Page 41 of Fractured Vows (Fraser Crime Syndicate 1)

She snaps her eyes up to me and I see this shock register in her face. “Bearable? It was more than that. It was the best night of my life, Luke. You made me feel things I’d never felt. You made me feel wanted. Needed. And I wasn’t scared. Stupid, isn’t it, considering the fact that you were a complete stranger to me. You made me feel safe. I can never thank you enough for that.”

I don’t want to talk about Jeremiah Wood any longer. The man makes me want to commit homicide. I’m glad I was her first. And not just because the primal man inside me loves knowing I’m the only person who’s been inside her, but also because she deserves better than what Jeremiah Wood would give her. I’m not even sure I delivered what she was worthy of. I brush a loose curl back from her face. “I missed you.”

She seems surprised by my admission, but it is the truth. I felt like we were starting to build something together, something special. I want to pick up where we left off, but I want her to be in this with me too. I don’t wait for permission. I push her back onto the sofa and come down on top of her. I claim her mouth instantly, sweeping my tongue along the seam of her lips until she grants me access inside. There’s no hesitation from her. She wants this too. I kiss her like she’s my oxygen and I need her to breathe. There’s a desperation in my movements and need to have her. My body remembers everything we did together and how good it felt. I want that again.

I want her.

I know what we have is infatuation right now, but there are sparks of something else, as well as mutual respect, that could turn into more. I never expected to care for the woman I was forced to marry, but I do care about Sariah. I find I want to please her, and that’s something I’ve never felt when I’ve been with other women. I have a wealth of experience, but not of relationships. I’m usually a fuck and leave them kind of guy. I’m twenty-two, and I didn’t think I was ready to settle down, but with her the thought doesn’t scare me as much as it should.

I wrap my fingers around her throat in a loose hold, but the moment I touch her, she moans. That makes my dick go solid in my trousers. She is a wet dream.

Kissing her isn’t enough. I need to be inside her. I need to feel our connection after being separated. “The dress.... It needs to come off.”

I help her sit up and then pull her to her feet, noting how heated her eyes are. She wants this too, and that spurs me on. Getting her out of the contraption is not an easy task. The dress is complicated, and it takes some manoeuvring to take it off. Eventually I manage to get her out of the skirts so she’s standing there in white lace underwear. She has stockings on and a tiny pair of white knickers. She’s not wearing a bra, so her tits are on display.

I should take the moment to just admire her figure, but my eyes are drawn to the litany of bruises that cover her chest and legs. They are a greenish brown colour, indicating they are a little old and are healing, but this was done recently.

“What the fuck happened to you?” I demand through gritted teeth. She shrinks back and I have to force myself to be calm. I don’t want to frighten her, but right now red is filming my vision. She was beaten. I can tell by the catalogue of injuries she’s carrying. The worst of it is around her left rib cage. Those bruises are still black.

“Declan doesn’t like it when I do things that go against him,” she admits in a soft voice.

“Your own father did this to you?” I had always assumed Declan kept her hidden because he loved her in the same way we love Aurelia, but no one could inflict this kind of damage and claim to love the person.

I see the shame in her eyes, and I hate that she thinks it’s hers to carry. We don’t beat women. We don’t have much of a moral code, but there are some lines we will not cross. This is one of them. I imagine somebody doing this to my sister and my anger roars through my veins. “If I’d known—”

“You wouldn’t have done anything,” she says. “Women in our world are seen but not heard. No one would have cared.”

But she’s wrong. I care. The strength of the fury racing through me takes me by surprise. I’ve only ever given a shit about my sister, but I find myself willing to throw down to protect and avenge the wrongs done to Sariah.

She tries to cover herself, embarrassed maybe, but I pull her hands away. “Don’t hide yourself from me.” Even covered in bruises, Sariah is beautiful, and the thought of her with that crusty old bastard makes my stomach twist.

“I want to fuck you, but I don’t want to hurt you.”

She peers up at me through her fake eyelashes that make her eyes look bigger and more pronounced. “You won’t.”

She is lying, to herself and to me. But I can’t resist her. She calls to me like a fucking siren.

I reach out a hand and cup her breast. It’s soft beneath my touch and as I roll her nipple between my fingers, she hisses out a breath between her teeth.

“Luke….”

I silence Sariah by stepping up to her and wrapping my arms around her waist. Pulling her closer against me, I grind my cock against that tiny scrap of lace that covers her pussy. She reacts as if she’s never been touched before, with more pants erupting from her mouth as she closes her eyes, taking in all the sensations as I press harder against her cunt. I’ve barely touched her and already she sounds like she’s coming undone. “Luke.”

Hearing my name on her tongue unravels me in a way I’ve never experienced. I feel half-crazed with desire. I need more from her.

“Help me undress,” I order.

She obliges, her fingers fumbling to push my suit jacket off my shoulders. It takes her what feels like forever to undo the buttons of my shirt, but finally she shoves that off my body too. This is nothing like the other times we’ve been together. She seems more nervous, which surprises me. It’s not like we don’t know each other’s bodies.

Impatient, I do the rest. Getting out of my trousers and shoes takes me less than a minute, and then I stand just in my boxers in front of her.

She surprises me by reaching out and palming my cock through my boxers. I suck in a breath through my teeth, my balls tightening. I can’t take this anymore. I need to be inside her.

I grab her and hoist her into my arms. Her legs instinctively wrap around my back, knotting at the ankles as I take her mouth in a heavy kiss. She loops her arms around my neck as I stroke up her back. I want to show her something different than the first few times we fucked, but my need to have her outweighs everything. This is going to be hard, fast, and dirty.

I walk us into the bedroom and drop her onto the mattress, coming down on top of her. She looks like a fucking angel dressed in white. I press a kiss against the bare skin of her thigh above her stocking, close to that apex I want to devour. Her thighs tremble as I get closer to her pussy, and when I kiss the material over her slit, I can feel how wet it is.

“Is this all for me, Sariah?” I ask as I slip my finger under the lace and run a finger through her wetness.

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