“Give me one more, angel. Give Daddy one more,” I said against her ear.
She cried out my name over and over like a goddamn prayer as I wrapped my hand around her throat.
“You are the only one,” I rasped before I swelled inside her, filling her pussy with me.
“Col?” My hand stopped in the middle of her back.
“Hm?”
The storm was still raging outside, similar to the war raging inside my head. My angel was laying on my chest, her leg curled in between mine. I’d built a new fire for us before getting back into bed. After cleaning her up and getting her settled on me, we sat in a comfortable silence.
“What did you mean when you said you almost died tonight?” Her voice was soft and sated, but I heard the hesitation within it.
“I blew up a restaurant with my father inside.”
I expected shock but got something else entirely. “He told you?” she breathed.
I froze.
She sensed my tension and pushed up on her elbow so she could meet my eyes. Her blonde hair draped over her shoulder like a curtain of sunlight. Guilt masked her features.
“You knew.”
After a moment, she nodded. “Haley is the one who told me. She said there was a file…James Garner gave it to her.”
That was surprising. Agent Garner had been a pain in my ass for years, but he was smart, calculated. In a different life, perhaps he would have my respect. In this one, I just wanted to shoot him…most days.
Haley Austen would be the sole reason he would remain breathing, at least where I was concerned.
“She told me about the rings and said it came from a file,” I mused, my eyes drifting to the fire.
“Did you believe her when she told you?”
I sighed. Too many webs. “I’ve had my suspicions for some time, but I never acted on them until I had proof.”
“If you hadn’t gotten any proof, would you still be trying to overthrow him?”
I nudged her to lay back down, her head directly over my heart. She was the one who it beat for, after all. “It would have been passed to me anyways, it seems,” I admitted.
Even if I was just a last resort.
“What do you mean?”
“He came to California to have dinner and discuss his succession. He told me about my mother.”
It was her turn to freeze. Another sigh left me. “Haley told you about that too, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Maybe I shouldn’t have let you see her, hm?” My eyes found hers again.
“Why did you?”
Because the thought of seeing you unhappy kills me.
“She'd been through a tragedy. I didn’t want her going through it alone. There is only so much a man can do to comfort a woman after she has been assaulted.”
She nodded and looked up at me.
