Aras

“How are things with Yuri?” I asked Ezekiel.

It had been a week since I’d killed Gaspar, and this was the first time I had left Lake.

I was anxious to get back, but I needed to make sure things were all right, so I’d made the drive to the city to find Ezekiel, who had gone back to LA to meet with Yuri.

“Under control. I explained that Gaspar got out of line. He didn’t ask any questions,” Ezekiel said.

“Good. You would let me know if something was going on?”

“Yeah. Now get the fuck out of here,” he said, shoving my shoulder.

“What?” I asked.

“Stop trying to be a dumb shit, Aras. You haven’t stopped looking at your watch since you got here. I know you hate cities, and even more, I know you want to get back to her. So go,” he said.

“Is this you giving me approval or something?” I asked.

“Not that it would matter if I did, but fuck no. You’re being stupid and reckless. And nothing good is going to come from this. But you know that, and you don’t care. So get out of here. I’ll catch up with you later,” he said.

I didn’t argue, didn’t even take another second to reply.

I was back in my SUV and on the highway within ten minutes.

She had put on a brave face when I had left, but I could tell she was anxious, and I wanted to soothe that.

It wasn’t lost on me how much things had changed.

But they had.

Somewhere along the way, Lake had become something more than an obsession.

I didn’t know how, didn’t know what, and definitely didn’t know what would come of this, but I couldn’t deny the truth.

I made it back to the compound in record time.

My anticipation was high, the need to see her making me feel crazed.

I walked by the kitchen, went directly to the library and found her there.

She was curled in a chair, a book in her lap.

When I walked in, she closed it and looked at me, her eyes bright with relief, happiness.

Seeing that sent my heart into overdrive.

When was the last time someone had been happy to see me?

I could barely remember, knew it had to have been before my parents had been killed.

But she was.

After all that had been done to her, after all that I had done to her, she was still happy to see me.

I didn’t deserve that, but I wouldn’t deny it either.

“Aras…”

I walked to her, and instead of answering, I lifted her out of the chair.

Holding her body in my arms, feeling her warm breath against my skin was welcome, but it wasn’t enough.

I turned on my heel and carried her to the bedroom.

She didn’t speak, but she must have sensed something. She didn’t do anything, though. Just looked at me, her eyes soft with happiness, passion—love.

No.

It couldn’t be that. I wouldn’t allow it.

I kissed her, her lids drooping low when my lips covered hers.

She sighed out a breath, one that I captured in my mouth, eager to keep any connection with her that I could find.

I broke the kiss and lowered her to her feet.

She stared up at me, simultaneously fragile and strong, the same combination that had caught my attention from the first, made it impossible to look away from her.

I didn’t want to look away from her now.

I wanted to memorize her, have something to keep close to me when she was gone.

She stayed still as I stared, the gentle rise and fall of her chest with each breath her only movement. If she was afraid, worried, I didn’t see it. All I saw was acceptance, affection, everything in her eyes making me feel humbled and unworthy.

After a few minutes, she turned her lips up in a gentle smile.

I’d lived among the worst of the worst, was one of the worst of the worst, but a smile from this woman was my undoing.

I reached for her, cupped her cheek in my hand, then trailed my thumb against her smooth jaw. My hand trembled, a sure sign of the emotions rushing through me.

Emotions I couldn’t control, didn’t know what to do with.

Like always, she seemed to sense my emotions, but I didn’t shy away from it this time. Instead, I kept my eyes locked on hers, let her see me.

I didn’t try to hide anything, didn’t put up a front. I wasn’t Aras, the feared enforcer, or even Aras, the one hell-bent on vengeance.

I was just me, a man who wanted a woman.

A man who loved her.

Whatever Lake thought of what she saw was a mystery to me. Her eyes and face revealed nothing. But after a few long moments, she stretched up as tall as she could and placed a soft kiss against my lips.

It was barely a brush, almost chaste, but that kiss unlocked my passion like nothing else ever had.

I kissed her back, my lips rough against hers, my tongue claiming her mouth.

I broke the kiss long enough to stare down at her, some part of me worried that the intensity I could feel rolling off me might scare her.

It didn’t.

She smiled, then leaned forward and pressed a kiss against my collarbone.

“Undress me,” I said in a harsh voice, one that was almost feral.

Lake wasted no time acting. She pulled my shirt from my pants and up and over my head, letting her hands brush my sides, my chest, my arms.

Her hands on my body were like gasoline on a flame, and as she started to unbuckle my belt, I ripped her button-down shirt open and pushed it off her shoulders and shimmied her cotton pants down her legs.

I hadn’t bought her any underwear, so she was bare in front of me, a goddess with her full thighs, round hips, nipped-in waist, and heavy breasts that I knew would fill my hands to overflowing.

She pushed my pants down, and without breaking eye contact, I stepped out of them and back until I reached the bed. I pulled her close and then lay back, Lake’s body a deliciously warm weight atop mine.

My cock was hard and insistent, nestled between her soft thighs, but I ignored it and kneaded her breasts with my palms until her nipples were taut, solid points.

She let out a little moan, but even if she hadn’t, the gush of wetness that seeped from her pussy would have told me how much she liked it.

She rocked her hips gently, sending my cock sliding along her slit, and we both moaned at the sensation.

I wanted to tease her more, but couldn’t hold out. I held her hips still and then thrust up, feeding my cock into her wetness inch by inch as I slowly lowered her down.

When I was buried to the hilt, I froze, letting the sensation wash over me.

Lake was the only woman I’d ever fucked bare, and I couldn’t imagine anything between us, didn’t even want to. Everything about this situation, about us, was fucked up, but this, Lake and I together, was real, and right.

It wouldn’t last, couldn’t, but I had her now.

“Ride me,” I whispered.

Lake gave me another soft smile, one that contrasted with the fire burning in her eyes, and then started to rock her hips. She moved slowly, torturing me with each rotation, sending me higher and higher.

When she started to move, I grabbed her waist and flipped us so that she was under me.

I paused to again look into her eyes and then thrust hard, sending us sliding on the bed. I set an unrelenting pace, and she met me thrust for thrust, not backing down, not shying away, even as I showed her all of me.

I wanted to imprint myself on her, use my body to say what I could not with words.

I fucked her hard, ripped orgasm after orgasm from her until her body was limp, her voice raspy from her screams and moans.

“Aras,” she whispered, her breath tickling my ear.

That sound, Lake’s body warm and soft against mine, pushed me over the edge.

I emptied my cum inside her, my entire body tingling with the strength of my climax.

When I finally came back to my senses, I curled my body around hers, wrapped her tightly in my arms.

I had long ago given up the fight against holding her, but this felt different.

So much had changed between us, but the sad truth was nothing had really changed.

“What was that?” she whispered.

Her head lay on my chest, her fingers idly trailing along my side.

But though her body was relaxed, I could sense the tension in her question.

“I don’t know,” I said, answering, though not entirely honestly.

I loved her.

I knew that, just as I knew that my love would change nothing.

“But it was something,” she said.

“Yeah, it was,” I responded.

She went quiet then, but I could practically hear her thoughts.

“Just say it, Lake,” I said.

The last thing I wanted to do was bring tension into this moment, but ignoring it wouldn’t make it go away.

“It was something, but it changes nothing,” she whispered.

She sounded resigned, accepting, and I hated that sound more than anything.

“I told you I would tell you the truth when I could. That I wouldn’t lie to you,” I said.

“You did.”

“So I won’t. All of this…it doesn’t change anything. I will get what I’m owed,” I said.

“And my life might be a cost of it,” she said.

She sounded resigned, something that hurt me more than anger, heartbreak would have.

I shifted so that she was looking at me and reached out to cup her face.

I wanted to make her feel better, wanted everything to be better, but I didn’t know how to do that.

But maybe if I told her how I felt, maybe if I got her to believe me, that would mean something.

“Lake, I— ”

A loud boom drowned out my words.