“I would have found you,” I rasp into her nape, biting her lobe. “If you hadn’t been betrayed by that agent and instead sent into a whole other location, I would have combed this fucking world until I dug up where they holed you in.” I squeeze her left breasts, stroking her clit with my free hand as I hammer into her like a madman. “I wouldn’t have let you go. I don’t care how long it would have taken to find you.”
“Oh God!” she sobs, legs trembling as I rock faster and harder into her. “Ghost…oh…God!”
“You’re mine!” I growl, driving hard into her and pushing her against the marble. “You belong to me,gioia mia. Only me. And it’s my fucking job to take care of you. I’ll be damned if anyone takes you!”
“Yours,” she sobs, slapping at the wall as she orgasms, her sex clenching hard around me before releasing in violent shakes that seem to rob her of her ability to stand. Her knees buckle as the rest of her spasms beautifully. I hold her up as I drive into her, faster and harder, seeking my own release and when it comes, it roars through me with enough violence to leave my legs just as shaky as hers.
“Fuuck!” I bellow into her nape as waves and waves of pleasure roll through me. My cock jerks inside of her as I spill my seed into her womb, filling her with spurt after spurt of my cum. I stroke into her through the climax, sending her into yet another orgasm that threatens to send us both to the floor. Somehow, I manage to hold us both up through it.
We’re both yet to recover when Iris turns around to look at me and under the fog of steam, I see her eyes wet with tears. For one horrifying moment, I am terrified that I was perhaps a little too rough on her but then she flings her arms around my waist and buries her face against my chest. “I’m sorry,” she sobs, a sound so gut-wrenching that I feel my heart break. “I’m so freaking sorry. I wasn’t thinking, and when Henry said the Víboras Gemelas would kill you if I didn’t leave, I was scared. I love you so much and I just…I…couldn’t stand…I…”
I wrap my arms around her even as I feel the anger wash away. “You scared me,” I confess, leaning down to brush my lips over the top of her head. “I love you, Iris. I would have stood between you and a bullet. It’s my job to protect you. Promise me you’ll never do anything like that again.”
“I won’t, I promise,” she sniffs into my chest.
“Okay, I believe you,” I rasp, tightening my hold on her. “There now, we’re okay. You’re okay.”
“Don’t stay mad at me.”
“I’m not,” I assure her, pulling back from the embrace to brush my lips over hers. It’s gentle and soothing, meant to comfort. “Not anymore at least.”
“You promise.”
“I promise,” I say, squeezing soap into my palm and lathering her hair, wanting to clean her as much as I want tosmell my soap on her. She holds on to me as I do all the work. I dry her off then carry her to bed where she immediately turns to me, her lips seeking mine in the dark. I touch her. Everywhere. My caress is gentle as is our lovemaking. It’s slow and sweet. Vows are made without words, promises reaffirmed and when she finally falls asleep in my arms, I feel the world righted again.
I press my lips to Iris’s temple, breathing my soap on her skin and feeling the feral need to protect her. The man who left New York was reckless and dangerous because he had nothing to lose. The man who’s settling in Las Vegas is even more dangerous because now, I have everything to lose.
Epilogue
Two Years Later
Iris
“That man just winked at me.”
My eyes shift from the cocktail I’m making and follow Evie’s line of sight to a man seated alone at a table, nursing a large glass of beer. “I think he just has something in his eye,” I tell my coworker, busting her bubble to which I am rewarded with a pout.
“No, I swear he winked at me. He looks hot. Doesn’t he look hot?”
I chuckle at the need I hear in her voice. “We don’t date customers, Evie. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
“Well, how am I supposed to meet the love of my life then?”
“Not here,” I say, turning back to my cocktail.
“Didn’t you meet yours here?”
Tracey lets out a cackle beside me, probably remembering that horrible advice she gave me. I turn to the younger woman, flashing her a grin. “Touché,” I chuckle. Evie is one of the newest additions to the bar and I always find it hilarious howcharmingly innocent the girls who work here are. I don’t quite remember a time I was this innocent, not even when I was forced to work at a bar at just nineteen. I always moved about life feeling jaded.
Well, that was until I didn’t have to move about life alone anymore.
“Look, he did it again,” Evie whispers, nudging me with her arm and pulling my focus back to the man in question and he is indeed staring at our new waitress. There is a gleam in the man’s eyes that makes me want to protect Evie as I often do whenever a customer gets too handsy but one look at my coworker and I can tell the attention is welcome. “Do you think I should go talk to him?”
“Let him come to you,” I advise her, laughing when I see stars in her eyes. Tracey looks at me with a knowing smile and I can’t help but wonder if that is the same look she saw in my eyes two years ago whenever Ghost walked into the room. Did I give him that same dreamy look whenever he was close? Heck, it’s a wonder it took us so long to drift toward each other. Thanks to the Víboras Gemelas, we were able to find each other and create our own little family.
My hand unconsciously moves to my stomach and I can’t help the smile that touches my lips. Soon, it’s going to be more than just us two. Ghost is no doubt going to lose his mind when he finds out that I am carrying his baby.
And to think it all started that night in Austin. It all led me here. To meet the man of my dreams, marry him and take his name. Elizabeth Grundy didn’t just die; she vanished from existence. In her place came Iris Turner who then became Iris Benito. Unlike me, Ghost was able to reopen his past and did the tough work to start rebuilding his relationships with hisfamily. He’s even introduced me to them. It’s not perfect, but it’s progress.
