Page 45 of While You Sleep

Three hours later, I was walking back into the house.

Danny stood from his chair in the living room. His arm was wrapped and in a sling. He looked pale. “Go home. I’ve got things covered here.”

He nodded. “Everything sorted?” He eyed the blood spatter on my white shirt.

I quickly filled him in, all the while wanting to check on Sophia. There’d been this knot in my gut since I walked out of here, this sense of urgency to come home. I couldn’t see her like this, though. I needed to shower first. I hadn’t gone easy on Walter or his friend, another of Paolo’s followers, to get the information I needed, and things had gotten messy.

Walter had confirmed Paolo’s obsession with my wife, that he wanted Alto’s seat, then he’d begged for his life before I’d finally shot him.

Danny left, and I took the stairs two at a time. The bedroom was dark when I walked in, Sophia nothing but a small lump in the bed. The bedside lamp switched on before I could get to the bathroom, and she sat up. The pillows I’d put around her were scattered, and I quickly scanned her body for injuries.

“You left,” she said, accusation in her voice.

“I had to sort some things out. Danny was here.”

Her gaze slid over me, taking me in from head to toe. “You look different. What happened?”

“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. Just know you’re safe now.”

She shoved back the covers and got out of bed, her gaze searching mine with more courage than she’d ever had as she closed the space between us. She took in the rest of me, the blood splattered on my neck, on my shirt, and she paled. “What did you do?”

“Sophia—”

“You killed someone.”

She immediately tried to retreat, to get away from me, and something inside me snapped. I grabbed her wrist and wrenched her back against me, so close our bodies were pressed tight. “Yes, I killed someone. Walter and another of Paolo’s men. They were the ones who shot at us tonight. I took them to my warehouse, I beat them, tortured them, then I shot them both between the eyes, and I felt nothing, pet, not one fucking thing. They deserved to die. They almost killed you. If those first two shots had been just an inch closer, you’d be dead now.” Her eyes were huge. She was afraid, afraid of me, and I wanted to fucking snarl when she tried to pull away from me again.

Her eyes glistened with tears. “Seamus really did turn you into a monster, didn’t he?”

I was breathing hard as her words arrowed through me, slicing and cutting as they went. “Aye,” I said, not bothering to pretend to be something else, not this time. All she had to do was look into my eyes to see the truth. “Are you afraid?”

“Yes,” she said, her chest rising and falling fast with her panted breaths.

She blinked and a tear streaked down her cheek, her body trembling, but she hadn’t tried to pull away again, no, she leaned into me, getting closer. My cock was hard as steel, my need for her yawning wider. I swiped her tear away and sucked it from my thumb, needing to taste every part of her. “Are you wet, pet?”

Her lips trembled and another tear slid down her face. “Yes.”

I leaned in and lapped it up this time.

“Is your heart made of stone, Cillian? Do you truly feel nothing at all?”

I lifted her off her feet, and her legs came around me. “I honestly don’t know anymore. Since I met you, something changed.” I thrust my fingers into her hair and covered her mouth with mine. I kissed her so hard and deep, she whimpered against my mouth, her nails digging into my shoulders. But there was no stopping this time. I wasn’t letting her pull away from me, not in any way. I was going to own every part of her, and I was going to do it as myself. No act, no pretending to be what I thought she wanted, I was going to give her the truth.

I strode to the bed and laid her on it, then yanked my bloody shirt off and tossed it aside. I jerked her pj top over her head and tore her sleep shorts and underwear down her legs. She lay there pale and small in the moonlight, and looking so fucking vulnerable I had to suck in a desperate breath to hold myself back. Seeing her like that caused an ache behind my ribs.

“Did you get this hard when you watched me sleep all those times in my apartment?” she whispered.

My chest expanded sharply. “Aye.”

“And when you got into bed with me…did you want to fuck me?” Her cheeks darkened as she said it.

“Aye,” I rasped. She was breathing harder, her perfect round tits shaking with each panted breath. “Some nights, when you thrashed and cried out in your sleep, and I climbed onto your bed and I held you, I almost lost control.”

Her eyes widened. “But you didn’t.” She fisted the covers, but she didn’t try to get away.

“Every time I was close to you, I barely resisted taking what was mine.”

I stripped off the rest of my clothes and climbed on top of her. She trembled beneath me as I slid the backs of my fingers over her hot cheeks. “You know what I’m about to do, don’t you, Sophia?”

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