Page 45 of Fierce Vows

I link my hands beneath her armpits and pull her back to her feet, bending a knee to her instead.“Never do you have to kneel to me, Thalia.It is you we honor.”

Behind me, Dom makes an approving sound, and her eyes fill with tears.Nails scratch the back of my neck, drawing my attention and tilting my head back, and then Willow’s hot mouth is latched to mine.

And all the world drops away.

****

The Bratva take careof cleaning up in a haze of smoke and flame.I’ll owe them a favor later but for tonight, with the sun almost peeking above the horizon by the time I borrowed a dead man’s toothpaste and hacked up a lung’s worth of dust, I really don’t give a fuck.I have my wife, my best friend, his girl and our houses intact, each of us ready to head home together.It’s more than I should ask for, and I’m grateful.There’s only one thing outstanding.

Willow stands beside me, watching Kirrill Singleton’s property burn.The inferno’s fury reflects in her eyes, the blood of her last kills still marring her skin.Her beautiful clothes are in tatters, her golden manacles stained and broken.

She’s perfect.

“Though not quite perfect enough.”I stand behind her and slide a hand up her body, into the gaping fabric of her top to capture one breast, twisting her nipple.Her breath hitches, and she moans, though her body remains rigid.I freeze, and pinch a little harder.Nothing.“Tell me,” I say softly.

“Another man touched me.I offered myself as bait in order to kill him.To find Hope and to get to Singleton.”She doesn’t look at me, stares at the blaze encompassing the sins of our enemy.

I tweak her nipple thoughtfully, not bothering to hide my rage at the thought of another man touching her without my permission.Or hers.Under duress...I pinch her nipple until I know she’s in agony and release her, then lower my lips to her throat, licking and sucking gently.

“How many shots did it take?”She isn’t covered in sufficient blood for it to be a knife job.I know my wife, and she bathes in the blood of her kills when it’s at close quarters.No, this was by necessity only.And she’s hurting for what she perceives as a betrayal.

“Four.Five?”She’s hesitant, and I hate that.Willow takes pride in her kills.

“I’ll find you an enemy to carve up at home.”I suckle on her pulse point until she moans.“Tie him to a meat hook.You can carve your name in his flesh.”She shudders in my arms as I make a necklace out of my fingers and restrict her throat until her knees buckle and I follow her to the ground.My other hand works my pants quickly, knowing we have little time left before we need to leave, but this is important.

She is important.

“I’ll flood all of Rhode Island and the coast in blood if that’s what it takes to make you happy, Willow.Fuck you in it.Claim every inch as ours.Just like you are mine.”I squeeze her throat hard, then tip her head back and kiss her roughly as I sink my cock into her weeping cunt.

She’s hot and dripping and ready for me as I pound my need out into my wife, searing our names on her insides until she’s gasping and clawing and panting at me.As she falls and the air fills with the ash of another man’s transgressions, I fuck her on the ground and fill her with my cum, whispering her name with reverence.

A sin filled prayer for bringing her back to me safely.Every day from now will be lived without regret.Without fear.Withoutwhat ifs.

Every day with her for the rest of my life.My wife.

My Willow.

Everything, for her.

When she’s shaking, her thighs painted with my seed, I gather her in my arms and walk her down the hill to the waiting car, kissing her all the way to the airport.

One enemy is in ashes.Another waits at home.I’ll face that threat with my family.Once I thought we were divided, but now I know better.We are stronger together.

We are the Gallo Empire.

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