Page 65 of The Devils' Darling

I lift my head, and my lips find his, and it’s soft and gentle. A jarring juxtaposition against what happened in that tawdry space of his father’s.

Suddenly, I know what we need.

“Will you do something for me?” I ask.

“What?”

“Make love to me.”

His gaze holds mine as uncertainty haunts the ice-blue of his eyes.

“Please?” I’m not averse to begging to get what I want.

He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing, but he nods. “For you, anything.”

Chapter 25

Kirill

She doesn't understand what she's asking. I'm not the kind of man who makes love. I fuck, hard and nasty. For her, though, I will change everything about who I am. I brush the hair back from her face, exposing her high cheekbones. I look at her, really look at her, drinking in how beautiful she is.

Not only beautiful, but brave too.

If she is brave enough to survive what happened in that basement and not blame me, I'm brave enough to do this for her.

If she is brave enough to kill my father, the man who haunted my nightmares, then I can step up for her right now.

I duck my head and take her lips in another soft, warm kiss. She tastes faintly of cinnamon, and a soft groan escapes me as we deepen the kiss.

My hands sweep down her arms and back up again to rest at the base of her throat. I caress the side of her neck and up to her nape as I add a swirl of my tongue into the kiss. Her arms wrap around my neck, and she presses herself tightly against me.

There is a part of me that is scared I won't be able to do this. That my body will let me down. The shame I keep feeling is overwhelming, but as her warmth seeps into me, my body begins to respond.

She breaks off the kiss and steps back, licking her lips. I frown, confused for a moment. Her smile lights up her face, and she begins to slowly undress.

It's not a striptease—she's slowly unwrapping herself for me in an open and honest way, letting her clothes fall to the floor until she's completely naked. Once she's undressed, she stands in front of me, her arms down by her side, and her palms facing outward. It's as if she's saying, here I am, look at me. See me.

“I see you,” I say.

“This is all for you, and I include my heart in that.”

Something inside me snaps, and a wave of emotion rolls over me. I find myself growing hard, but more than that, I feel an upsurge of love for her. In two strides, I'm in front of her, and I swoop her into my arms to carry her to the bed. I place her gently on the mattress, and then, not taking my eyes off her beautiful form for one second, I undress myself, too.

Once I'm naked, I climb onto the bed and over her body. I kiss her forehead, her cheeks, her nose, and then make tiny butterfly kisses across her mouth. I trail my kisses down her chin and the long column of her neck.

When I reach her chest, instead of going immediately for her tits, I kiss across her collarbone, and then down into the dip between her breasts. Her flat stomach is warm, and as I work my way down it, she lets out a soft giggle.

“That tickles,” she says.

I blow a raspberry on her belly, and her laugh is rich and free. The sound is happy, and it fills this room that was so haunted by sadness mere moments ago with joy.

Part of me knows we shouldn't be doing this. Not really. Not when we did it without the other two back in the basement, and also in my room with the hairbrush.

I pause and look up at her. “Do you think they’ll mind?”

“Not if it brings you back to us,” she says.

Us, not me. If it brings you back to us.

---