Page 65 of Assassin's Heart
“Doesn’t need one.” I nipped at her skin, drawing a gasp, forcing her to breathe. “As long as it comes, the name doesn’t matter.”
She tipped her head to the side, giving me greater access. “How do you do that, Remi?”
“Jeremiah,” I growled into her shoulder.
“Jeremiah,” she breathed, and shivered against me. “Don’t get me wrong; if I had the chance, I’d kill Fiori in a heartbeat. But my hatred for the Fioris, that’s personal. How...how do you decide, every day, who lives or dies, and still sleep at night?”
There was no judgment in the question, not even curiosity, really. Just a need to know. I wasn’t sure I could explain. Maybe the piece of me that shied away from killing had been missing from birth. Maybe it had been torn away when my parents were murdered, when I’d walked into their bedroom and stepped on that blood-spattered carpet. Maybe the years of scrambling to survive in a world whose sole aim was to eat us alive had done the damage. I didn’t know, and honestly, at this point in my life, I didn’t care.
“You’re a nurse,” I finally said. “Your job is to treat the sick, no matter who it is. My job, until now, has been to serve justice however it needs to be served. Maybe it doesn’t keep me awake at night because I’m no random killer; every job has a purpose. We have one rule: Don’t harm the innocent. Fiori hasn’t been innocent in a long, long time. If anything happens to him in the future as a result of his own actions”—I shrugged—“I’m good with that.”
I waited, knowing she got my point, knowing she understood that, though the immediate outcome of Brooke’s kidnapping would not be satisfactory, Fiori’s punishment was only being delayed. I’d take care of it.
Long moments later, her body relaxed back against mine. “As long as Brooke is safe,” she said quietly.
I pressed my palm over her stomach, melding her body to mine. “As long as you’re both safe.”
My heart jumped when her hands came back to cup my ass, pull me closer. “You said ‘until now.’ What does that mean?”
Far too much for me to explain at the foot of her sleeping daughter’s bed at one in the morning. “We can work on that when this is all over,lev sheli.”
She hummed, whether in agreement or because of the endearment or because I was tracing biting kisses down her neck, I wasn’t sure. The next moment she stepped out of my arms. “Take a shower with me?”
My dick punched at my zipper. It was the first time Leah had initiated contact of any kind between us, the first time she’d signaled that she wanted me without me approaching her first. I threw a look to where Brooke slept soundly, then took Leah’s hand. “Hell yeah.” Always.
In the bathroom, I moved to the shower and turned the water on to warm. Facing her felt like coming home, and I found myself wanting to slow down time, to savor the moment instead of rushing forward. Maybe she did too, because she didn’t hurry to undress. Instead her eyes held mine as I grasped the hem of my shirt and pulled it over my head, tossed it into the corner.
Leah leaned her hip against the counter.
My fingers went to the button of my fatigues. “I thought this was a joint thing.”
A faint smile pulled at her lips despite the fatigue darkening the skin beneath her eyes, slumping over her shoulders. “Just looking. Maybe I don’t get enough chances to just look.”
Considering the frenzy we’d been in each time we came together, she had a point. I flicked my pants open, eased the zipper down. Women had admired my body since I’d begun filling out as a teen, but the heat flaring in Leah’s eyes, the hunger that licked over my skin everywhere her gaze touched—I’d never experienced anything like it. This woman touched my heart as well as my body. She ignited a need inside me that threatened to explode, and all she’d done was stare.
I snagged a condom from a pocket of my pants before sliding them down my legs. Kicked off my shoes, then the fatigues, not caring where they landed. All I cared about was the slide of Leah’s tongue across her lips as her gaze landed on my rock-hard cock.
“Your turn,” I said, prowling forward.
She watched me slide the condom on, her arms tightening over her middle, plumping her breasts up so that they flirted with the low vee of her T-shirt. I dropped my gaze to the rounded flesh as I planted my fists on either side of her hips and leaned down. Only her hand on my chest stopped me, stroking over the scar from the gunshot wound that had landed me in the hospital. The injury that had brought us together eighteen months ago.
I’d almost died. And I’d found my life, in this woman, this moment.
Leah’s gasping breath filled my ears, her taste filling my mouth when I opened my lips over the luscious curve of her breast and sucked.
“Jeremiah.”
The word was rough, breathless. It sent a jolt of hunger through my gut. I needed more—more flesh, more desire, more of Leah. A whole lot more.
With a yank I stretched the neck of her tee down until it cupped her breast. A ripping sound reached my ears, but I ignored it, ignored everything but the mound pushed toward my mouth as I dragged her bra down too. A ripe pink nipple reached for me. I took the crinkled length between my lips and drew on it, forced it against the roof of my mouth and sucked hard.
Not enough. It was never enough with Leah, but now, here, I wanted everything she had to give. Fuck patience and savoring. That first taste of her had torn through any control I’d thought I had. Taking the neck of her shirt in both fists, I ripped it straight down the middle as I continued to suck.
Leah arched against me. “Yes. God yes.”
Luckily for her lingerie, the bra had a front clasp that opened when I fumbled with it. Finesse was beyond me—I needed access, and when the cloth gave, I brought both hands to her breasts, pushed them together, took turns with her nipples. Teeth, tongue, lips. I devoured her, only vaguely aware of the cries she muffled behind her hand as I took what I so desperately needed.
“Remi, please!”
