Page 64 of Judgment Day

I made sure the authorities gave false information about the cause of the fire. Caspian had his mother instruct the media to only give as many details as were necessary. Chandler had organized a protest outside of the Parliament building as a distraction. Together, we were a well-oiled machine. We were a brotherhood.

I left them at the airport and started my two-hour drive back home. The winding roads, hilltops, trees, and lights in the distance reminded me of a drive I took five years ago on a night much like this one. My world had changed then, just as it was changed now. Lyric had sat in the back seat beside me. My thigh had brushed hers. I’d placed a hand on her knee and told her to relax. I’d promised not to hurt her. She’d pulled away from me and stared out the window, looking for a way to escape. She tried to be so brave, even though I knew she was terrified. Even then, she’d seeped under my skin.

Was she waiting for Lincoln back at the palace or was she alone in her own bed at home? I wanted her close. I wanted herhere.

By the time I pulled through the iron gate outside my estate and down the driveway, I was exhausted—mentally, physically, and emotionally drained.

I parked in the garage and walked into the kitchen. The house was quiet and still smelled like melted butter, onions, and smoked salmon. There were a few lamps left on in some of the rooms to keep it from being completely dark. It was well after midnight. Ciaran should have been asleep by now, but I checked the library just in case.

There was someone on the leather sofa, but it wasn’t Ciaran.

How many times had I walked into this room and found her lying just like that? With her hair spilled around her and an open book on her chest. Fuck. Like a wave that crashed and was pulled back into the ocean. That was what my breath felt like when she stole it.

Lyric was here.

She looked too peaceful to wake her, even though that was exactly what I wanted to do. The way she was lying with her legs curled up made her tiny white shorts inch up and expose that delicious crease where her ass met her thigh. White panties. Jesus.

I reached for the blanket to cover her up, then stopped myself.No.She was sleeping in my bed tonight. I’d come back and carry her there as soon as I checked on Ciaran, then cleansed myself of the stench of death. It wasn’t anactualsmell, but my hands felt tainted, too tainted to touch her the way I wanted to.

I peeked in on Ciaran, who was tucked into his bed, lightly snoring. Then I hurried to my room. I’d never taken a shower so fast. The water sprayed over my body as I lathered soap on my skin, in my hair, watching it run down in foamy rivers over my chest and abs, over the erection that was so hard it ached. I rinsed off, patted dry, then walked out of the bathroom naked as I ran a towel over my wet hair.

When I opened the door from my bathroom into my bedroom, Lyric was standing there, naked, beautiful and waiting. She was a goddess and I wanted to build her an altar, every altar. I wanted to give her the sun. Her long hair fell over her slender shoulders in waves. Her dusty pink nipples that matched her perfect lips peeked out beneath the strands. Her smooth, bare pussy taunted me from across the room. The void slowly shrank. I felt it tighten in my chest.

Upon seeing me, she dropped to her knees, so gracefully, so fucking perfectly, like she was made to do just that. And then she crawled to me and everything tight inside my chest unraveled, split open and raw.For her.She stopped in front of me, pressing her head against the outside of my thigh, above my knee. This woman who walked around with fire in her veins, spewing it at anyone who defied her, was on her knees forme.

I ran a hand over her hair. “My sweet dove. Look at me.”

She stared up at me, and those eyes, fuck, I was lost in them.

I brushed her hair away from her face. “Are you mine right now?”Does Lincoln know you’re here?

“Yes,” she breathed, then paused. “Sir.” She bit her lip for a beat. “Linc said you might need this after—” Another pause. “You know...”

After I burned a man alive.

I didn’t blame her for not saying it out loud. Although, there was no way Lincoln could have told her exactly what would happen. He only knew I’d planned on killing Winston. He didn’t know how.

“You need it, too.” I traced her lips with my thumb. “Don’t you, sweet girl?”

“Yes,” she said as she kissed the outside of my thigh, then my knee, then the inside of my thigh. Higher and higher, so close that every time she blinked, her eyelashes tickled my skin. And then she wasthere,taking my balls in her warm mouth.

I hissed a breath. My blood thundered through my veins as I shoved my hands into her hair and forced her to look up at me. “Take it,” I said, grabbing my cock with my other hand and rubbing the head over her lips.

I wasn’t one of those men who needed to spank or flog or restrain a woman to get off. I loved the idea of my handprint on her flesh, of my marks on her skin, but I didn’tneedit. What I did crave was control. At all times. There was a time when I had no control over my body or what I used it for. I would never let that happen again.

Lyric ran her tongue along the base of my cock, stopping to trace teasing circles around the tip.

I pushed her head down at the same time I thrust my hips forward, not stopping until I hit the back of her throat. Her tongue was so soft, like velvet against the silky steel of my cock as I slid back out. Her mouth was so hot, so wet. I watched the flared tip pull past her lips, then disappear back inside.

“You look so beautiful right now.” I slid back down her throat. “So fucking filthy, naked and on your knees with my cock filling your mouth.”

She glanced up at me with her blue eyes and long eyelashes, looking like prey, though she was far from innocent.

“Are you tempting me, little dove? Are you provoking the beast?”

She blinked, slowly, teasingly, and I snapped. I tightened my grip in her hair, then drove into her sweet mouth again, and again. She choked and sputtered but never stopped as I rammed the back of her throat. Her eyes watered. Her hands gripped the backs of my thighs. Her tongue worked my cock while she sucked and swallowed and drove me fucking insane.

“Fuck.” I pulled out with a jerk. My breath was ragged, and sweat beaded on my neck. “I’m about to come all over that pretty face.” I wasn’t ready yet. I wasn’t done with her body.

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