Page 119 of Brutal Legacy

“I’m okay, it’s not my blood!” she said. “It’s yours. I’m okay.”

I shook my head. “No, you’re not… you were nearly hurt, and I couldn’t stop it.”

“But I’m not,” she insisted, and a raw laugh left me.

“No thanks to me.” I moved my inspection onto her head. I ran my hands through her dark wet hair, feeling her skull for cuts or lumps.

“It’s not really your job to protect me, you know that, right? Everyone is responsible for themselves at the end of the day.”

No. That’s not true at all.

“You’re my wife. You’re mine to protect until the day I die.Mine.” The last left me in a possessive growl.

My lungs felt tight, and my body ached, but it was all far away somehow, behind the veil of panic that I couldn’t see past. Soldiers didn’t lose their heads. Losing control meant making mistakes, and hadn’t I done nothing but that lately?

I couldn’t keep my sanity around this woman. I was fucking up and making mistakes, and she was going to get hurt…

Georgia slid her hands up my cheeks, cupping my face. The sudden, voluntary touch stilled me.

“Cittaiolo,” she murmured. “I’m okay. I’m fine.”

I tried to shake my head. I should explain to her how compromised my control was. How I couldn’t look after her when my heart was beating so hard around her all the time; how my concentration was affected and my discipline torn.

Because I still loved her… after all this time… and I’d never stopped. Not even for a second. I had loved her then, and I loved her now, and I’d loved her all the time in between. I’d hated her, and I’d missed her, and I’d envied her, and I’d coveted her…

And through it all… I’d loved her.

Loving her was my one constant. My love for her was true north on my compass.

I didn’t tell her any of that, however. I didn’t have those words anymore. I wasn’t the brave boy with a broken pencil and notebook who could spell his heart out on a blank page.

But — she made me want to be, for a shining, perfect moment.

I wanted to be that boy she’d loved. The one who could have deserved her one day. Not this broken man who I’d become. An assassin, a ghoul, a stain on the world.

No, I didn’t say any of that.

I showed her, the only way I knew how.

I kissed her.

She melted into my touch, her arms wrapping around my back and pulling me closer. I needed to feel her body close to mine. I moved back, ripping my wet clothes off. Fabric tore and buttons scattered, but soon enough, I was naked. I pressed her into the wall, enjoying every single inch where her skin touched mine.

“You’re so cold.” I nestled my warm body on her chilled skin. I’d nearly lost her. I’d nearly lost her again. I couldn’t contain the horror of that thought.

I ran my hands over her, warming the coldest parts. I cupped her hands and blew on them and moved my hands to her breasts. Her nipples were freezing points, begging to be heated. I lowered my lips to the chilled buds and sucked them into the hot cavern of my mouth, rubbing my tongue over them until she cried out.

I returned to her mouth, kissing her fiercely.

“I told you that you couldn’t escape me.” I lowered a hand between her legs, ripping her panties down her thighs.

Her breath hitched, and she held onto my shoulders. I ran my fingers through her wetness.

“That command extends to death, you should know that.”

I lifted her, and she gasped. I hoisted her effortlessly into my arms. She threw her arms around my neck as I leaned her shoulders against the wall and lined up my cock to her entrance, her legs wrapping around my hips.

“You’re mine, in this life, and the next… I will never let you go.”

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