jealous long term? That worked for me, except that Dirk deserved better. He deserved to have peace and contentment instead of being driven by anger and vengeance.
I reluctantly pulled away from him, and he let me, his eyes much more relaxed than they’d been. Maybe he was more at peace thinking that he was getting his revenge for his sister. Nothing else made sense.
I pressed my lips together, trying not to show how much they wanted to kiss him again. “You need to go to work.”
“We’ll go together.”
“I’m going to stay here and rest today, and then this afternoon I’m going to a therapy session with Horse, but after that, I thought, maybe…a date?”
He raised a brow with his eyes so soft and delicious. I felt shy, wanting so much to keep him safe, to be loved by him.
“I’ll pick you up at the Providence. I’ll make reservations, unless you’ve already taken care of it.” He took my hand, turning it and pressing a kiss to the pad while he gazed at me, eyes so soft and yet burning, that my own heart came alive. I loved him so much.
“Somewhere public, expensive, notable.”
“You want to make a scene?” He smiled slightly and kissed the side of my neck. “I suppose you’ll have to keep me close to you for my safety,” he murmured, lips brushing my skin and sending a fluttering through me.
I swallowed hard. Maybe I could keep him with me today. No. I had to take care of business before anything else. After I had information, I’d know how much time I had before I had to wrap everything up with us. “It’s the rule. If I can’t hurt, then you can’t either.”
He pulled back and studied me for a long moment. “It’s a good rule. I really like you, from the top of the tower to the bottom of the canyon and everywhere in between. I will always be there to catch you when you fall.”
