Page 49 of Beautiful Vengeance

The answer was, he was still mad as hell. But not for the reasons she probably thought.

He stood where he was as she crossed to him, turning only his head to look at her. She was so beautiful and strong and talented in so many ways. But she didn’t have a fucking clue when it came to relationships, romantic or otherwise.

Still watching him, she boosted herself up to sit facing him on the edge of the vanity. Without any makeup she looked younger than her thirty-one years, but the timeworn look in her eyes was much older than that.

He didn’t say anything, somehow resisted the urge to take her face in his hands and kiss her senseless, and finally she spoke. “I meant what I said earlier. I’m sorry for going behind your back, but not about the rest. It had to be done, and I’d do it all over again.”

She looked tired. Fragile, although he knew better than anyone how untrue that was. “You understand that, right? Rahman had to die by my hand. I had to be the one. It’s the only way I could ever move forward.”

He searched her eyes for a long moment. “And now? Did it magically heal you like you thought it would?”

Sadness and a pain he understood all too well and would have done anything to remove filled her eyes. “No. But at least that part of me can rest now. It’s like a weight has been lifted.”

He couldn’t stand that she was still hurting. Couldn’t stand that he might have lost her today, when he’d only just found her. But most of all, he couldn’t stand her thinking she didn’t matter to him or any of the others.

He curled his hands around the edge of the vanity, not daring to touch her yet. She was addictive. One touch, one kiss and she went straight to his brain like a drug.

He wasn’t a man who wore his heart on his sleeve, or had fancy words to flatter her with. But she meant a great deal to him, so for her he was willing to try. “When I realized what had happened, my heart stopped.”

She didn’t look away, didn’t try to stop him or plead her case, just watched him intently.

“What you did scared the hell out of me, and it wasn’t just selfish because you put yourself and the rest of us in danger. It was selfish because you didn’t stop to consider how the rest of us would feel if you’d died.”

He paused to let that sink in a moment. Then, unable to stop himself, he curled a hand around her nape, his thumb rubbing over the side of her neck, emotion welling up inside him. “Do you know what it would have done to me if I’d gone in there and found you dead?”

She started to shake her head. “Marcus—”

“No,” he snapped, his eyes drilling into hers. He had to make her understand. Had to get this out. His fingers tightened slightly. “We care about you.Icare about you. More than I’ve ever—” Only Megan had mattered to him on this level before, but for entirely different reasons, none of them romantic. “You matter to me. And if anything happened to you, I’d…”

He didn’t know what the fuck he would do. Aside from going back home to Laidlaw Hall and hole up there for the rest of his bleak, lonely existence, grieving for her until the day he finally stopped breathing.

Torment filled her face for an instant before she lowered her gaze. “No, don’t.”

He pulled her toward him, leaned his forehead on hers. “Youmatterto me,” he repeated in a rough whisper, his heart pounding. Why wouldn’t she accept it? “I would walk through hell for you. I would do anything for you, except sit back and watch you recklessly risk your life. I won’t do it. I can’t,” he finished in a taut whisper.

Kiyomi drew a shaky breath, her hands coming up to settle on his cheeks. He didn’t know if he’d gotten through to her, but at least she’d heard him.

She angled her head, settling those soft, full lips on his, and it was like lightning striking tinder. He kissed her back with all the desperation still pumping through his system, one hand buried in her hair while he wrapped his other arm around her waist to haul her close.

Marcus drove his tongue into her mouth, needing to claim her, show her without words what she meant to him. How much he needed her.

Kiyomi moaned into his mouth and pulled her robe open. Her naked breasts plastered to his chest as she rubbed them against his skin. He gripped her hair and pulled her head back to kiss his way down her throat, earning a gasp and a shiver as his tongue found a sensitive spot.

He was hard as stone beneath his own towel, his cock aching to sink inside her soft heat, make her his again. He forced the need aside and focused on loving her instead, giving her pleasure even when she pulled his towel free and slid a hand down his belly.

He groaned when her fingers curled around him and pumped, his mouth now an inch from her right nipple. He took the hard point into his mouth and sucked, rubbing his tongue over it while she stroked him. Her touch was too much and yet not enough.

Holding tight to his control, he pulled her hand from him and sank to his knees before her, putting his face close to the tender place between her thighs. She put a hand on his shoulder as he pulled her hips toward him with a hand on the base of her spine. Marcus paused to look up at her, making sure she was okay with this.

Her eyes were dark with need, her teeth sunk into her bottom lip, and she didn’t try to stop him. He kissed the soft skin just above her mound, inhaling the mix of soap and the scent of her arousal, nuzzling her before kissing the smooth flesh at the top of her flushed folds. She sucked in a breath and waited, watching him.

Wrapping both hands around her hips, he bent his head and touched his lips there, adding a gentle stroke of his tongue. Her thighs clenched around the sides of his shoulders and she gasped, arching toward him.

He wanted more. So much more. But not here on the bathroom counter.

Growling low in his throat, he pushed to his feet, scooped her off the counter and carried her through to his bedroom, his mouth busy on hers. He set her on the foot of the bed, leaned over her to push her to her back, then sank to his knees before her, bringing her shapely legs across his shoulders.

She was perfection spread out before him like that. His stare riveted to the wet, silken folds before him, the swollen bud of her clit peeking out at the top.

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