Inching closer to me, Jethro ran the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. “Now, if you don’t mind, I believe I need to do something that I should’ve done that first night.”
My breathing stopped. “What should you have done?”
His breath fanned over my lips. “Kissed you. You owe me the kiss you so naively offered me moments after we met.”
“Naively?” My heart pounded as my core grew wet. The tension between us swirled and sparked. “Don’t you mean stupidly? I remember you calling me that a few times.”
His hand cupped my cheek; his thumb skimming from my lip to my ear. “Like I said. I told a lot of lies that night.” His eyes drifted to my mouth. “May I? May I take back that first wrong and make it right?”
I couldn’t breathe.
I nodded.
“Fuck.” His body fell forward, his mouth met mine.
I parted for him, welcoming his taste and control. Scooting closer, his arms banded around me, his knees bruised mine, and the coffee shop faded into obscurity.
I moaned into his mouth, melting into his embrace. I’d never been kissed so deeply or so selflessly. He poured the past and present down my throat, rewriting history and revoking everything that’d happened. In his arms, I only remembered how happy I was and not about the sadness still clinging to us.
My diamond ring weighed on my finger. My diamond bracelet decorated my wrist. And my diamond collar locked me forever as his. So much had happened. So much pain and debts and death.
But this.
A simple kiss in a simple coffee shop in a simple world.
This made it all worth it.
This made it allpriceless.
His tongue danced with mine, slowly pulling away from me, leaving me needy and desperate for more.
Letting me go, Jethro reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. “It’s fair to warn you, Needle, that after that kiss I’m fucking rock hard and need you more than I can stand. I doubt I’ll have the self-control to order a coffee or watch you eat a piece of cake without needing to be inside you, so I’m going to show you this before I yank you out of this place and find a dark place so I can fuck you. Then, when the violence in my blood is sated, I’ll reward you by making love to you and showing how my love can both be a punishment and a play.”
My mouth fell open. His torrent lapped around me, licking my nipples with promise. “We can leave now. This very second.”
He shook his head, fanning out the parchment on the low coffee table. “No, we can’t. Not until I show you this.”
His eyes met mine, dark and delicious, his lips glistening from our kiss. “I never told you this, but the Sacramental Pledge I made you sign the night of Cut’s birthday—the one you signed after breaking in my office—I burned it before I came to get you in London.”
I shivered, remembering that night and what happened afterward. He’d kissed me. He’d fucked me. He’d let me win after watching me come apart. “Why?”
His fingers stroked the inked words. “Because I didn’t want the burden of owning your soul when I’d taken it so cruelly.” Spreading out the parchment further, working the kinks from the centre, he dipped into his pocket again and grabbed a fountain pen.
Holding it out for me, he said, “It’s not a quill, but this will have to do.” Sudden nervousness covered his features. “Would you? Will you sign another, now you know everything that I am?”
My eyes fell on the paper.That’s what this is?
A new Sacramental Pledge? A new contract trumping the Debt Inheritance and everything it stood for?
I took the pen without hesitation. “I’ve already agreed to marry you. I’ll agree to anything that puts your heart at rest and grants me you for eternity.”
He sighed, his knee rubbing mine. “You’re far, far too good to me.”
“And you gave me everything I ever wanted.” Kissing him gently, I whispered, “I’ll sign whatever you want me to sign, Kite. But...can I read it first?”
He chuckled, tucking fallen strands behind my ear. “Of course. I want you to read it. I want you to know what I need from you.”
Plucking the parchment, I held it within slightly trembling hands. The night of Cut’s birthday came back. The way I broke in his office. The cuts on my back killing me from the First Debt. This was so different. Our first ‘date.’ Our first normal outing together as lovers rather than debtor and debtee.
