Luna’s feet ached by the time they arrived back at the penthouse, to the point that she had kicked off her heels in the elevator and carried them as she stepped off.

As Kit ventured off in the direction of the kitchen, she entered the bedroom, leaving her shoes by the foot of the bed as she climbed onto it, letting out a sigh as she stretched out.

The heels were nice—beautiful to look at, but they were an absolute pain to wear.

They were momentarily forgotten when Kit popped his head in. “What time is it?”

Though she found the question odd—he usually wore a watch on his right wrist—she still glanced over at the digital alarm clock on the bedside table. “Half past twelve.”

It was the slight grin on his face that should have told her he was up to something, but she wasn’t thinking about that once he came fully into the room because her gaze snared on what he held.

“Oh, you didn’t have to do this,” she whispered, though secretly pleased as she felt a tightening in her chest that only he could cause.

There hadn’t been any time, or at least she hadn’t thought there was considering all he had to do to prepare for this night, but as he came toward her with a glass plate in his hands and a rather large square of chocolate cake resting in the center of it, he obviously had found the time.

A lone candle flickered and danced as he walked, the flame casting a mute glow over his face.

“Come now. When was the last time you were able to celebrate a birthday properly? You deserve this.”

What could she say to that, that wouldn’t turn her into a blubbering mess?

“Make a wish,” he said, setting it onto her lap and drawing back to gaze at her face.

She didn’t have to think about what she wanted—she had it.

It wasn’t the freedom that Uilleam had provided her, it was Kit.

If she could pick one thing to wish for, she would always pick Kit.

But she could wish that she could keep him always, so with that thought in mind, she smiled before blowing out the candle.

“Thank you,” she whispered, the gratitude she felt bleeding into each word.

“It’s the least I can do,” he returned with a smile, plucking the plate from her hands as he picked up the lone fork on the plate.

But he had been thinking of her, even in the middle of his work. She had only told him the day before about her birthday.

She loved him for it.

Loved …

Even as the word filtered through her head, she tried to dismiss it as quickly as it formed.

She couldn’t possibly love him, but there was no other word she could think of that adequately described what she felt.

“Thank you,” she said again.

“Don’t thank me yet, you haven’t tried it.”

He speared a bit of cake, holding it out for her with an unreadable expression, but it quickly changed when she leaned in and opened her mouth, closing her lips around it.

His eyes were rapt on her, pupils dilating once she pulled away, chewing slowly. If she was asked, she wouldn’t be able to say what that cake tasted like, though she could appreciate the burst of chocolate on her tongue.

For someone who showed very little emotion, she could see exactly what he was thinking now.

She was baiting him.

It was curiosity, maybe, that made her want to know what he would do once she pushed him beyond that careful control he was known for.

“Good?” he asked, a hint of strain in his tone.

“The best.”

And as his gaze followed her tongue as she swept the last bite of chocolate icing off her lip, he’d had enough.

As he set the plate down with little care, Luna froze in anticipation, shivering once she felt the heat of Kit’s hands as he undid the zipper of her dress, sliding it down as far as it could go, but he didn’t brush the sides open as she thought he would. Instead, he took a step back.

“Take off your dress,” he said in a tone that brokered no argument.

Kit had a tendency to demand things, always in that authoritative way that made her rush to comply, but now with lust threading through every word, it skipped her brain entirely and went right between her thighs.

As she spun to face him, she slowly pulled the straps down her arms, his tantalized gaze following every new inch of skin she exposed. She’d never felt power quite like this as he watched her without blinking.

Kit looked enraptured—and the sight of him like that was only made better by the rigid outline of his cock through his trousers.

When the dress slipped free of her hands and dropped to the floor, she was acutely aware that she stood in front of him in nothing more than lingerie while he was still fully dressed.

He seemed to make a decision in his head as he came forward, turning her until she was facing the bed, and pushed her down onto it. There was only a second to catch herself on her hands before he was positioning her the way he wanted—her knees on the bed and slightly parted and her chest pressed flat against the bed with an encouraging hand in the center of her back pushing her down.

She should have been afraid of what he intended, knew she should be, but only excitement thrummed through her at the idea of what he planned to do to her.

There was a moment of suspended silence before Kit said, “Not all pain is bad.”

And as that dark promise hung between them, her fingers clenched harder around the sheets in her fists.

“It hurts,” he went on, “make no mistake, but it’s a good kind of pain.”

He was staring, she knew—she could practically feel his gaze burning a path down the curve of her back as his fingers followed the same route until he was at the curve of her backside, but he stopped there.

While the tips of his fingers dragged over the edges, he didn’t delve any further, ratcheting up the need she felt for him.

“You’re going to ache in the morning,” he promised on a whisper, “but it’s going to be a blissful fucking ache, you understand? And when you feel it, I want you to think of me.”

His words didn’t startle her. Instead, they made the ache she was already feeling worse. “Please …”

“Please, what?”

Finally, finally, he ventured down further until she could just feel the slightest touch of his fingers against her covered sex—and when he pressed his fingers harder against her, the material of her panties rough but welcome, he groaned, a low sound that was enough to make her pussy contract.

“Don’t worry,” he said, rubbing his fingers there, drawing a breathless moan from her. “I’ll give you what you need.”

But as quickly as those words left his mouth, he was removing his touch entirely as he shifted and disappeared out of her sight.

“Manners maketh man, yes?”

She didn’t know what he was going on about, her mind clouded with lust as she concentrated more on the aching spot he’d left abandoned.

But when his hand cracked down on her ass, not hard enough to hurt, but with enough sting that she felt him there, Luna was quick to nod.

“Then use your manners, mi pequeña luna,” he said, finally working his fingers along the edge of her panties and started to pull them down.

The kiss of air on her exposed sex had an appreciative sound reverberating in his chest. Could he see the proof of her desire for him? Could he see just how wet she was?

“I have remarkable patience,” he noted, and she could almost hear the smile in his voice. “I’ll keep you like this all night.”

“Kit, please …”

“Please, what?” he asked, and she felt his fingers now sliding up her inner thighs, touching everywhere but where she wanted him.

The heat in her face prevented her from answering as shyness overtook her. There were so many things she wanted him to do, yet she couldn’t find the words to tell him a single one.

“Please, touch me,” she finally managed to say, her throat feeling tight.

“I am,” he said punctuating the words with a squeeze of her thigh, his thumb so close to her opening that she squirmed to get him there, but Kit held fast. “Ask for what you want, Luna, or I’ll take what I want.”

She knew what she wanted, was practically screaming it in her head, but at his threat, she didn’t forget what she wanted to say—she just didn’t say it, biting her bottom lip to keep from even opening her mouth.

She wanted whatever he would give her—however he gave it.

When she didn’t respond for several seconds, Kit sighed like he was disappointed, but then he was rubbing circles over her clit, and she couldn’t care less that he wasn’t pleased with her.

“You could have asked for anything,” he said on a whispered breath. “If you had asked me to make you come, I would have—because that’s what you really want, isn’t it? You’re so fucking wet it wouldn’t take anything to get you off.”

God, she was almost there right then, like his words had a direct link to her pussy. And as he said it, that was exactly what she wanted, then maybe she could finally think clearly.

“But now I have to drag this out because you want to be fucking stubborn,” he said, though he sounded as though that was exactly how he liked her. He was still circling those fingers, dragging her higher until sharp moans were clawing their way out of her throat as she ground her hips against his hand.

Before she could lose herself in it, however, his free hand came up to wrap her hair around his fist and pulled. “How long do you think it will take before I break you?”

Luna tried to answer, but even she didn’t understand what had left her mouth.

At first, he was contented with rubbing over her clit, but then he was going lower before pushing two fingers into her dripping sex.

Every part of her hummed with pleasure as her body jerked and she pressed back against him. She had never imagined it could be like this—that there was no cloying pain and he was completely focused on her.

And when he pressed against that wondrous spot inside her, she gave him what he wanted. “Please, make me come.”

“Then be a good girl for me and count,” he whispered a moment before he pulled his fingers free, and pushed her back down onto the bed.

Shoving her hair back out of her eyes, Luna tried to make sense of what he meant, let alone see him, but he was just out of her line of sight.

“Don’t worry,” he said softly, wet fingers gliding over her ass. “I’ll go easy on you this first time.”

He gave no further warning before his touch was gone, only to come back down with a sharp crack, one that sounded louder than it was painful.

“Count, Luna, lest you make me forget how old you are.”

Was that how many times he planned to …

Her cheeks heated at what he was about to do to her, even as she stammered out the number he wanted. And the moment she said it, anther landed.

And another.

Until she was mindlessly keeping track, her eyes squeezed shut. He never hit the same spot twice, nor did he let up in intensity, but she realized all too quickly with each third hit that he landed, his touch would move between her legs, playing with her until she was a writhing mess beneath him.

Only then did he continue.

And as the last hit rained down on her already sore ass, he moved down the bed until he could get his face between her legs.

She could hear him, that groan of male satisfaction making a flush of heat sweep through her. Kit was tearing at his clothes, not caring where they landed so long as they were off.

Knowing that his need for her was as great as hers for him, her stomach fluttered with anticipation. She could already imagine the feel of him inside her—the way he would stretch her to the point that she was achingly full.

And the thought of that, coupled with the expert way he moved his tongue over her had a high cry spilling from her lips as she came.

Even as blood rushed in her ears, she could hear the satisfied noise he had made in the back of his throat before he was gone.

And only a heartbeat later, he was back, the blunt head of his cock dragging between the folds of her pussy until he was nicely coated before he eased inside, the hand he had on her hip squeezing to keep her in place.

“Fuck.”

The word sounded like it came from somewhere deep inside him, but she couldn’t fully appreciate it before he was pulling out of her in one fluid, jagged slide before slamming back in again.

“Come here,” he ordered, even as he helped to draw her back against his front, his lips at her ear, but he didn’t thrust his hips—he didn’t give her more—Kit just seated himself there. “Ask me nicely and I may let you come again.”

Luna knew what he wanted, but she was determined not to give it to him. Instead, she reached for his hand, dragging it around until she had it where she wanted.

He teasingly made tight circles, whispering about how good she felt, how she was milking his cock, but he kept up that maddeningly slow pace.

Luna just couldn’t take it anymore. “Please, Kit, harder.”

“Finally.”

She only had a moment to brace herself before he was slamming into her exactly how he wanted. There was no longer any hesitation as he filled her completely.

There was no restraint—no careful movements to make sure she could take what he was giving. He just fucked her, over and over until his name was falling from her lips in increasing increments.

But it was his words that caused the unbridled pleasure she felt skyrocket.

That’s it, he said with breathless wonder, take my cock. And only when she was begging him not to stop, nearly screaming at the top of her lungs before she felt his teeth at her throat, and the moment she did, she came again.

He cursed, the sound dark and filled with painful need as he didn’t slow down, but he wasn’t unaffected by the way her pussy clamped down around him.

And with one last brutal thrust, he stilled, pressed hard against her as he spilled inside of her.

Luna was lost in the sensations, but distantly, she heard her self thanking him.

---

Early the next morning, they’d set off home, the journey passing far quicker than it had on their way out. While Kit was busy with work, Luna slept most of the way, a fact that made him smile.

Even once they arrived back home, she had disappeared upstairs, while he had gone to finish the work he’d started on the plane, but was interrupted when Tăcut dropped by his office with an unmarked package in hand and a curious frown.

Kit barely had it open before his phone was ringing, unknown highlighted at the top. As he finally tore one side free and was able to see the contents, he accepted the call.

“It’s not my birthday,” Kit said, admiring the gleaming metal as he plucked one of the blades from inside. “Why the gift?”

A pair of butterfly knives.

They were solid looking things, the handles of the knives drawn away to show the sharp-tipped blades. The craftsmanship that went into making them even impressed Kit who’d seen plenty of beautiful weaponry over his twenty-eight years, but more interesting was the detailing on the handles.

Skulls were carved into the metal, wisps of smoke flowing through each one.

“They’re not for you,” his brother responded, a blood-curdling scream following his words. “D’you mind? I’m in the middle of a phone call.”

“Should I even ask?” Kit inquired with a roll of his eyes.

“It’s best you don’t, but what I’m doing here is of little relevance. The package I sent was for Luna since that’s who I addressed it to.”

Actually, Kit hadn’t bothered to read the label, but as he flipped the box around, turning the flap over, it was, in fact, labeled for Luna. “And why would you be sending her gifts?”

There was a smile in Uilleam’s voice as he asked, “Do I detect a note of jealousy? I’m disappointed, brother. I never thought it would be a woman that would come between us.”

“You’re not in the habits of freely giving presents—that’s not your style.”

“Isn’t it? A place in my Den is considered a gift to many. Besides, I’m kind to those I appreciate.”

Kit smirked. “You’re never kind to me.”

“So that should tell you the extent of my feelings toward you.”

Kit might have laughed if his brother’s words weren’t partly true. “So you intend to gift her with knives? Are you surveilling me?” Kit asked, glancing around his office. He wouldn’t put it past the man to do something like that.

Uilleam scoffed. “Of course not. I respect your privacy.”

That, Kit didn’t believe that for a second. “Then how could you possibly know she had a predilection for knives?”

“Don’t you?”

Kit chose not to acknowledge that. “Then I guess my question is why you’re sending them to her.”

“Because I have a job for her,” Uilleam said, “one I would have delivered in person if not for this unfortunate business with my banker.”

“Is that Donald you’re having tortured? What has he done now?”

“Nothing that concerns the Runehart trust. Now, back to the job.”

“Go on.”

“Her target is Lawrence Kendall.”

“That’s not wise.”

“By all means,” Uilleam replied dryly, “provide me with an opinion I haven’t asked for.”

“The first assignment should never have personal ties.”

There was too much room for error.

Kit had seen the result of those that went after the ones who burned them, and how they barely managed to see the job done. They were still too fragile, too green to what had happened to them to allow them a clear head.

And those had been men.

Luna, even with her training, could falter against someone who had caused her such horrific pain, and that moment of doubt could get her killed.

“Quite aware of that, brother, but time is of the essence and I need to see this done.”

Ignoring that, Kit asked, “I thought he was a client of yours?”

Uilleam had a rule that so long as a client was under contract with him, they were safe from his mercenaries. And sometimes, depending on the client, even after the contract ended, he wouldn’t accept a new client who meant to go after them.

“Yes, but seeing how our business has come to an end, I thought it would be to my benefit if I got rid of him. I’m sure Luna wouldn’t mind.”

“She probably wouldn’t,” Kit agreed, “but just because you’re given permission to do something, doesn’t mean you should.”

“I think you’re forgetting something, brother.”

“Am I?”

Uilleam’s tone darkened. “She answers to me.”

A spark of irritation swept through Kit as he dropped his feet to the floor from where they had been propped on his desk, sitting upright in his chair. “And should I think you’ll cause her harm in any form, that means you’ll answer to me. How long would you wager your mercenaries can protect you from me?”

“Ah, so you’ve sampled—”

“Uilleam, don’t test me.”

He laughed, sounding genuinely pleased. “If she knew who you were—who you truly were—I wonder if she would still warm your bed?”

Sometimes, Kit wondered the same.

He had done many things he wasn’t proud of, more so before he had joined the Lotus Society. And over the span of the near decade he spent with the organization, the number of targets he had neutralized was a number that would boggle minds.

No, even he didn’t know the answer to that.

“The job,” Kit said, ignoring the rest Uilleam had said. “What is it?”

“He’ll be throwing a masquerade party—a final auction, if you will. Since someone has systematically taken out his associates, he believes it’s in his best interest to go underground. He plans to use the money made from the last of his stock to disappear.”

Kit whistled even as a smile threatened. “All of them? He must be truly desperate.”

“I would be too if I knew an assassin was nipping at my heels.”

“Former assassin.”

“D’you honestly believe he’ll see a difference? I wouldn’t want to be the reason an assassin decides to come out of retirement. Do me a favor though. When the deed is done, take pictures, would you?”

“I would ask if you were dropped on the head as a child, but I believe we both know the answer to that.”

It hadn’t been abuse he’d taken as a newborn, but rather when he’d been a child up through puberty.

“I should really get back to the torture and things. I’m on a schedule, you know.”

“You’ve still yet to tell me why you’re gifting her with knives.”

“If she does well—and I trust she will—those knives will give her a name.”

A name.

A new identity, and sometimes, the only one that mattered.

“What do you think to name her?”

“Calavera.”

Kit thought of sugar skulls … “Why?”

“I found her on the first of November—day of the dead. Quite fitting, I think.”

Uilleam didn’t elaborate before ending the call, but as Kit tossed the device on his desk, he thought he should have asked.