Page 71 of The Fox

“I have you.”

Her eyes close as I crouch in front of her. Running my hands up her bare legs, stopping to rest on her thighs, I duck my head to catch her gaze. “Amelia. Look at me, please?” Her hands flex on the comforter draped across the bed and her body tenses. It’s almost as if she is afraid of opening her eyes.

“Eyes,kochanie.” They flick open, lined with tears and she bites her bottom lip. “I have you. I know you carry so much and it is heavy. I see it. I see the way you have to dance with the devil and the way you have to negotiate just to see a new morning.”

Her eyes dart between mine, her thick brows crinkling as she looks for a glimmer of falsity. She won’t find it. I mean exactly what I’m swearing to her.

“I’ve been alone for so long, Ro. It is exhausting and I don’t feel like I can even say that because Ichosethis. It was my choice to live this life.” She stares at the floor again, clearly wanting to say something but holding back.

“Kochanie, what is it?”

I hear the tremble in her voice when she finally answers.

“I can’t ask you to sacrifice for me. I won’t.”

I grip her biceps, waiting for her head to lift before I respond. “Is it a sacrifice if it is done in love? Is it too much to ask me to simply stand beside the bravest person I know? To defend her? You aren’t asking me to do anything, Amelia. I know you would never ask that of me, but hear me when I say that I am choosing you.”

She shakes her head violently, the war in her head manifesting physically. This isn’t a sacrifice. I am not doing this out of obligation. From the moment I decided to make Amelia’s city my home, I have followed the goddess who runs it. I don’t know if I’ll ever tell her how well she has been watched over, but I refuse to stop now.

“No, pretty girl. It doesn’t matter what comes our way. But this life? This love? It is the furthest thing from a sacrifice.” I gather her in my hands, lifting her body. Spinning us around, I sit on the bed, draping her legs over mine, and cradle her head into my chest. My free hand skims her spine and I murmur softly in her ear. “I am yours, and you, mykochanie, are mine.”

As the moonlight falls through the window, her breathing slows and she slumps into me. I keep running my hand down her back, letting her sleep on me, knowing that the storm brewing will likely require everything she has left to give.

CHAPTER 48

Amelia---Lose Control

His eyes flick up to mine, dark with desire. I know exactly what he wants and he’ll take it from me—one bite, one smack, one orgasm at a time until I have nothing left to give. And then he’ll demand one more.

I am reclined, resting on my elbows as I watch, noting every movement. He pulls his shirt over his head in that singular motion I adore, baring his body to me. The man is an Adonis—lean and deadly—andall mine.He leaves his jeans on, stalking toward me. He reminds me of a panther. There is something primal about his movement, a claim hangs in the air, poignant with domination.

He is the predator and I am his prey.

I fall back, my wrists bound in his hand as he places them above my head, a non verbal command dangling in the air. The position makes my breasts strain against the flimsy bralette I’ve put on, the cut of it barely containing them. Rhodes leans over me, resting his weight on the palms of his hand, and runs his nose up the center of my chest, effectively tracing the core of my being. He moves one hand to run across my hip, caressing the skin there.

“Are you aching,kochanie?” he whispers against my cheek, his thumb moving back and forth in a repeated movement. He knows what that nickname does to me.

“Rhodes.” I breathe, not trusting myself to say much more.

This is the game we play. He allows me to let go of everything, lay it down at his feet and in return, I give him what he craves most. I am not Amelia Conte when I am in his hands; I am simplyhis good girl.

I feel his thumb leave my hip, moving along the softness of my belly until he reaches the waistband of the pale pink underwear. I squirm, frustrated at his lack of speed…and at the way he knows exactly how to read my body.

“Is your pussy weeping for me?” His teeth graze my jaw, nipping and then soft licks follow. The very tips of his fingers dip beneath the hem and my hips rise in an effort to meet him. He tsks, leaving his fingers right where they stopped, pushing my hips back into the mattress. Rhodes’ body shifts down, a slow perusal of every line and scar and curve my body entails, his dark eyes never leaving mine.

“If I were to finger you right now, just how wet would you be? Hmm? Would you drip down my hand?” He smirks, his head level with my pelvis, one hand still on the dip of my belly and the other now full of my breast. Rhodes has snaked his hand into the cup of my bralette, the band trapping his wrist against my body. He takes my nipple, already erect, and places it between his fingers, tugging and rolling until there is nothing I can do but give in to the rush of endorphins flooding my body.

“No, I think I could make you come just,” I hear him say as he harshly pulls my nipple. “Like,” his finger reaches my hot center, and I spread my legs until I feel the burn.

“This.”Rhodes’ palm is firm against my clit as two thick fingers plunge into my pussy. Fuck.

His other hand glides down my body and pushes down, just above my pubic bone. I search for something to grasp, to ground myself. My fingers flexing in the sheets, in desperation.

He stops. His fingers still.Fuck.

“Did I say you could move your hands?” He slams my hands back above my head. “No, I don’t think I did.”

I buck my hips, trying to push myself over the edge, using the seam of his pants to get myself off.

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