"Yet it was the justice that you wanted," I say. "It's what I do. It’s what we can do together."
She repeats the word, soft as steam: “Together.”
My veins thunder with blood at the sound of it in her voice.Together. Together. Yes, my little viper, we’ll be together.
"I've spent eighteen years alone with my vengeance,” I growl. “I don't want to be alone anymore. And neither do you."
She leans in, lingering just a breath away, her tits pressing against my chest. "I don't know if I can trust you."
"You can't," I say, because I’ll always be honest with her. "Not completely. Not yet. But you can trust this."
I place her hand over my heart, over the church that marks me as a thief.
"I will never lie to you. I will never betray you. And I will never stop until we've made them pay for everything they've taken from us."
Her breath hitches, then steadies. The decision forms in her eyes like a gun being cocked.
Then she closes the distance and kisses me, hard and desperate, like she's trying to taste the truth on my tongue.
I kiss her back, pulling her body against mine, yanking at her hair until she whimpers into my throat.
She presses into me, slippery and soft and strong. Her skin slides against mine. My cock is hard as steel, pinned between us, throbbing against her belly, craving the heat I’ve barely begun to earn.
When we break apart, she’s panting, pupils blown wide. And there it is in her eyes: The same darkness. The same hunger.
The same wild, righteous fury that lives in me.
“Together,” she says again.
This time, it’s a vow.
32
GISELLE
His mouth is stillon mine when I move forward, into him, over him.
There’s no space left. No air. No God.
Just water and heat and Roman’s skin against mine, slick and waiting.
I hook my arms around his neck and kiss him like I’m still trying to erase what happened downstairs. Not the pain or the blood, but the pleasure and power.
He made it so easy. He made it feel fucking holy.
There is no erasing it, and the only thing I can do is to sink deeper until I make a home in it.
Just like my body is making a home for this brutal, beautiful, and scarred man. His cock pulses against my belly and my pussy responds in kind, soaking down my inner thighs as my clit throbs.
I moan into his mouth and he swallows it, twisting my hair around his fist and tugging until pain skitters down my spine like sparks catching fire.
The warm water hits my shoulders in steady arcs. My nipples, tight and aching as they brush his hard chest. His hands slide along my wet skin, guiding me back against cool porcelain, and I shiver. I taste him as he kisses my collarbone, trying to stayhere—but a flash of dread twists my stomach.
Because I’ve already betrayed him by feeding Arata his prints.
I wrap my arms around his neck, seeking stability in a moment that feels so precarious. His hands find my breasts, cupping and teasing my nipples. Pleasure roils through me and whips my belly to a burning heat.
That knowledge coils in me like a wire pulled taut—and still, I want him. Still, I open my legs when he slides his fingers between them and groans at what he finds.