ONE
Three Weeks Earlier
Jade’s cunt wrapped around my cock is the greatest feeling in the world. It’s better than any drug I’ve ever tried, any booze I’ve ever drunk, and any high I’ve ever experienced from killing for a living.
I never thought I’d find solace in a woman.
Women were things that served a purpose. Holes to fill and places to get on and get off. But then, I saw Jade…
“Griffin!”
My name on her lips sends me into overdrive. Thrust after relentless thrust, I pound into her, racing toward a climax I know will steal my breath and vanquish any lingering ghosts from my head. My fingers tighten in her auburn hair, and I jerk her head back and to the side so I can sink my teeth into her neck.
The salty taste of her flesh is my undoing. I empty myself into her, wave after wave of pleasure coursing through my veins.
“JADE!” My roar of her name echoes in the sparse room in a voice that doesn’t even sound like mine.
I collapse on top of her and roll to my side, bringing her with me to press her back to my chest. My heart thuds against her warm, damp skin, and her heaving chest presses against my palms splayed across her breasts.
Absolute. Total. Bliss.
Something I never thought I’d find after everything I’ve done. You don’t torture, maim, defile, and tear people apart and then get the kind of love Jade has given me. At least, you shouldn’t.
Her hand slides up and around the back of my neck. “You okay, Griff?”
“Mmm…”
It’s not much of a response, but it’s really all I can manage at the moment. Between the explosive orgasm and the sudden rush of memories, I’m physically and mentally spent.
She pulls her arm back and turns to face me. The green eyes I’ve looked into for the last two years still hold the same reverence and love they did the first time we laid like this.
Who the fuck knows why?
Even at the beginning, she knew who I was, what I was, what I did. Yet, she gave herself over to me without question, without even the slightest hesitation.
She is my angel, and I am her demon.
Her fingers slip into my hair, and she scratches my scalp softly.
A contented growl rumbles in my chest, and my eyes slip closed.
“Mmm…keep doing that.”
Warm, wet lips find mine. Her tongue probes until I open for her and return the kiss.
My cock stirs between us, and I break away, putting some much needed distance between her luscious body and my overly eager one.
“You need to stop if we’re going to make it to the party on time.”
The coy bat of her eyelashes should warn me of her intentions, but when her hand wraps around my hard flesh, my body jerks, and my heart races like the first time she ever touched me.
Her wicked tongue snakes out and across her lips. “We can be a few minutes late.”
A few minutes? I should be insulted.
“When have you ever known me to only last a few minutes, e dashur?”
My love.
I capture her grin with my mouth before pushing away and slipping from the bed. If I don’t put considerable distance between us, we won’t make the party, and I know how important it is to her.
Jade gave up everything to be with me—money, power, authority, and most of all, her safety. She knew it would mean changing our names and disappearing, leaving all her family and friends and the life she always knew. It meant giving up the promise of being royalty in our world, and it meant always running, always looking over her shoulder. But she did it anyway…for me. Because she somehow managed to see beyond what I did, who I was, to my core, to where what I was doing was beginning to eat away at me like a fucking cancer.
So the fact she has finally found some friends, people she can truly be herself—or at least her new self—with, means everything to her…and me. I’m not going to let my throbbing cock and her tempting pussy derail us from making the party.
“You. Shower. Now. I’m going to let Bruiser out, then spray off, then we are out of here.”
Her eyes glitter with mischief, and she shifts up onto her knees. “Are you going t—”
“No.” I hold up my hand and take another step back from the bed. “I’m not going to join you in the shower, because we would never fucking leave.” My finger directs her toward the bathroom. “Go get wet.”
Her back stiffens and a seriousness overtakes her face. She raises her hand to her forehead and salutes me. “Yes, sir.”
Saucy wench.
I dive for her but she scrambles off the bed and slams the bathroom door before I can grab her.
She’s getting faster, or I’m slowing in my age. That needs to be remedied. The chase is only fun if I can still catch her.
My boxers somehow made their way across the room to dangle over the lampshade. A hazy memory of her tugging them off and tossing them over her shoulder last night surfaces, and I can’t contain the grin.
That woman is voracious, especially the last month or so. It’s like trying to keep a dog away from a bone. That’s why we haven’t managed to even get off the mattress all day.
Once my still-hard cock is covered, I open the bedroom door and am immediately thrown backward by the force of Bruiser slamming into me.
“Down boy!”
His massive paws press against my chest, the nails scratching my bare skin. He tilts his head, almost as if considering whether to obey me or not.
“Down.”
With a resigned whimper, he drops onto all fours and then sits at my feet.
Christ, this fucking dog. He doesn’t realize he’s a fucking Newfoundland and weighs a hundred and fifty pounds. In his mind, he’s still the tiny puppy we rescued from the side of the road as we were fleeing Philly. Why anyone would leave such a beautiful dog in a ditch is beyond me, but finding him seemed almost destined.
The fear permeated Jade so deeply at that point, she couldn’t stop shaking. I only pulled over briefly to try to comfort her. That’s when I spotted him.
As soon as that wet bundle of matted fur cuddled into her lap in the car, her quaking ceased. It was the first time I’d seen her eyes dry and her body still in almost eight hours.
I pat him on the head. “Come on, boy. Let’s go.”
We don’t have much time before we need to head out, and I am far too tempted to break down that door and join Jade in the shower right now to do something about my aching dick.