Page 38 of Beautiful Vengeance

She planted her hands on his pecs, that inky dark stare locked with his as she rode him.

Christ, she was the sexiest, most incredibly beautiful thing he’d ever seen in his life, and the pleasure she was giving him already had him sweating and panting for breath. She’d wanted to watch him, and Jesus it was incredible, a soul-deep connection solidifying between them as he struggled to hold her gaze.

Each time she sank down on him she squeezed, pushing him closer to release. Unable to stay still, needing to touch her, he released one hip to cradle her breast in his hand, rolling the nipple between his thumb and forefinger.

“I’m close,” he ground out.

She hummed and pushed him flat, dark eyes gleaming. “Let me watch you come.”

Helpless to resist, he seized her hips, his last sight of her before his eyes slammed shut burned into his mind for all eternity. The slick sound of her sliding up and down his cock, the feel of her so tight and warm and wet, were too much.

His fingers bit into her backside, a cry of surrender wrenching from his throat as the orgasm hit. He held her fast, bucked up into her, holding as deep as he could get while the pulses tore through him. When at last they began to fade, he slumped back against the pillow, his entire body lax and the blood rushing in his ears.

Kiyomi eased off him for a moment, then stretched out over top of him and blanketed him with her weight. He groaned and wrapped his arms around her back, cradling her to him. She was so small and soft, the scars between her shoulder blades and the Valkyrie mark on her left hip aberrations he couldn’t wait to avenge.

Tomorrow he could begin to do something about it. Tonight, he didn’t want anything to come between him and the incredible woman in his arms.

After a while he turned her onto her side and snuggled up behind her, one arm banded around her ribcage as he drew the covers over them. The fire had burned low in the grate. Karas was fast asleep in front of it. Marcus kissed the top of Kiyomi’s head, filled with a tenderness and contentment he’d never experienced before.

Cuddled up tight together, they both fell asleep. He awakened to darkness sometime later when Kiyomi jerked against him. She twitched, a low sound coming from her that he recognized all too well.

He drew her tighter into the curve of his body and hugged her close. She gasped and went rigid, her heart thudding wildly against his palm. “You’re okay. It was just a dream,” he murmured.

She pushed away from him and sat up, her back to him as she exhaled and ran a hand through her hair.

Marcus reached out to curl a hand around her hip, his thumb rubbing gently over a dimple at the base of her spine. “Okay now?”

Another exhalation. “Yes.” She turned toward him and lay back down, immediately flattening herself to the front of him.

Marcus wrapped his arms around her, one hand cradling the back of her head. Her skin was damp with sweat. “Was it the same one?”

Her hair caught in his beard as she nodded, her breath warm against the front of his throat. “It’s always the same. Always him.”

Rahman.

“I’m always helpless.” She cuddled closer yet, wedging a leg between his.

“You’re not helpless anymore. And you never will be again.” He hugged her tight. “Because we’re going to get him.”

She didn’t answer, her body still tense. Then, after a minute, “I need you to promise me something.”

“Anything.”

“I can’t go through that again. So if something goes wrong, if he captures me and you can’t get to me—”

Denial burst inside him, fierce and strong. “He’s not going to get his hands on you ever again.”

“But if he ever did, and you couldn’t save me. I need you to promise that you’d kill me rather than let him take me again.”

Marcus’s heart seized, his entire body going rigid as cold swept through him like an arctic blast. “Jesus Christ, don’t talk like that.”

She pulled back a few inches to look into his face, and there was just enough light from the glowing coals in the grate to make out her deadly serious expression. “Marcus. Promise me. Please. I need you to promise me.”

He would do anything to protect this woman. He would kill to keep her safe. But take her life to do the same? It was unthinkable. Horrifying.

“Please,” she whispered, her voice ragged, eyes tormented.

He wanted to say no. That he would never harm her under any circumstance. That it would kill him to fulfill her request.

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