Epilogue
After a long day of the seven new men getting used to being at the estate, Persephone knew more than ever she needed an assistant. Not that she didn’t appreciate the men Nick had brought on to Project Artemis, but dealing with all of them had proven to be exhausting, and it was only the first full day.
Climbing into her brand new tub, she closed her eyes as the hot water enveloped her, easing away the stress of the day moment by moment. Persephone slid her back down the smooth porcelain of the soaker tub until the water and lavender scented bubbles covered up to her chin.
She would have to get used to having all these people around her home from now on. For three years, she’d lived alone in her two-bedroom apartment and had gotten accustomed to being by herself.
But now all that had changed, and in exchange for her independence, she had a team of professionals who would help her achieve the goal that had become everything to her. That trade off was more than worth it, even if all that testosterone threatened to take over the estate after just one day.
“What is it with women and baths?” she heard Nick ask with a chuckle.
She opened her eyes to see him leaning against the doorframe a few feet away. Smiling at her, he repeated his question. “I’m serious. What is it with baths with women? Is it the bubbles?”
Lifting her arm out of the bubbly water, she smiled and blew a handful of suds toward him. “It’s a way to relax. You men have watching sports and eating chicken wings, and we women have soaker tubs full of bubbles. You don’t see me questioning your love of greasy chicken, do you?”
Nick took a step into the room and stopped. “So this is the famous tub you were talking about this morning. That explains why I haven’t seen you for hours.”
“You haven’t seen me for hours because I needed a break from all those men. There’s a cloud of testosterone hanging over this house and the whole estate. If I don’t get some women around me quick, this place is going to drive me out of my mind. I figured they’d all stay in their part of the house, but everywhere I turned today, one of them was there. In the kitchen when I wanted to grab an iced tea, Gideon and Xavier were there having some kind of heated discussion about which way hot dogs should be cooked. I thought it was going to end up in a fist fight.”
Nick began slowly unbuttoning his grey dress shirt. With a sexy smile that never failed to make her want him, he explained, “On a grill is the only right answer, unless you don’t have a grill, which we do. Then, and only then, are you allowed to boil them. Never fried.”
Rolling her eyes at this obsession with hot dog cooking, she continued. “Later on, I went for a walk outside to get some fresh air and Hunter and Roman were having some discussion about shooting on their way to the range. I didn’t hear much of what they were saying, but one of them had some problem with the other doing something with his gun. After a few minutes of listening to them, I just came back in. I swear all these men do is butt heads.”
Persephone watched as Nick tossed his shirt onto the vanity near him and began to unbuckle his belt. She suddenly worried she sounded ungrateful for all he’d done to gather up the men who would work for them on Project Artemis.
“Please don’t think I don’t like them, Nick. It’s just going to take some getting used to.”
He smiled and pushed off his shoes. “I’m sure it will be fine.”
As he stepped out of his black pants and boxer briefs, she watched in rapt attention, loving the sight of his muscular body. “I don’t want you to think I don’t like them or what they’re going to do for the group.”
Shaking his head, he tossed his dark dress socks over next to his shoes. “I don’t think that.”
Without another word, he climbed into the tub behind her and wrapped his arms around her shoulders as he sat down. She’d noted the size of this particular tub before she ordered it, thinking it would be perfect for two people as well as one. As Nick situated himself now, she had to admit she’d been right.
It was perfect.
His lips touched the tender skin under her ear, sending shivers down her spine. Nick wove his fingers through hers and whispered, “I was completely wrong about this tub thing.”
Persephone turned to look at him and saw him smiling. “Oh yeah. Why?”
He shrugged. “I had no idea how great a bath could be. I’ve always been a shower kind of guy.”
“Are we talking about baths or something else?” she asked, noticing the sparkle in his eyes.
She felt his hard cock press against the small of her back, and then he chuckled low and deep. “Something else,” he answered with a sexy grin.
Nick gently spun her around to face him and positioned her legs on either side of his body so she sat just where he needed her to. Setting his hands on her hips, he lifted her as he tilted his hips to slide into her achingly slowly.
Persephone watched as his cock disappeared inside her, filling her completely. Looking up at him, she couldn’t help think he looked like a perfect specimen of manhood.
“Mmmm…I swear you’re trying to torture me,” she said, moaning at how good he felt beneath her. Against her. Inside her.
“No torture. Just taking my time. After a long day at work, there’s nothing better than fucking the woman you love slowly to make it last.”
Rolling her hips, she leaned forward and kissed him. “What if the woman you love wants things to move a little faster?”
At that moment, what she really wanted was to ride him with utter abandon until the two of them came so hard they collapsed. His hands holding her hips in place made that impossible, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be able to in a minute or so. All he needed was a little convincing.
Nick grinned. “So some wild fucking is on the menu tonight? Hmmm…sounds good to me.”
Suddenly, he pulled back from her so his cock nearly left her and then thrust his hips forward so he completely filled her once again. He licked his lips and moaned, “Something like that?”
“Oh yeah,” she said in his ear. “Exactly like that.”
He slid his hands down over her ass and squeezed her cheeks hard as he began pumping into her, the sound of their bodies joining and the water moving around them making her even more excited.
Persephone loved when they were alone and Nick dropped the aloofness he tended to show others. She’d known from the first time he looked into her eyes as she sat tied to that chair that the man behind the façade was so much more.
With each thrust into her body, he claimed her once again just as he did back in that house. Over time, she’d watched him accept what he’d done, and even though she had a feeling he still hadn’t forgiven himself, he never showed her that anymore.
Now when they made love, he was simply a man consumed with giving her pleasure and reveling in their time together.
He looked up at her and smiled wickedly in that way that never failed to make her weak with need. “I love watching you ride me. You know that?”
Raising herself up onto her knees, she teased the head of his cock for a long moment before she slowly slid down, taking all of him inside her. He tilted his head back and groaned low, like the sound came from somewhere deep inside him.
“Oh God…that’s it. Right there, baby.”
Tracing her finger down over his Adam’s apple, Persephone delighted in how sensual he looked lying there as she slid up and down his cock. She could watch him like that for the rest of her life.
She rolled her hips and heard him sigh. “Oh God. Jesus, Seph. You’re killing me.”
“That’s a good thing,” she said with a satisfied smile.
Nick lifted his head and arched a single dark brow. “I think we should move to somewhere else.”
He looked around the bathroom and smiled as he lifted the two of them out of the tub. “Not that I don’t love some underwater sex, but let’s head for dry land.”
She tightened her thighs against his sides while he walked the two of them across the white marble tile floor of their enormous all-white bathroom and into the bedroom. Whatever he had in mind, she just hoped he hurried up because she had been so close just a few seconds before he decided they needed to change locations.
“Oh, God…hurry, Nick…we don’t have to go exotic here. The bed’s fine,” she whimpered, clinging to him as need made her body ache.
He chuckled and lowered her back down onto the bed. Feeling the blue silk comforter against her skin, she watched his gaze roll over her body until their eyes met and once again, he owned her.
Every part of her, body and soul.
Looking into her eyes, “Tell me what you want, Seph. Let me hear you tell me what you need.”
Reaching out for him, she took his hand in hers and brought it to her neck. Just the touch of his fingers to her skin made her desperately want him inside her.
“Make me yours.”
Those three little words told him everything he needed to know. He slid into her until there was nothing left of him or her. There in the home where they dedicated their lives to helping others, they joined together to form one.
One heart. One soul. One love.
And like every time since they admitted their feelings that night at his apartment all those months ago, she found the protection Nick freely offered something so integral to her life now that she couldn’t imagine living without it.
Or him.
As the two of them rushed toward that delicious sensual edge and toppled over it, he looked down into her eyes with possessiveness that came from claiming her once again.
He pushed back the hair off her face and pressed a gentle kiss onto her forehead. “Now that’s what I call ending the day right.”
Persephone ran her hand over his hand still resting against her neck and looked around. “I just realized that our room isn’t that far away from the rest of the house. Someone might have heard us. Those builders need to get moving on our new room.”
Nick laughed and collapsed onto the bed next to her. “I wouldn’t worry. Between the foosball and pool tables, the big screen TV, and the shooting range, I’m guessing none of the guys were paying attention to anything we’re doing here.”
She thought about it for a few moments and did have to admit they had more than enough to amuse them at the house. But would those things make up for what they gave up?
Rolling over to face Nick, she asked, “Do you think they’re going to miss not being able to be in relationships?”
He smiled broadly and turned his head to look at her. “They’re not going to be monks, Seph. They’ll be with women. You just made it a rule they couldn’t settle down. I think their lives will continue pretty much the way they’ve always been. It’s not like any of them have been tied down before.”
The thought of all that testosterone needing to have an outlet somewhere ran through her mind. She shook her head to get rid of it quickly. “Well, I don’t care what they do as long as they’re here when we need them for an assignment. I do have to admit I hadn’t considered that part of hiring all those men.”
Nick slid his tongue over his lower lip and grinned. “Sex, you mean?”
“Well, yeah,” she admitted, now suddenly unable to think of anything else about the seven men who lived on the other side of the house.
“I don’t think you have to worry. The only man you have to be concerned about here is me, and I’m perfectly happy right where I am.”
Persephone smiled and had to admit how content she was to be there with him. They had been through a nightmare no one else could understand, and they’d come out the other side together.
Now when Persephone closed her eyes at night, the darkness didn’t terrify her because she knew Nick lay there at her side ready to protect her no matter what. He’d been willing to lay down his life to save hers once before. That he’d do it again she had no doubt.
Pressing his forehead to hers, he whispered the words that never failed to make her happier than she’d ever been in her life.
“I love you, Persephone.”
She cradled his face in her hands and looked into his eyes to see the truth they held. “I love you. I owe everything I have to you, Nick. Never forget that.”
What he meant to her went beyond just love. He’d saved her life, and for the rest of hers to honor him, she planned to make it possible that other women would feel the safety and protection she felt every moment since he took her out of that house and gave her back her freedom.
He didn’t believe he’d done anything more than what he should, but that showed how good a man he was. As she’d told him, she didn’t need a saint in her life or in her bed.
She needed him.
LOOK FOR , THE NEXT PROJECT ARTEMIS NOVEL!
Kate Sheridan thought she had a handle on life. She had a good job as a legal assistant, great friends, and a life in New Orleans she enjoyed. Until her life became a mess. Now her boss is dead, murdered along with one of his clients, and Kate is on the run from the police who think she’s a prime suspect.
And things are going to get worse before they get better because what her boss stumbled upon involves far more than just some personal injury case in the Big Easy.
Roman Gregory is proud of his work with Project Artemis. After spending years as an Army Ranger, he’s committed to helping women in danger. He’s one of the members Nick and Persephone can always rely on to solve a case and get the client’s life back to normalcy because he never lets anyone get in his way of handling a problem. And he never lets anyone get close.
Then he’s given the assignment in New Orleans and everything changes. But will protecting Kate be something he can do without letting her in?
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