“Don’t you need time to recover?”
“Maybe, but my mouth still works.” He showered a path of kisses on my sensitive nipples, then grazed his teeth against them.
I let out a strangled sound as I felt his length twitch inside me.
“Kian.” I meant for it to be a protest, but failed spectacularly as my body arched into his mouth and my moan vibrated between us.
It turned out, after hours and hours of having this man exactly where I wanted him, it was me who needed to recover.
As the sweetest exhaustion pulled me under, my last thought was that this man might utterly ruin me, one orgasm at a time. And I wouldn’t mind it one bit.
Chapter 28
Kian
Icleaned her up while she slept, careful not to wake her. Sophie lay stretched out across my bed, one leg tangled in the sheet and her red hair fanned over the pillow like a goddess’s crown. The room smelled faintly of sex and…her. That flowery scent that would forever be associated just with her.
The lamp on the nightstand was still on low, casting a soft amber sheen over her pale skin. She was snoring softly and it was the most adorable sound I’d ever heard.
Fuck, the woman had a hold on me, and I had no desire to break free. In fact, I never wanted to let her go and I’d kill any man who tried to take her from me.
I hadn’t made love to a woman without a condom in decades. Trust was a luxury I’d trained myself not to need, and protection was easier than trust.
But I’d trusted Sophie.
I lay down beside her, the mattress dipping with my weight. The sheets were warm where she’d been. As if she sensed me, she sighed and shifted closer, her breath evening out, her shoulder pressing lightly into my chest. It wasn’t deliberate. That was the thing that got me. Shedidn’t reach for me. She simply settled, claiming a spot unintentionally.
I stared at the ceiling for a moment, listening to the rhythm of her breathing and the distant hum of the sea outside the window. Then I looked back at her, her expression softened and stripped of the armor she wore during the day.
Something in my chest tightened, the old fear of failing another woman creeping in as a memory flickered.
Elena stood by the window, her palm splayed on the glass and the other curved protectively over her belly. She was thinner and her bruises starker, though she’d learned to hide them better behind long sleeves and high-collar shirts in the heat of the summer.
“You shouldn’t be here, Kian,” she murmured. “The staff will tell Gio.”
It was as if she feared that raising her voice might summon her cruel husband.
“Let them,” I gritted, trying to contain my fury at seeing her so battered. “We’ll be long gone.”
She turned, and for half a second I saw the girl who trusted me explicitly.
“I can’t,” she whispered so softly I almost missed it over the ticking of the clock.
“You must,” I reasoned. “His cruelty will kill you.”
I swore to her that I’d protect her from her husband and I meant it. Even if she didn’t want to be with me, I needed her safe.
“It’s too late.”
“No,” I protested. “It isn’t too late until he’s back. We only have minutes. My car is waiting three blocks down with papers, cash, and a new life you can disappear into.”
She didn’t look relieved.
“My son,” she said. “I can’t leave him. Gio took Basilio with him.”
I understood all too well. After all, my own mother fled my abusive father but had to leave me behind. It hadn’t exactly done me well.
“We can get him later,” I said. I couldn’t tell if I was lying or simply believed it. “Once you’re safe, I swear to you?—”
