Page 31 of Mercy in Betrayal

I can’t help but smile. “You are full of knowledge today.”

Her cheeks darken. “What’s so funny?”

“I think it’s funny you are worried about texting in stop-and-go traffic, but you want to do something reckless and crazy.”

Rowan shrugs a little, but her eyes light up.

I stop the car outside The Vessel, a relatively new permanent art installation. I don’t get out immediately, as I’m of two minds about taking her here, but when I glance at Rowan, she’s staring out the window at the structure. “Wow.” Her voice is filled with awe, and it’s enough to make me open the door and walk around to hers.

The art structure is currently closed and will be for the foreseeable future because in the four short years it has existed, there have been multiple suicides here.

Once we are both out of the car, I reach across and take her hand in mine once again, and she smiles at me. As we approach the two security men, they wave us through. The door at the bottom of the structure has a silver box to enter a code to gain access. I enter the PIN, and the large door opens.

“Fun fact,” I say, stepping into the room. “Since you like fun facts.” I smile at her, thinking how she loves telling me facts, and for the first time, the smile I give her is completely me. “You are currently somewhere that no one else is allowed to be.”

“That is a fun fact,” Rowan says, and I squeeze her hand in mine. She looks up at me with wide eyes. “How did you get access to a place like this?”

I hesitate for a deliberately long moment. “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Her laughter flows through the antechamber, and her cheeks grow pink. I don’t know what she sees on my face, but she takes in a quickened breath.

Looking at her, want swamps me, a tsunami of feeling that makes me reach out and anchor myself with a hand against the wall. I want her body; that’s not in question. It’s more than that, though.

I want to keep her cheeks flushed with whatever this is, want to keep a laugh on her lips and a smile at the ready. I want to hear the noises she makes when she comes, and I want to experience her wrath when I piss her off. When she cries, I want to be both the reason and an antidote.

I want to be the only person in the world to make her feel these things. I’ll kill any other man who looks at her with the same intent.

Rowan O’Rourke is mine. She just doesn’t know it yet.

“Let me show you around.” I take the first step of eight total flights, all winding around to showcase stunning views of the city.

The only view I’m truly interested in, though, is Rowan.

The spiral staircase has small nooks and crannies that you can sit in, concealed from all the open vantage points. I haven’t let Rowan’s hand go, and she keeps taking quick glances at me. She veils her face behind her red curls. I can imagine my fingers entangled in that mass of hair.

She hasn’t spoken, and I want to know what she is thinking. I slow down as we approach a private area. It’s dark and perfect to steal a kiss or maybe something more. My cock twitches in my trousers. “Another fun fact: there are 154 flights of stairs here.”

Rowan’s ruby lips stretch across her white teeth.

“Are we going to climb to the top?” she asks.

I smile and tug her gently toward me. “No.” Her frown is one of confusion. “I mean, it would be a workout, considering there are nearly 2500 steps, but I can think of other ways to flex our muscles.”

Her laughter is hidden behind her hand, but when she meets my gaze, her blue eyes have darkened. With my free hand, I capture her face, and she sucks her bottom lip between her teeth, biting down slightly and sending a rush of blood to her lips.

She’s teasing me again. The beast in me roars; he doesn’t like to be teased.

Without further words, I capture her mouth in mine. She yelps slightly from the speed at which I’ve taken over her mouth. I nip her bottom lip just like she had, and her sharp inhalation of breath tells me she likes it. I bite a bit harder and open my eyes. She hasn’t closed hers, but I see a flash of pain, so I release her lip from between my teeth.

She searches my face. “Don’t stop. Please.”

The implication of her request has me smiling. She isn’t a frightened girl; she’s a woman who seems to know what she wants.

I recapture her mouth, and this time, she meets my kisses with the same force. Her sharp teeth pierce my skin, and she quickly jumps back as I reach up and swipe blood from my mouth.

“Minx,” I declare, placing my bloody finger in my mouth and sucking.

“I’m so sorry! That was an accident—I didn’t mean to hurt you.” She looks horrified.

---