I race to the bathroom and hurl up my dinner, just like Flores predicted I might.
A moment later, Flores is there, holding my hair and running a soothing hand down my spine. When there’s nothing left inside me, I flush the toilet and slump down next to it.
“There are at least twenty more pictures I could show you,” Flores says, sliding down the wall to sit next to me.
I turn my head and look at her. Her brown eyes are sad butfervent. “I agree with you that Mr. Langford went about this the wrong way. But as we discussed yesterday, you wouldn’t have left willingly. You know you would have put up a fight. I want you to ask yourself, if you were him and you saw those pictures, what would you do? Yegor and Sergei made it clear they would come for you to hurt Mr. Langford. If you knew someone was capable of what you saw in those pictures, would you take that risk? Or would you do everything in your power to keep the person you love safe from that kind of fate?
“You don’t know the conversations we have had as a security team. You haven’t seen the absolute terror on Mr. Langford’s face when we discussed all the things Volkov is capable of. He has looked at every one of those pictures and imagined what it would be like ifyouwere the victim of those heinous acts. I know this situation is hard and confusing, and yes, I agree with you that it is violating. But Volkov would do ahellof a lot more than violate you. The reason Jenkins and I went along with this plan is because we care about you, and we agree with Mr. Langford that this is the only way we can guarantee your safety.
“Mr. Langford is not a regular man, and his enemies are not regular men. These threats against you are the worst of the worst. Whether you believe or not, whether you agree with it or not—it doesn’t change that reality. You are in danger. Full stop. If Volkov gets a hold of you, you may end up as one of those pictures. Do you really want to live through the pain, the terror, and the trauma he would inflict on you before he killed you? Think about it, Ella. Think about what it would be like to live through that. You’d bebeggingfor death. Mr. Langford and the rest of us are doing everything we can to prevent that.”
She stands and exits the bathroom, leaving me alone with my shocked and splintered thoughts.
41
ELLA
The weight of the mattress shifts beneath me. A body presses against mine. Fingertips skim down my cheekbone. My mind whirrs with worry before a sense of calm settles over me.
“I’ve missed you,” Asher whispers against my skin where a sliver of it peeks out between my silk pajama top and shorts. His lips trace their way up my stomach as he pushes my top up with his rough, calloused hands. My eyes flutter open as the night air brushes across my exposed breasts.
“What are you doing here?” I gasp, taking in Asher’s beautiful, shadowed face.
“I had to see you.”
I hiss as his tongue traces my hardened nipple, and then I groan when he takes it in his mouth.
“Asher,” I whimper, threading my hands through his hair. I can’t believe he’s here. His touch, his scent, his voice, the press of his large body against mine brings a sense of giddy relief. “I missed you, too,” I confess. “Nothing feels right without you.”
“I need you,” he growls, tearing my shirt over my head thenstripping my shorts and underwear off in one desperate yank. Before I can respond, his tongue traces my center, and my hips buck off the bed. Sparks of pleasure burst through me at the feel of his mouth on me, of the scratch of his five-o’clock shadow grazing the sensitive skin of my inner thighs.
“Fuck,I missed the taste of this pussy.”
He eats me like a starved man, then slides one, then two fingers inside me as he sucks on my clit.
“Yes, oh god,” I moan, reveling in the feel of him.
I wrap my legs around his back as he pumps his fingers in and out of me, hitting that perfect spot. Tingles race down my spine as Asher, who knows every inch, every secret of my body, works it as if he’s worshipping it. A second later I cry out as a flood of pleasure, relief, and unadulterated happiness surges through me.
“That’s right, come for me, baby.”
My orgasm has barely subsided when Asher lines up his cock to my entrance and shoves it inside me in a single thrust.
“Ella,”he hisses.“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”He grits his teeth as we both adjust to our connection, then he starts moving, thrusting in and out of me harder than he ever has before. It’s both pleasure and pain, and so all-consuming that I can’t even think. I can only feel.
Our lips collide and I can taste myself on his tongue. He kisses me like he fucks me, like a crazed, starved man barely hanging onto his sanity.
I meet his hips thrust for thrust and our hands and arms are a frenzied mess of bruising touches as we frantically cling to one another.
“I missed you,” he rasps against my mouth. “I love you. Never leave me again.”
“I didn’t leave you.” I pull my mouth away and kiss my way up the side of his throat. “You sent me away.”
“I had to keep you safe.”
“I’m safe.”
He pulls back, his eyes meeting mine in the dark. “I had to keep you safe.”
