We drive back into the city in silence. Eve leaves me alone, and I need to be alone. I need to figure this out because it doesn’t make sense.

Maliki Remi can’t be Malik. He’s dead. I know. I’m the one who put a bullet in his chest.

When we pull into the parking lot of the hotel, I switch off the engine and rub my face.

“Zach?” Eve’s hand is on my arm. “You need to tell me what’s going on. What happened back there?”

I look at her and I know I shouldn’t have brought her here. I should have hidden her away. Maybe sent her to Italy. To my brothers, Raphael and Damon, to hide her. They’d know what to do. They’d know how to keep her alive.

Me? I’m no good for her. Being with me is going to get her killed. Because I’m a dead man walking.

“You need to get out of here, Eve.” As I say it, I’m already thinking how I can do this. Italy isn’t too far away. I can get her on a flight today. I’ll send word to my brothers. It doesn’t matter anymore if I do. I’m not in hiding anymore. I have no doubt Malik knows exactly where I am.

“What?”

I look around the parking lot, taking note of every single car, every shadow a threat. I face her. I know she’ll fight me, but she has no choice.

“I know who Malik is.”

She processes the words slowly. “I don’t understand.”

“It’s me he wants. This has nothing to do with you. Remember when I told you he’s a bridge burner?” She shudders. I know she remembers. “Your part’s done. You can’t stay here. You can’t be with me.”

“I’m going to find Armen,” she says. “Maybe Rafi and Seth too.”

I ignore her. “I’m going to put you on a plane to Italy. My brothers are there. I’ll arrange for Raphael to pick you up. He’ll get you somewhere safe until this is over. Until Malik is dead.” This time, for real.

I get out of the car and grab my duffel from the backseat.

She gets out and slams her door shut. “This won’t ever be over. Don’t you get it?”

I walk to her side and take her arm. “Don’t make a scene.” We’re walking into the lobby and she has the sense to stop talking. I bypass the elevator and we walk up to our room on the fourth floor.

“I’m not going anywhere. I’m too close,” she says.

“You’ll do as you’re told. Period.”

“Fuck you.”

A door opens, and a woman steps into the hallway. She stops short. She must feel the tension. It’s fucking crackling between us. Eve’s fuming. And I’m a fucking time bomb.

“I said don’t make a scene,” I say through clenched teeth, squeezing her wrist in warning. The woman passes hurriedly as I get our door open. Eve slips free the moment I let her.

“I don’t know what the hell is wrong with you, but I’m not leaving. You’re not sending me anywhere.”

“Get packed.” I start shoving shit into her bag.

She’s pulling it out as I’m putting it in.

“No.”

She grabs one end of a dress and tugs it back out of the case, but I take hold of the other end and pull so hard, she slams against my chest before bouncing off.

“This is over, Eve!”

“No, Zach!” she’s loud. Louder than I’ve heard her before. And her eyes are on fire. “The only way this is over is when you die!”

I blink at the abruptness of her statement.

She sounds as surprised by her words as I am, but when she continues, her tone is quieter. Like she’s just realized what she’s said herself. How very true it is.

“That’s what you want. It’s what you’ve always wanted.”

I can’t look at her. Not at her face. Not at her eyes.

“You say you want to avenge the deaths of your men,” she continues, “but I think what you want is to join them. You have so much fucking guilt that you’d rather be dead than alive. Dead like them.”

I wrap my hand around her throat and in two strides, I have her pinned to the wall. Her hands close around my forearm and she’s trying to pull me off.

“Maybe I do have a death wish. Maybe you’re right. Maybe it’s what I’ve wanted all along.”

“Coward,” she spits.

I squeeze harder, and she makes a gurgling sound.

“Zach.” She can’t breathe. And I watch her. Watch her face redden. Watch her eyes widen. Feel again how fragile she is. How easily her neck can be snapped.

I let up a little and she wheezes.

“I won’t tattoo your name on my back,” I say. It’s a low growl. I’m not even sure she can make out my words. I keep my hand around her neck, but I’m not squeezing anymore.

“You won’t have to if you’re dead.”

Our eyes lock, hers are a deep amber flame. Her breath comes in shorter heaves and my gaze drops to her chest. She’s wearing a lace bra. I see it through the fine cotton of her tank top. How did I miss it before?

Her nipples are hard.

I slide one hand beneath the tank, over her belly and cup her breast, flicking that nipple once before capturing it between thumb and forefinger. I return my eyes to hers before I squeeze.

“I need to fuck you. Be inside you.” I smash my mouth into hers and she moans, urgent fingers moving to the hem of my shirt, drawing it up and over my head. Our lips lock again as I tear her tank off, walking her backward to the bed. Dropping her down on it when the backs of her knees hit, leaning into her as she undoes my jeans and pulls them open, cupping my cock. I draw her hand away and straighten, push my jeans and boxer briefs down and fist myself, begin to pump my length while she watches.

She’s greedy, licking her lips, so I cup the back of her head and slide my cock into her mouth. She’ll appreciate the lubrication in a minute because I’m not planning on using a condom and I can’t pull out again. I need to be inside her when I come and there can’t be anything between us, and since I can’t come in her pussy, she’ll take me in her ass.

Her lips make a smacking sound when I pull her hair to tug her off me.

“Up on all fours, Eve. Ass to me,” I say, looking at the array of lotions the hotel left on the nightstand. I take one.

When I turn to her, she’s watching me. She hasn’t moved yet. I lean down and get in her face. “Ass to me so I can fuck it.”

Her eyes are dark, pupils dilated and she’s breathing in gasps. She bites her lip, then moves slowly up to her hands and knees. I flip her skirt up and drag her panties down and just look at her for a long minute, her knees wide, ass cheeks splayed open, all of her displayed, offered.

Mine.

I lean my head down and lick her tight little asshole and am gratified with her shocked, aroused gasp.

When I straighten, she’s craning her neck to watch me and I press one hand between her shoulder blades to push her down onto her elbows, her face in the bed. I slide my cock into her pussy and she sucks in a sharp, audible breath. I don’t move inside her. I don’t want to come yet and with her, my control always slips away.

I empty the contents of the little bottle of lotion onto her back. She lifts her hips, and it makes me smile seeing her like this. All mine. I’ve claimed her mouth and her pussy. Now, I’ll claim her ass too.

Dipping my fingers into the lotion, I smear it down toward her asshole. I pump my cock a little as I began to circle that tight little bud.

“It’s going to be a tight squeeze, Eve.” I groan and can hardly fucking wait to have her snug little ass milk my dick. “Think you can take me?”

I meet her eyes as I slide all the way out of her pussy, then back in slowly, making sure she knows how many thick inches she’ll be taking.

She moans and I press a finger into her tight hole.

Her eyes squeeze shut and her muscles tighten around my finger, but then relax again and I can slowly pump in and out, in and out. I add a second finger and spread more lotion inside her and when she slips her hand between her legs and begins rubbing her clit, I know she’s almost ready.

“Make yourself come.” I pull my cock out, but leave my fingers inside her. “Make yourself come with my fingers in your ass, Eve.”

She’s so fucking obedient. I hook two fingers inside her and hold her hips up and watch her cunt drip down her thighs as she closes her eyes and comes and—fuck me, I’m going to blow right now if I don’t get inside her.

I pull my fingers out, smear her cum all over my dick and bring it to her tight little virgin asshole. She’s filled up with lotion, lubricated inside and out, and I take her cheeks into my hands and pull her wide and penetrate her.

“Too big!”

She’s gone still, her hands are fisted.

“Shh. I’ll go slow. Put your fingers back on your pussy. Rub your clit. Get ready to come harder than you’ve ever come in your life.”

She’s a good girl and obeys, begins to rub herself again. I know she’s nervous, I can see it on her face, I rub her back, then grip her hips again, slide in a little more, take a few more inches.

“I can’t wait to come in your tight little ass. I’m going fill you up and when I’m done, I’m going watch my cum drip out of you.”

“I’m going to come again,” she manages, just as the waves of her orgasm begin to squeeze my dick. I press in deeper, pumping in and out slowly, claiming more of her, all while she comes beneath me, and when I’m fully seated, our eyes lock and she’s so fucking beautiful and so far gone, my dirty little virgin, that I know I don’t have long.

“One more time, habibi. One more time for me.” And when I say it, I begin to fuck her. I fuck her like I want to, like I need to, and she’s whimpering beneath me. She’s fisting the blankets—she’s ultra-sensitive now after those orgasms—and as tight as she is, as slippery as she is with all that lotion inside her, it doesn’t take long for me to come. For me to blow inside her with a sound every room on this floor must hear. I grip her hips hard and I come, and she’s coming with me, one more time.

We’re sweating by the time I fall on top of her, spent. I hold her close, my dick still inside her, and she’s got her hand over my wrist and is holding tight.

I want to ask her if she’s okay. I should. But I can’t speak. And I know she is. She’s more than fine. She came three times.

“I like fucking you, Eve. I like fucking you every which way.”

“I like you fucking me every which way.”

“Dirty little virgin.”

She cranes her neck and looks at me, gives me a wicked grin.

I give her a nasty one back and slide my dick out of her, then get up and go into the bathroom. When I return with a damp washcloth, I draw her over my lap so her ass is elevated.

“What are you doing?”

I spread her ass cheeks open. “I told you. I’m watching my cum drip out.”

“Zach!” she tries to pull away but I smack her ass once and grip her ponytail, which is falling apart after the sex.

She twists her head back.

“You’re dirty, Eve. You like it as dirty as I do. You want to show me. Don’t deny it, the innocent act isn’t you, habibi.”

I don’t mean habibi like I did in the beginning. Then, it was a taunt. A degradation. Now, she’s just habibi. Baby.

My baby.

She stops fighting me and I spread her wide and I watch, almost hard again at the sight.

Afterward, we sit in the tub together, and I know she remembers our conversation from before.

“Eve,” I start. We need to do this.

She shakes her head. “I won’t leave.”

“You’re not safe here.”

“You’re wrong.” She turns to me, her eyes searching mine for a long moment before she finally speaks. “I’m safest with you.”