His kiss was firmer this time, and as butterflies unfurled in my stomach, my legs moved involuntarily to wrap around his waist. Jace moved us away from the edge, the kiss deepening and the sensitivity of my body increased as his hands stroked up and down my sides.
Part of me was angry that we were making out while Angel was lost to us, hurt or worse… Yeah, not even going there. But I also knew that there was nothing I could do to help him right now. The best people for the job were searching, and he wouldn’t begrudge me having this moment with Jace.
I could practically hear his voice in my head shouting out his joy. The three of us back together was such a dream it could be called a fantasy. Jace and I needed to heal so that when we had our Angel back, the three of us could find the same healing.
“Is this okay?” he whispered against my mouth, and I responded with a moan.
His chuckle was more like the old Jace, with just a hint of arrogance. “Oh yes, I know that sound very well.”
The water was too deep for me to touch the ground, but he was more than capable of keeping one hand under my ass, holding me up, while the other twisted in my bikini top, shifting the cups so my tits sprang free, nipples hard and aching. Fuck, the water brushing against them was more stimulation than I could handle, so when Jace’s hold on me tightened and he lifted me so his mouth could close across the right one, I almost screamed.
Letting myself go, all the worries and pain briefly faded under his mouth. His free hand continued to slide down my body, even as he sucked and scraped his teeth across my nipple. His fingers slid down the seam of my swimsuit, sliding under and brushing across my clit. My moan was louder as I jerked against him.
“My Rose,” he growled. “Always so responsive.”
Only with the four men who owned my heart. I’d found it difficult to ever find pleasure with any other, like my body went on strike the moment she wasn’t with the ones who’d claimed her. Lucky for me there were four of them now.
Jace slid one finger and then a second inside me, and there was no resistance. I was too wet for a little pool water to slow him down. He lifted his head from my nipple to kiss me again as he leisurely thrust his fingers into my pussy, slow and sure in a constant rhythm that had me tightening my legs around him as the swirls in my belly grew stronger.
This was one of the most destructive kisses I’d ever felt, but I had the sense that from the rubble of this destruction, something beautiful could grow.
Something beautiful and real and incredible… if he kept his word and rebuilt the trust between us.
“I love you,” he said between the long, drugging kisses. “I love you so fucking much, Rose.”
“God,” I sobbed—fucking sobbed as I fell apart under his touch. The orgasm was a slow build, but it went on for so damn long that if Jace hadn’t been holding me up in the water, I’d have for sure drowned.
“God has nothing on me, baby,” he said with a grin, “and I think it’s time I proved that.”
His fingers slid from me, and then we were naked. Somehow.
His hard length pushed slowly inside me, and it was clear that today, of all days, Jace was in no rush.
He was loving me with every part of himself, and I wondered if I would survive the overwhelming emotion of it all.
Hey, I guess there were worse ways to go than loved to death.
Especially by Jace Adams.
six
ANGELO
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Infuriated, I shook my head just to break the monotonous rhythm of my own blood dripping into the puddle at my feet. I was hanging by my wrists from a heavy chain, and from what I could make out through one eye—the other was swollen shut—I was in some kind of warehouse. Maybe an old metal shop or something? Either way, I was long gone from Monaco.
I raised my head again, testing how tight my neck had become.Ouch. That motherfuckerwho’d stun-gunned me had a lot to pay for. I hadn’t gotten a good look at him, but the asshole who’d beaten the crap out of me yesterday let slip that it was Wilson. NotaWilson, buttheWilson. Turns out, my father had been hiding a lot from me, not the least of which being thatWilsonwas one man with an intricate network of paid employees and an axe to grind with the Ricci family.
The whole abduction, torture, imprisonment thing was not new to me. It wasn’t my first rodeo and was unlikely to be my last. Sometimes it’d be rival gangs, but sometimes it was my own family… teaching me a lesson or training me to withstand duress. Either way, I wasn’t worried. Not about myself, anyway. Fear for what’d happened to Billie nearly choked me, though. Was she okay? All I could remember was guns going off and diving onto Billie to get her out of the line of fire. Then someone grabbed me, and it was lights out.
Footsteps sounded outside my cell, and the heavy metal door squeaked as it opened, admitting one of my guards.
“Good morning, princess,” the greasy-haired bastard with heavy fists greeted me. He was missing a tooth and sporting a swollen nose from when I’d headbutted him yesterday, and that made me smile back.
“Oh good. It’s you again. I was starting to think I’d hurt your feelings.” I forced some snark into my voice despite how much my body was already flinching with anticipation.
Not one to let me down, the guard sneered back, then slammed his fist into my gut. The air knocked out of me, and I coughed, but the chains prevented me from going far. I just swung back ready to catch the next one.
“Wilson told us not to kill you,” the dumb shit said between hits, “but he didn’t say to keep you pretty. So long as your daddy knows it's you being executed in front of him, that's all that matters.”
