Page 59 of Devoted

“I’m not thinking about starting a boarding school. I’ll just be teaching lessons. It’s not the same thing.” It’s different. He has to see that.

Sadness lingers in his expression. “You’re going to have to start over again. From the ground up. You have the shit with Roman to work past. I can’t be an extra burden on you too.”

I cup his face and stare into his deep-blue eyes. “I’ve done it before. I’ll do it again. I have Pierre’s and Juan Pablo’s expertise even if they choose not to work with me again. It’ll be okay.” It’s important he know how serious I am, so I repeat, “It will be okay.”

His hands glide around my waist. “Fuck, swan. What am I going to do about you?”

His mouth crashes on mine. It feels like an eternity since we spent the afternoon and evening lost in each other. The force he’s putting into the kiss could bowl me over, but I’m giving it right back.

We break the kiss only to yank off each other’s clothes. Shirts, sweats, leggings, and underwear are scattered on the floor when he tosses me onto the bed and climbs over me.

He captures my mouth again, licking his tongue inside, while his hand lands between my legs and his fingers find my clit.

“You’re fucking ready for me.”

“I’ll always be ready for you,” I say as I widen my legs to make room for him.

He’s not patient. He shoves inside, filling me in one thrust. I cry out, releasing all the emotion, all the fear of running through the trees, frightened that I’d never get this again. The terror that he might be killed is forever branded into my brain. I don’t want to lose him. Ever.

He works in and out of me, his fingers circling my clit in perfect harmony with his thrusts. I wrap my legs around his hips and bury my hands in his hair. There’s a frantic sense to this moment. Something’s different. Maybe it’s because we’re not in the cabin. Maybe it’s because we’re not in our own place. Maybe it’s because we both had recent near-death experiences and we need to reconnect as much as we need to breathe. We need to feel how alive the other person is.

I lose myself in the rhythm, my eyelids drifting shut as I arch into him. My climax washes over me hard and fast like a searing-hot tidal wave. Cannon comes with me. We’re in sync more now than we’ve ever been.

As we float down from our peaks, I can’t let him go. I keep my arms and legs wrapped around him so tightly he can’t withdraw. He doesn’t try to. He’s content to hold me.

I don’t know how much time has passed when he maneuvers both of us under the blankets and curls me into his side.

He nuzzles his face next to my ear and murmurs, “Good night, swan.”

Sleep is pulling me under like I’m tethered to a submarine doing a deep dive. “Good night,” I mumble.

A faint “I love you” fails to rouse me from the powerful pull of slumber.

Cannon

Penelope’s breath puffs out.She’s burrowed under the duvet and will be out until morning. Each article of clothing I put on is like strapping a fifty-pound sandbag against my body.

I drove straight here after my meeting with Jackson’s superiors. But thankfully Penelope didn’t notice that I didn’t bring anything inside with me.

The fucking media. My fucking mother.

If I knew that taking on Roman Hughes would get my face and name splashed all over the press, I would do it all over again. But the cost of the fallout is high. Penelope has her life—that’s all that matters.

I stand like a damn stalker and watch my graceful swan sleep. I wish she wasn’t so innocently optimistic and hopefully stubborn. She’ll figure out why I’m gone, and she’ll hate me. Maybe not forever, but she’ll get over it. She’ll get over me, and she’ll find someone else.

If I tell myself that enough, will it make it easier to live without her? The thought of her moving on with another man fills me with white-hot rage.

She’s mine.

I love her, and that’s why I can’t stay.

I shake my head and silently leave the room. My steps are quiet down the hallway, but I realize my mistake leaving through the front door when I run into her mother, who’s making a beeline out of the kitchen to her office.

She stops when she sees me. “Oh, I didn’t expect to see either one of you again tonight.”

She assumed I’d keep Penelope locked in the bedroom with me. It’s bad enough to leave Penelope, but I’m letting her mom down too. A woman who hasn’t asked any questions about why I came back to her daughter when I’m only a bodyguard. Penelope probably told her we had gone beyond a professional relationship, but Brittany welcomed me in. She knew everything, thanks to the news, but she didn’t turn me away. She offered me a home.

Basic Bitch Nutrition is targeted to women and young athletes. I’m not letting my name hurt another person in my life.

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