He comes with a sound that breaks in half as he shudders, hips snapping forward as he spills deep in me—hot, thick pulses that fill me until I feel it leaking out around his cock. He grindsthrough it, pushing every drop as deep as it will go, like he’s trying to mark me from the inside out.
For a long moment, we stay like that—breathing hard, his cock still buried inside me, then he reaches to untie my wrists. The muscles in my arms complain as I slowly lower them, and his hands are on my back, pulling me against him, naked breasts against his shirt.
He doesn’t pull out.
He just holds me, forehead to forehead.
“I would burn the whole world down just to stay right here—inside you, feeling you flutter around me like you’re trying to keep me forever.”
My fingers find his scar, and I’m no longer exploring because I know the pattern by heart. “Iamkeeping you forever, Nazareth Hale. Because you were always meant to be mine…like I was always meant to be yours.”
19
RETH
Ian is at the stove when I come in from the terrace. Three steaks in the pan, the smell of garlic and butter filling the villa, and he doesn't turn around when I walk in.
“She's still in the pool,” he says. Like he knew exactly where I'd been standing.
“Yeah.”
“Just so you're aware, staring at a woman from a distance is technically how this whole thing started. Might want to vary your approach.”
“Shut up.”
“I'm just saying. Growth.” He reaches for the salt. “You could try walking up to her like a normal person. Say hi. Maybe not from a rooftop.”
“I said hi.”
“On a Greek road in the dark after weeks of radio silence. Very romantic. Very normal.” He plates the steaks. “She cried on mewhen you were in the shower, by the way. Just so you know what a great entrance that was.”
I check the perimeter feed on my phone for the third time in twenty minutes. The villa's exterior cameras, the road from the airport, the two access points on the coastal side, the single road in and out of this part of the island. Lemnos is small enough that unusual movement registers.
I have two contacts positioned at either end of the island—not visible, not intrusive, just present—and a third watching the marina because boats are the variable you can't control from a road. Everything is clean. Everything has been clean since we arrived. Valeria doesn't know we're here yet. I'm making sure of it.
“It was good tears, though. Not the other kind.” He sets the plates on the counter and finally turns, leaning back against the stove with his beer. He looks at me for a moment—the easy register, the mischief—and then something shifts. Just slightly.
“Thank you,” I say, finally slipping my phone into my pants pocket.
He tilts the bottle. “For what?”
“Getting her here safely.”
“Are you gonna tell me what’s going on?”
Outside, Sophia floats on her back in the pool, arms spread wide, face to the sky like she hasn’t a care in the world. I’d sell my soul to keep it that way.
“Reth?” Ian pushes. “First you break the cardinal rule of no contact, and then all I get is a message saying I need to get her here as fast as humanly possible, with enough security to guardthe Pope, and also in a way that doesn’t freak her out. Do you know how impossible that is?”
“Yeah. I?—”
“And did you notice how I accomplished the impossible without breaking a sweat?”
I frown at him.
“You’re welcome, by the way. Now tell me what the fuck is going on, man.”
I pull a fist through my hair. “Valeria figured out you were in Paris.”
