Page 34 of Choke

“So, are you planning on keeping me?”

I move closer and pat his cheek. “I don’t know. Are you gonna be a good boy and listen?”

Callum laughs as his hand circles my throat, and he slams me down on the bed. It’s hard to breathe. A normal person would panic if a man like Callum threatened to suffocate them. But I’m not sure I’m normal.

The weight of the thickening silence is sliced by the sound of a zipper being lowered.

“If you want me to stop, tap my arm, but once I start, know this, Kitten, I’m going to own this pussy. You’re ours, mine and Atlas’s. Ours to love. Ours to protect. Ours to fuck. I’m not a good man. I never claimed to be, but fuck, Mona, I’ll be anything for you.”

My response is tactile and desperate. I brush his dark hair back and stare into his mesmerizing gray eyes. Eyes that hold the promise of everything. Of something more. The elixir for healing.

He impales me with one motion, his eyes never leaving mine as he takes my breath away, both physically and spiritually. My mind is wiped of any coherent thought other than the need to breathe and the sensations exploding from my pending orgasm.

“Eshghe mani,” Callum whispers in Persian. “You’re my love. “Ashegetham.I am in love with you.Dooset Daram. I love you.”

I’m transported into a world unknown to me before, a world full of stars, galaxies, and never-ending possibilities. I want to tell him I love him. As fucked up as it is, I love him. I want him to know that he and Atlas are the reason I am who I am today. How meeting them shaped me and compelled me to become someone I love—someone strong and compassionate. I want him to know that meeting them made me a better person.

“You and Atlas are my world. There’s nothing I won’t do for the two of you. I’d die to make you happy. I’d kill to keep you safe. I’m nothing without the two of you.”

“What did you say?

My eyes leave Callum’s face to see Atlas standing by the doorway. His eyes are glassy, and his hands shake.

Callum turns his head and gazes at Atlas. “I said I love you. Both of you. My life is worthless without you.”

Atlas walks toward us. He frames Callum’s face before locking their lips. The kiss is passionate, unbridled, an inferno of desire unleashed after being trapped for so long.

My body ignites, and I come as I watch my men kiss. Callum grunts and follows me over the edge as my pussy milks his orgasm from him.

“When did you learn Persian,” I ask breathlessly as we catch our breath.

“I started going to classes when you did. It’s important to you, so it’s important to me.”

I blink back tears, unable to form words. I stare at the men I met under questionable circumstances. Men I care for beyond all reason.

“You’re going to stay, right?” Atlas asks.

I nod and whisper, “Yes.”

“Good,” Atlas says, a smile flirting on his lips. “Now open those legs so I can eat.

EPILOGUE: MONA

(Five Years Later)

“I can’t believeyou married your kidnappers,” my sister says as we walk down the aisle.

I turn to her and smile. “Why? Did you think you were the only one who got to marry a kidnapper?”

My brother, Dariyus, laughs at my other side. “She’s got you there, Az.”

“Don’t look so smug,” Azadeh retorts. “If I remember correctly, you drugged your wife in hopes of impregnating her.”

Dariyus laughs as he raises his hand. “That wasn’t my idea. One of my stupid husbands came up with that idea.”

I glance at my siblings, feeling both joy and sorrow.

Joy that the three of us are living our lives on our terms the way my mother intended when she left Iran, fueled with hope and fear.

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