Page 74 of Dark Empire

It was both sweet and desperate. Eager mouths hungrily found flesh, our hands touching and grasping. His lips on my breast, sucking and teasing my swollen nipple between his teeth. My hands around the velvety soft skin of his cock, my thumb flicking at the bead of stickiness on the tip and working at his thick shaft until he mewled like a kitten. Finding all the secret and sensitive places, mapping each other’s bodies and whispering each other’s name as we found each other again.

"I want to hear you say it again," he said with his cock poised at my entrance and his hand around my throat, thumb gently scraping against my racing pulse.

"I love you," I whispered.

"Love." He mouthed the word against my lips as he pushed inside me, slowly enough to make my back arch with need. His eyes never left mine as he watched me take him in, swallowing my little moans and gasps of pleasure when he began to move, setting a pace that both gave and took as the heat smoldered between our bodies.

"Mo chroí," he panted. "I love how you want this. I love how you want me. It makes me feel..."

He thrust hard, up to the hilt. "Holy."

I cried out at the delicious burn and wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him deeper. Connor tangled his fingers in my hair and bit my throat. He even fucked like two different people, vulnerable and sweet one moment, powerful and possessive the next.

"You are so beautiful," he rasped. "My God."

My fingers tightened against the long muscles of his back, urging him on, telegraphing my need as I moved with him. We were nothing but slick skin and frantic heartbeats in the night. Gasping, panting together as we watched each other come undone.

"Come with me." I intertwined my fingers with his. "Come with me now."

A few more frantic thrusts, and Connor shouted as his hips bucked. My vision shot through with stars, body shuddering. I clenched around him as he spilled his seed in me, my name tumbling from his lips, and we lay in a tangle of limbs under the light from the Boston skyline, hearts thumping unevenly together.

Connor looked at me and reverently caressing my cheek. “Say it again,” he whispered.

I smiled. I would tell him over and over again, every minute of every day if that’s what he wanted, because it brought me such joy to mean it.

“I love you.”

Another kiss, soft and sweet, and he murmured his answer against my lips.

“I love you too, Cass.”

Later that night, I lay with Connor in the oversized king bed and stared out at the darkened view of the harbor. It was almost hard to decipher where his body started, and mine began. His arm was wrapped securely around my waist, cradling me to his chest.

Outside the window the city showed no signs of slowing down, but I couldn’t hear the bustle from the quiet safety of our bedroom. The strong, steady heart beating beneath my ear and the gentle breaths of a deep sleep were the only things I could hear.

I snuggled closer and Connor’s hand twitched in his sleep, his arm tightening around me protectively.

And that’s exactly how I felt. Protected. Safe. Finally in charge of both my future, and my past.

23

Connor

Damn,myhandhurt.I better not have broken a knuckle again. I pulled my next punch and opted for hauling the cheating scumbag I was currently beating the shit out of up by his collar, instead, hauling the smaller man off his feet.

"Where's the rest of the shipment, Unger?"

The docks down at the seaport were soaked from the earlier rain. Gray clouds hung low over the sea, threatening another storm, and the air was thick with salt and rust. Alfie stood silently behind me. He was checking over open shipping container's manifest as I attempted to work an answer out of the trembling dockmaster. The rain had plastered my dark hair to my forehead, and I wiped the water away, smearing a streak of mud across my cheek in the process.

I leaned down to the dockmaster's ear. "You're short ten units, Unger. Right now, this is ayouproblem. But if you don't cough up the rest of it in the next five minutes, it's going to be ameproblem. And you're not going to like how I resolve something that becomes my problem."

The dockmaster's eyes darted between Alfie and me. Blood streamed from both nostrils. His wet overcoat clung to his bony frame, and rainwater dripped from his trembling chin. "I swear, I didn't mean to."

"Didn't mean to fuck us over, or didn't mean to get caught?" Alfie chuckled.

"It was a mistake, Connor," he stammered, his voice barely audible. "I'll make it right, I promise."

I tightened my grip on his collar, the rain seeping into my leather gloves.

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