Chapter Twenty-Four
I was breathless, dizzy, the room narrowing around me.
He drew back first, but it wasn’t because he wanted to stop. His gaze was worshipful, his voice a reverent whisper. “Let me show you what I couldn’t give you before...what’s always been yours.”
He rose from his chair, his hands finding my waist, pulling me up before I could think to resist. My light sundress tightened across my back, trapping my wings.
They quivered, restless, until one of their hooks caught the fabric and tore it open with a soft rip, like a breath released after being held for too long.
Heat flushed through me as the ruined fabric slid down my arms. My wings shivered free, fanning wide and low before the ends surrounded him. Firelight danced across their membranes, casting us in a halo of gold, the world outside ceasing to exist.
He froze, his eyes wide and gleaming in the flickering flames. “Your wings...” His voice faltered. “You’re so damn beautiful.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Every inch of you,” he murmured, voice rough with awe, “is perfection.”
His hands traced my sides, then up along my wings.
Every touch sent sparks racing beneath my skin.
Desire, trust, fear, and longing tangled together, heavier now with the memory of the last time.
This wasn’t naive passion, it was permission, fragile and needing to be earned, interwoven with everything we’d yet to properly share.
“I’ve waited so long to show you real pleasure this time,” he said against my lips.
I trembled, the storm inside me absorbing his heat. When his hands slid lower, guiding, exploring, I didn’t stop him. I no longer doubted, only trusted.
He drew away the last remnants of fabric—my bra, my panties—each movement slow, reverent, each unveiling a revelation, an offering.
He pressed his fingertips under my wings, coaxing them out wider, their membranes glowing softly, enclosing us further in a private world of warmth and light. I’d never imagined my wings would be so revered. The feeling was so profound, so intensely soul-touching, it was addicting.
His lips found mine again, deep, worshipful, each press of his mouth against mine an apology and a promise. “I never meant to hurt you,” he whispered against my lips. “I just needed you to survive. Now...it’s only about us.”
I clung to him, letting go of any lingering fear, the hurt from our last intimacy, and the hesitation that had shadowed every touch. When he drew me fully against him, everything we’d buried—love, anger, grief, longing—ignited and burned clean.
“I’ve wanted you for so long,” he said softly. “I’ll never stop wanting you.”
He lifted me in his arms and carried me away from the table and into his bedroom. I inhaled his essence, his dark spiced scent that was so uniquely him, and I burned hotter, my need for him growing fiercer.
He placed me on the edge of his bed and I sat, reaching up to undress him.
First his jacket, then his ruby tie, which I tossed aside.
My fingers shook a little as I unbuttoned his shirt, revealing the golden expanse of his corded torso, the little puckered scar where I’d stabbed him with the sharp hook of one of my wings.
I traced its edges, remembering the turmoil, the fear of leaving behind my kind. ..the only family I’d ever known.
He cupped my face and drew my stare up to his. “I wear my wound with pride. After you left, every time I saw my scar in the mirror, every time I thought back to why you made it, I was even more determined to find you, to explain.”
I smiled, softening for him. If only I’d known, so many doubts and fears could have been erased.
He pushed me back onto the bed, and I opened to him, ceding control as our lips merged.
One of his hands slid down, deftly massaging me, making me gasp and writhe, the pain of our last joining dissolving like dust in a whirlwind.
Desire eclipsed all else as he rubbed relentlessly, my back arching, my breasts pressing up in the perfect position for his mouth.
His lips left mine to kiss and suck the tip of one breast, his mouth dominating and lavishing me with pleasure. The head of his shaft grazed the top of my thigh as I squirmed, and I wrapped my hand around him, feeling the satiny warmth stretched over a hardness like set concrete.
He exhaled roughly, his breath warm against my skin. He drew back slightly, his face strained. “I want to show you so much love, but even I have limits.”
I shook my head, locking eyes with him. “I’m ready—for you—for this. Ready to become one with you.”
His eyes blazed with savage need as he aligned himself with me, then pushed in deep.
I tensed, but there was no pain, no torturous splitting in two. My body accepted his as readily as my mind had accepted trusting in him.
Then he began rocking in and out, and I was lost—completely, utterly—to him, to the moment, to us. Each movement drew memories from me, the past flooding my mind.
Adam carrying me back to my cell after electro-shocks had left me too weak to stand.
Adam rubbing salve onto my blistered skin.
Adam annihilating the three scientists who had dared suggest intimacy with me.
Adam bent over one of my lifeless friends, grief barely contained in his expression.
Every memory enhanced our lovemaking, his every thrust bringing me closer to him, to the undeniable truth of us. To the fact I was his—body, mind and soul.
My wings fanned wide beneath me, holding onto the intensity between us. Sparks of sensation rippled through me. Our emotions, raw and unrestrained, exposed even more of our deepest feelings. As he pushed further into me I knew there was no going back. I was—
The orgasm hit me suddenly, powerfully, shattering all thought. I’d stepped over the edge and I was sailing high, reaching for the stars, the sun and the moon as heat poured through me, rippling alongside a pleasure so intense I thought I might happily die from it.
He succumbed right after, his roar filling the room, filling my senses, even as his seed filled me, hot and pulsing, our pleasure all-consuming.
Afterward, we lay tangled together, our bodies entwined, my wings wrapped around him. Firelight flickered across our naked bodies that were sheened with sweat.
He pressed a kiss to my temple, whispering, “You’re incredible. Extraordinary. I love every part of you.”
I trembled as I closed my eyes, whole for the first time since the facility. Truly, impossibly, irreversibly whole.
“Love?” I finally managed to whisper. I opened my eyes as he nodded.
“I think I’ve always loved you,” he said tenderly, one of his hands cupping the side of my face, his thumb absently caressing my jaw. “It killed me seeing what all those scientists did to you.”
I blinked. I wanted to believe him. God, I did. But trust was still a fragile thing inside of me, trembling like a moth in a stiff wind. “And yet you funded much of what went on at the facility.”
He nodded. “When my counsel fell on deaf ears, I realized financial backing and observation weren’t enough.
I had to gain real power. So I used my considerable wealth and bought controlling shares, becoming the major shareholder and the one with final say over what happened to you.
In the end, it was the only way I could get you out. ”
My throat tightened, and when I smiled, it was tremulous. “You did all that for me?”
His eyes reflected the firelight. “I would have done a whole lot more.”
Something powerful threatened to sweep me up in the intensity of the moment. I just barely managed to stay logical when I asked, “If you’re a major shareholder, can’t you shut the facility down?”
“That is my future hope. But I need to be careful. I’d leave that place open forever if it means protecting you from anyone seeking revenge and taking their brand of injustice out on you.”
Sudden insight flashed inside my head. “That’s why you brought me here, in the middle of nowhere, with security on the ground floor, isn’t it?”
He nodded. “I only ever planned to stay here for your protection.”
I realized that was why his penthouse in the city had been also been so hard to access. As much as he’d ensured I couldn’t leave, he’d also been careful that no one could get in and hurt me or worse if he ever did shut down the facility.
Love lit me up from the inside out, but I still wasn’t quite ready to take the final, giant step into heavenly bliss. I bit into my bottom lip. “Were you involved in any of those failed experiments who were sold to fight rings?”
“I’ve been trying to put a stop to them, but there has been a lot of illicit money exchanging hands, a lot of deals happening under the radar, especially in those parts of the facility I rarely visit.
” He sighed softly. “As much as I’d love to save everyone, it’s not possible.
Not until I close the facility for good. ”
Something within melted a little more. “You managed to save Angel for me.”
He smiled. “I did. I knew how close you were. Because she was considered one of the dying I was able to acquire her with minimal fuss. That she’s survived is something of a miracle.”
“Angel thinks the facility is killing our kind. Freedom made her well again.”
“I don’t doubt that. The facility poisons the souls of those imprisoned there. It’s not a place where anyone would flourish.”
I swallowed hard, my vision blurring. Would my father have lived if he’d been given his freedom? Would my mother still be here if he had?
“Are you all right?” he asked gently.
I nodded, though tears threatened to spill. It was beyond time for a subject change. “Angel doesn’t wear an ankle cuff. Aren’t you afraid she’ll leave?”
His eyes softened. “Angel is free to leave whenever she wishes. I know how selfish it sounds, but I kept your cuff on so that you couldn’t escape and until I felt you were old enough to be told the truth about...everything.”
“So it wasn’t just about intimacy?” I asked.
His thumb stopped tracing my jawline, his gaze intensifying as his eyes held mine.
“The trauma you went through would have crippled anyone else. I thought twelve months of peace and tranquility, of healing your body and mind while building trust and earning your respect would give you enough time before I told you everything I knew...everything I felt.”
I looked away, my cheeks heating. My instincts had told me to escape. They’d rarely been wrong...or so I’d thought. But they’d been wrong about him. Wrong about everything. I’d run from the one person who truly saw me, truly protected me.
I shook my head. “I’d always thought I couldn’t be with you because you were a big part of what went on in the labs. I wished I’d known how wrong I’d been.”
His fingertips glided along my tight jawline. “And I wish I could have told you the truth, but it wasn’t possible. I had to sacrifice my own wants for the wants of too many others.”
I nodded, my heart wrenching for him. “I understand.”
His voice went hoarse when he asked, “Do I dare believe I’m no longer the villain in your story?”
A laugh slipped out, breathless and light, as I looped my arms around his neck. You’re the hero, a little morally gray perhaps, but I wouldn’t want you any other way.”
His eyes gleamed. “I’d kill for you.”
I nodded. “You have killed for me.”
I thought again of the three scientists he’d destroyed for me. Then the six bodies he’d disposed of. The evidence of how far he’d go to protect me. I brushed my hand down his chest, making him groan. I smiled. “I should probably go before Angel sends a search party.”
He clasped my hand, his expression serious. “Don’t go. Stay here with me. Share my rooms—my life.”
My stomach fluttered, along with my pulse. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
He rolled over, his momentum pushing me onto my back and him on top looking down at me.
“I do,” he said huskily. His cock prodded against my stomach, reminding me of his vitality, his powerful masculinity. His primal needs. Then he added, “One day I hope you’ll repeat those same two words back to me.”
I gaped, my pulse now hammering even as joy pierced through me. I might still be a little na?ve, but I’d seen more than a few weddings in my screen time—love had always fascinated me—knew the vows spoken between people. “Marriage?” I breathed. “Y-you want to m-marry me?”
“It would make my life complete,” he said huskily.
To think I’d believed my feelings for him were doomed. We were always meant to be together, even if it’d taken me far too long to know it.
He kissed me again before I managed to answer, sweeping me up in the moment and proving yet again he was no longer my master, just a man who’d loved me all along.