“Dean,” She swallows, her voice a little more than a whisper.
“You’re safe,” I repeat to her.
Her eyes drop to my mouth and then back up, “I know, but sometimes it’s hard to remember that.”
“What do you need?” I hold myself real fucking still as she inches forward just a touch. Close enough, I see the dark blue specks within her eyes and the darker rim around her pupils. So fucking pretty. Her breath stutters across my mouth, and her eyes drop once more to my lips and hold there.
“Too much to ask for,” She whispers.
My fingers flex against her warm skin, “Then take, don’t ask.”
She makes a soft humming sound, lashes fluttering as she processes my words. The moment shatters in the next second. She jumps away from me, eyes wide, “Fuck, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be, Butterfly,” I reach for her again, wanting that proximity to her, but she moves further away, walking backward to her bedroom.
Her panic is a living thing consuming her, but there’s no way to save her when she locks herself away and shuts me out.
I can’t tell if I want to rip the door off the hinges to demand answers or kiss the shit out of her.
“I’m so fucked,” I grumble to myself as I shut my own bedroom door and palm myself through the material of my sweats. Out of fucking control. She makes me want to throw away all the rules I’ve given myself, all the boundaries I have set to ensure I never get hurt. I want her fucking hands on me. Her touch.
Yanking at my sweats, I free my cock, gripping the shaft and pump it one, two times, stopping at the crown to smear the bead that has formed there. The silver balls of the piercing through the tip glint in the low light of my room. She’d look so fucking pretty taking my cock, legs spread wide, those perfect tits in my hands.
My teeth clamp together. So fucking close, and yet unattainable.
She is my walking ruin.
And yet, I feel like I’ll walk happily into her flames and lose myself within the ashes.
Chapter Twenty
“Why the fuck is Richard sending his man after you?” Malakai snaps, pacing the length of his office. It’s late, so it’s only Killian and Malakai there while I sit on the other side of the camera, the laptop positioned so it shows the whole of Malakai’s office.
“It’s possible his system picked up on my presence,” I sigh, my body strung so damn tight it feels as if I may snap at any moment. I refused myself an orgasm, even though it was right there with the thoughts of Sloane laying in the room next to mine. “Wants to silence me before I find out too much.”
“He’s a fucking idiot,” Killian growls, “I’ll kill him myself.”
“This is reason enough to break the truce we had,” Malakai agrees, “And Kurtis?”
“I’ll have him by tomorrow,” Killian confirms, “Want him in the cells?” He’s referring to the basement beneath Malakai’s estate, which he converted into holding cells. The walls have seen so much death, you can smell it when you go down there. The floors are stained with old blood, and when it’s really quiet, it’s like you can still hear the screams of our enemies trapped within the walls.
“I want to be there,” I grumble. “Fucker tried to kill me, it’s only right I serve the final blow.”
“He’s all yours,” Malakai assures me.
But it’s not even really for me why I want to serve the death blow. It’s for the woman in the bed behind mine, it’s for the tiny baby sleeping in the crib, too. He could have hurt them. He scared them, and for that he’ll pay.
“Do you have any more on Taylor?” Malakai asks, “Confirmation he’s behind the missing women?”
“Trafficking,” I sigh, “At least that’s what it looks like, but there’s no true paper trail aside from sizable sums of money moving in and out of his accounts.”
“He’s become a problem,” Malakai pinches the bridge of his nose, “And I don’t like those in my damn city.”
I nod in agreement. We may not be the most upstanding citizens, and there may be a lot of blood on our hands, but we have lines we will not cross. The missing women, the money, the attempted murder… it all screams problems.
“He’s been a problem since he tried to blackmail Sebastian,” Killian grumbles.
Malakai grunts, “You have my approval to do what is necessary.”
