Page 57 of Protector

Her teeth sank down onto her lower lip with a muffled groan as she turned to face me. “I…I’m incredibly turned on right now. It’s like hitting Manny gave me this high. That’s weird, right?”

I shook my head.

It would’ve been weird, to anyone else but me.

The realization that I might’ve turned her into something like myself left me feeling sick.

“Why’d you come here?” she whispered. The lost expression on her face turned into one of anguish, and I wanted to drop to my knees at her feet; to beg for forgiveness, for answers… for anything that could fix the two of us.

“I came for you.”

She gave me a shaky nod and reached between us, working the panties down to her thighs. “Maybe you came for this.” Her movements were the same as before, and I wondered if I hadn’t known the truth, would I have seen the terror reflected in her eyes?

Or would I have missed it, just like I had everything else?

Her panties were soaked, and it took every ounce of strength I still possessed to pull away. “Princess, I ain’t fuckin’ you in a shitty motel room.”

“I never imagined there’d be a day you’d turn down sex,” she said with a shaky laugh. “I must be losing my touch.” Her knees buckled, and she stumbled, turning to catch herself on the counter.

I didn’t laugh; didn’t even crack a smile. My eyes were glued to the circular mark on her hip. It wasn’t flat like a scar but raised up. The pattern seemed strange until my brain reversed it, and I realized what it was I was seeing.

A lucky thirteen encased within a diamond.

As if raping and beating her hadn’t been enough, the motherfuckers had branded her.

“Jamie?”

I stroked her skin with the pad of my thumb. “He do this to you?”

Celia bit down on the corner of her lip, looking like she was seconds away from crying. I wasn’t sure what I expected, but when she turned back and wrapped her arms around my waist, I knew that wasn’t it.

She buried her face in my chest, and I did the one thing I knew how to when it came to her. In front of a grimy mirror, we held each other; the feel of her body up against mine only reinforced my decision to kill anyone who’d played a role in what happened that night. I held onto her like she was my salvation.

And she had been.

Even if she didn’t know it yet.

“I want to be the one to kill him,” she said softly, and I could’ve sworn I’d heard her wrong.

“Celia—”

She stepped out of my embrace with a shake of her head, and I realized that she hadn’t been close to tears. Even as her nostrils flared, her cold eyes remained dry. “Don’t try to talk me out of it, Jamie.”

“Princess, I ain’t lettin’ him spend one more second near you—”

She jabbed a finger into my chest. “That’s not your call to make.”

“Ain’t askin’ for your permission,” I snapped. “He laid hands on you. Now, he’s gonna deal with me. That’s the way it goes. Did you drive down here?”

Crossing her arms over her chest, Celia stared up at me through narrowed eyes. “Like you don’t already know.”

I cocked my head to the side and pinched my lip. “What the hell are you talkin’ about? You think if I knew a goddamn thing about you bein’ here that it would’ve gotten as far as it did?”

Had I known she had plans to become an assassin, I would’ve intercepted her before she ever made it to his room. Fuck, I would’ve stopped her before she ever left the house. My world and her world were never meant to mix.

Celia’s hand moved up to her hip. “Right.” Her lips curled up into a cruel smirk. “I’m supposed to believe that Molly didn’t call you, and you just magically knew to show up here? She and I had an agreement. One hour.”

“Molly?”

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