Freedom tasted like night air and victory, like the promise of Marcus’s skin against mine once we were home. And for the first time in my life, I knew I was exactly where I belonged.
Chapter Fourteen
Rancor
We arrived at my quarters in the Kiss of Death compound with my heartbeat still racing, the night ride having done little to cool the fire Cora had ignited in me with her defiance. I shoved the door shut behind us, locking it because no way in the fucking world was anyone going to interrupt me tonight. Freedom looked good on Cora. Victory, even better.
“God, that felt good,” she breathed, her voice still carrying that edge of defiance that had cut through her parents’ expectations like a blade. She paced the floor barefoot, the hem of her black dress swishing around her shapely thighs.
I loosened my tie, watching her move. Her trembling hands clenched and unclenched at her sides, not from fear this time but from the aftershocks of adrenaline. Her lips curved with stubborn pride as she ran her fingers through her hair where it had come loose from the high ponytail that had started the evening.
“You were magnificent,” I said, my voice rougher than I’d intended. The sight of her flushed with her victory, her eyes bright, was the most erotic, amazing, beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
She turned to face me, the dim light in my apartment catching on the subtle shine of her dress, highlighting every curve. “I’ve wanted to say that to them for years,” she confessed. “Every time they made me feel small, every time they treated me like a possession…” She shook her head, a strand of hair falling across her cheek. “In a way, I think them sending me off to boarding school made me realize my relationship wasn’t normal or healthy. Especially when they just left me there. I wasn’t theonly kid there with parent issues. Wasn’t even the only one who never went home. But the experience was enough to make me realize I could have more if I was willing to strike out on my own.”
I’d taken down men twice my size in prison without hesitation, faced down rivals and cops with an unblinking stare, but nothing had ever moved me like watching this woman find her voice. The woman who’d somehow become my anchor, my reason, my fucking salvation in a world that had taken everything else from me.
“You told them exactly who you are,” I said, shrugging off my jacket and draping it over the back of a chair. “Who you’ve always been.”
Her eyes tracked my movement, darkening slightly as I rolled up my sleeves, exposing the forearms marked with memories in ink and scars. The energy between us shifted, tension crackling in the air like static before a storm.
“And who am I, Rancor?” she asked, her voice dropping lower, the question carrying weight beyond the words themselves. She didn’t often use my road name, but I got the feeling she was now as a symbolic way of finishing the break with her old life. As much as I loved hearing my real name on her lips, I found I liked my road name even better. Especially now, given it represented a new life for us both. Though my second life hadn’t started out the way I wanted it to, the current destination was more than I ever thought I’d have again.
I stepped toward her, deliberate and measured, the way I approached everything that mattered. “Mine,” I answered simply. The word hung between us, heavy with all it implied. She wasn’t my possession, she was my life, the person I wanted and needed to protect most in this world. Did I miss Sarah? I would always miss her. But I knew she’d want me to be happy. I had to believe she was smiling down on me from heaven.
A visible shiver ran through Cora as I closed the distance between us. I settled my hands on her hips, the expensive fabric of her dress smooth and cool beneath my fingers. I felt her heat through the barrier, her body responding to my touch with an immediacy that never failed to humble me.
I turned her to face me fully, pinching her chin with my thumb and finger to tilt her face up until her eyes met mine. “You’re the woman who just told her entire past to go fuck itself,” I said, my tone dropping to that quiet, measured cadence that always preceded something fierce. “You’re the woman who chose a future on her own terms. Who chose me.” My thumb traced her lower lip, feeling it tremble slightly beneath my touch. “You’re my wife. My fucking heart walking around outside my chest.”
Her breath caught, the sound small but unmistakable in the quiet room. I watched her pupils dilate, black consuming blue until only a thin ring remained. She swayed toward me, her body seeking mine instinctively.
I pulled her into a bruising kiss, swallowing her gasp as our lips collided. The gentleness I usually reserved for her burned away beneath the heat of need. My fingers dug into the fabric of her dress as I bunched it in my fists. I backed her against the wall with deliberate force. The smallthudof her body meeting the drywall sent a jolt of satisfaction through me.
She gripped my head, her nails scraping against my scalp, kissing me back with a fervor equal to my own. I felt her teeth against my lips, the sharp nip more demand than request. I growled low in my throat, pressing her harder against the wall, pinning her with my larger frame.
“Did you feel powerful, telling them to go fuck themselves?” I murmured against her mouth, my beard scraping the delicate skin of her jaw as I moved to her ear. I bit the lobe gently, relishing her sharp inhale. “Because watching you do itmade me want to fuck you right there in the parking lot.”
Her breath came fast against my neck, her chest rising and falling rapidly where it pressed against mine. “Yes,” she admitted, her voice ragged with want. “God, Marcus, I’ve never felt so free.”
I captured her mouth again, my tongue claiming hers with possessive intent. Every slide of our lips, every shared breath, felt like sealing a pact we’d made long ago. My hands slid down her sides to her thighs, finding the hem of her dress and pushing it upward, exposing the silk of her skin to my calloused palms.
She arched into me, her body a living flame against mine. I lifted her easily. She wrapped her legs around my waist as I supported her against the wall. The position aligned our bodies perfectly. I shoved her skirt over her ass, the hard ridge of my erection finding and pressing against her pussy through the silk panties she wore. The other layers of fabric suddenly seemed an intolerable barrier.
“I need you,” she whispered, the words broken and raw. “Need you to fuck me, Rancor!”
The second she uttered those words using my road name, I lost my Goddamned mind. “Hang on,” I bit out before I hooked my finger in the elastic of her panties and guided my cock to her entrance.
With one shift, hard shove, I buried myself deep inside her cunt. The wet, hot heat of her pussy surrounding my bare cock was unlike anything I’d ever felt in my life. I actually saw stars on the edge of my vision.
“I’ve got you, baby,” I promised, my voice rough with a passion I had no hope of containing. “Always. My woman. The warrior.”
“I need this fucking dress off!” She tightened her legs around my hips but shoved me back, trying to reach behind her.Probably for the zipper. When she gave a frustrated screech, I wrapped my arms around her, found the tab and tried to slide it down her back. The Goddamned thing hung and I tugged a little bit too hard. The satisfying rip of the delicate fabric under my grip probably wasn’t pleasant to her as it was to me. She gasped, not in protest but in approval, her eyes darkening further as I exposed more of her skin to my hungry gaze. “Fuck,” she breathed as I ripped it further, exposing the black lace beneath. “Hated this fucking dress from the moment I put it on.”
“You’re mine,” I growled, needing to repeat myself until we both believed it to our very souls. I grazed my teeth over her neck, leaving marks she would feel long after this night ended, visual reminders of my claim on her. Not because I owned her, but because she had chosen to give herself to me. The thing that surprised me most was that, though I didn’t believe she was my possession, I knew deep in my soul she owned me.
“Yes,” she agreed, no hesitation in her voice. “And you’re mine. Every goddamn inch of you.”
I began to move then, thrusting my hips, fucking her hard. The need to plant my seed inside her was the most pressing desire I’d ever had in my life.
