Page 218 of Vows and Vendettas

His palm was flat against the mat, and his wrist was bent at the perfect angle for me to slice right through his flesh and bone. When he almost roared his pain and woke up the entire house, I kicked out, hitting him square in the jaw, knocking him out cold. He fell to his back, his hand inches away from his detached wrist. “And I sure as fuck don’t like people thinking I’ll let this shit stand.”

CHAPTER TEN

Killian

She was glorious.

A force of mass destruction in the flesh.

She owned Murphy from the second she broke into his house, right up until the second she knocked his lights out. I’d never grow tired of watching her in her element, watching her reign with an iron fist, and proving all those who doubted her fucking wrong.

It took me years of petty crime and shitty orders to get by her side. Clawing my way up through the ranks, just to align myself with the woman I knew would rule it all one day. I’d been a grunt doing dirty work, all until I proved myself worthy of being where I stood today.

Now I got to witness what no other man ever would.

The blood queen soar.

There was nothing sexier than a woman who needed nothing other than her own company. She’d never needed nor wanted to prove herself to anyone before tonight. So I knew something was troubling her, which troubled me.

Actually, it pissed me the fuck off.

I hated not being able to read her the way I knew she read me. She saw everything about everyone and when it came to what others saw when looking at her—it was exactly what she wanted them to see.

She knew her worth and exactly what she was capable of. She was so detached, covered in blood, she just sat there beside me sullen and inside her own head as I drove us home. By the time I pulled up it had been a full thirty-two minutes she’d sat in the same position staring at her hands. I wondered if she was finding patterns in the blood.

I knew she didn’t regret what she did because she’s never regretted a thing in her life.

I wanted to ask her what was wrong, but speaking to her would only dismantle all of the hard work and energy I had put in over the years at keeping her at a distance. If I opened my mouth, if I risked conversation after conversation with her, I risked spilling all my dearest secrets.

Alessia Black was a woman men would wage wars for. A woman you could bare your soul to. Men would conquer mass cities just to give her the choice of a home. Raid the oceans, just to find her the finest gold and pillage still-beating hearts from the chests of her enemies, just to show her she’d always be safe.

If I ever allowed myself to cross that line, and build that connection with her, I knew it would be one I’d never return back from unscathed.

Alessia had demons and many of them.

I cut the engine and before I had the chance to pull the key, she was out of the car and stalking toward the cabin’s front door. I blew out a cold breath and sat there for a moment, clenching the steering wheel and adjusting my hard cock that made these slacks impossibly tight. I’d always got hard after watching the warrior rise, only to coat her silken flesh in decorative black. Like a Viking in battle, painting her face with the art of her kills. Once the heat rushed through me and I knew she’d be in her room, I got out of the car and followed her inside, straight toward my room and into the bathroom where I slammed the door behind me.

Removing the boots from my feet, I stripped down from my suit and left it where it pooled on the ground. Reaching one hand into the shower, I turned it on and set the temperature to cold before I lumbered over toward the vanity and knocked the mask from my head. It fell into the sink and I groaned, resting both hands on the counter I white-knuckled the basin before shaking my head and unsettling my wayward strands.

It’d been a long ass day, and I needed to get some rest.

Everything ached from being on my feet twenty-four-seven.

The woman never slowed down or took a fucking break and given the fact she was trying to undo an empire from the inside out, I couldn’t say that I blamed her. She worked fucking hard to get to where she was, so I gave her all the credit she deserved.

Still though, I was fucking shattered.

I just needed to sleep off the tension.

Stepping into the shower, I allowed the cold spray to downpour onto my back before stepping forward and hanging my head. The heavy stream beat against my skull and as I tried to breathe through this raging hard-on I knew wouldn’t die from, I decided to get it over with. Taking my thick length in my palm, I stroked myself slowly at first.

It was a gentle tease, it had to be when I was so aroused it fucking hurt.

When the pain lessened, filtering through how good it felt, I hissed lowly and stroked myself harder. Imagining Alessia on her knees, mouth wide open while I fucked her throat deep, with an intensity I’d hoped she’d never experienced before.

The thought was intoxicating.

Because I knew that woman would get on her knees for no man. I also knew how fucking sweet she tasted.

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