Chapter 22
Chapter
Twenty-Two
Nine days.
That was all it had been since he and his team broke into Rose’s home and snatched her from her bed, and yet it felt like a lifetime.
In those nine days, everything he thought he knew about himself had been turned on its head. He’d come to the realization that what Dr. Gardner had done to him had broken parts of himself that could never be put back together, but it hadn't broken him.
The proof of that was that he’d managed to find the strength and control to put Rose’s needs before his own. Instead of forcing her to honor the deal they’d made, that she remain their prisoner until her brother was dead, he’d given her the freedom to take the reins of her own life.
“You going up to bed?” Dragon asked as Steel switched off the kitchen lights and headed for the stairs.
“Yeah,” he answered wearily. He hadn't slept since Rose called Ridge, and while he could stay awake longer than forty-eight hours when needed, these last two days had been a rollercoaster ride of fear and emotion. More emotion than he’d felt in a decade, and it had caught up with him.
“We’ll get him,” Dragon assured him.
That Ridge had gotten away, obviously remained conscious through the crash, and fled, calling in a helicopter to come and pick him up, should mean that the op was a failure. But since he’d gotten Rose back alive, Steel was having trouble seeing it as such.
“We won’t stop until we do,” he agreed.
“It’s going to be okay,” Dragon added somewhat awkwardly. “Everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.”
“Maybe time you took your own advice,” he told his teammate, his friend, his brother. A man he had fought alongside for almost a third of their lives, a man he trusted with his life, a man who had given in to the monster inside him instead of fighting against it.
If Dragon couldn’t find the strength to put Cassandra first, he was going to lose the woman they all knew he’d fallen in love with.
Love. As Dragon nodded his acknowledgment and disappeared into the Gothic mansion’s darkness, and Steel headed up to his room, the word swirled through his mind.
Did he love Rose?
Since he’d given her the freedom she craved, he had to believe that he did.
The thought was terrifying because he never expected to love anyone who wasn't one of his team. Rose was different than his brothers, she’d suffered at her brother’s hands, but there was a softness inside her that she fought against, beat down, because she knew softness could become weakness.
As he stepped into his room, Steel’s gaze moved immediately to the bed, and the small lump curled up in the middle of it. At the sight of his little ladybug still fast asleep in his bed, wearing one of his shirts, the anxiety bubbling in his gut subsided.
By some miracle, Rose had chosen him when given a chance at freedom.
Offering her choices had been terrifying, but it was the only thing he could do.
His little ladybug had lived enough of her life in a prison, she deserved the chance to fly high.
He just hadn't expected her to fly right back there with him to the place he’d locked her away as though she were nothing but a tool to be used.
Only now he knew Rose was so much more than that.
She was everything.
Stripping off his sweatpants, Steel pulled back the covers enough that he could slide beneath them without lifting them off Rose. While her body temperature had returned to normal by the time they arrived back at the mansion, she’d told him she was still sensitive to cold.
There were new bruises on her body, and she had her second concussion in a week, so Steel tried to be gentle when he molded his body to hers, tucking himself around her like a protective shield.
With a small content sigh, she snuggled closer, her hair tickling his chin, her breath warm against his collarbone. That warmth spread inside him, and even though he had Rose pressed against him, it wasn't enough.
Too much distance.
He needed to be inside her, needed to meld their bodies together into one.
Slipping a hand down her body, he nudged it between her thighs and stroked a fingertip across her center. Just because he needed to be inside her didn't mean he was going to push into her without preparing her first.
Keeping his touch gentle so he didn't wake her, Steel circled her entrance, bumping a fingertip just inside before moving to her bud and working it with slow, firm strokes.
In her sleep, Rose’s breathing quickened, and she shifted restlessly, her body registering what he was doing to it even as her mind kept her asleep.
When he felt her begin to grow wet, Steel withdrew his fingers, bringing them to his mouth and licking off every drop of her sweetness. Later, he’d feast on her, make her come over and over again until she was sobbing and pleading, unsure if she was asking for more or for him to stop.
But in this moment, he needed to be inside her.
Needed there to be zero distance left between them.
Rolling her onto her back, Steel shifted so his body was on top of hers, his weight balanced on his hands so he didn't hurt her. Lining himself up, he held back from sliding inside her.
Tracing his fingertips over the pulse point in her neck, he pressed a little harder, to nudge her awake.
“Mmm,” Rose moaned, her lashes fluttering on her cheeks before her eyes blinked open. “Steel?”
“Need you, little ladybug. Tell me I can be inside you.”
“Always,” she murmured, a small smile curling up the corners of her mouth.
With a single thrust he was buried deep, and that lingering knot of unsettledness disappeared.
“You feel so good inside me,” Rose murmured as he began to rock his hips.
“If I could find a way to live like this, I would.” That wasn't a joke, it wasn't an exaggeration. If it was possible to live his life buried deep in Rose’s body, with her permanently in his arms where he knew she was safe and he could protect her, he absolutely would.
“You're mine, little ladybug. I gave you a chance to be free of me, and you chose to stay.
I won't give you a second chance to leave.”
“I don’t want to leave.” Even though he knew it cost her, she pushed her shoulders off the bed so she could press a kiss to his lips.
“I’m not a good man. Not one who deserves you. I might have learned there is more humanity left in me than I'd realized, but I also know that part of me will always be a monster.”
“My monster.” Rose hummed, touching another kiss to his lips.
“Yours,” he readily agreed. “Always yours. I will burn the world to the ground to keep you safe. I will walk through hell, I will fight the devil himself, anything I have to do to protect you, I’ll do.
I’m going to be better at protecting your body, but I’ll do my best to protect your heart as well. ”
“You already proved you can do that when you gave me a choice. My life hasn’t had many, and even the ones I've had, I've made the choices that were the opposite of what I knew my brother would want me to make.
I've never had the freedom that you gave me.
I've never even had a chance to figure out who Rose Gardner really is.”
“Mine,” he told her, as he picked up the pace, thrusting into her faster, harder. Steel knew he should back off a little, knew he had to be hurting her battered body, but he could already feel her internal walls fluttering, and her cheeks were flushed with arousal as desire danced in her eyes.
“Yours,” Rose agreed as she twisted her fingers into his short hair and brought his face down so she could claim his mouth in a searing kiss.
Balancing his weight on one hand, Steel moved his other to where their bodies joined and worked her bundle of nerves, circling it, rolling it between his thumb and forefinger, and when he tweaked it roughly, Rose fell apart.
Capturing her cries of release, her internal muscles clamped around him, setting off his own release.
It sparked along his spine, firing out to touch every molecule of his body, and setting it alight.
Pleasure consumed him, and he kept his fingers working her bud throughout their joint release to prolong it for Rose as long as he could.
When all that was left were aftershocks of pleasure, Steel rolled them so he was on his back and Rose was draped across him, his softening length still snug inside her.
Since he was so much taller than her, her head tucked perfectly beneath his chin, and she nuzzled her cheek against his chest, above his heart.
“I’m glad I chose to stay with you,” Rose whispered sleepily as her body grew heavy against his as she drifted off.
“So am I, little ladybug, so am I,” he whispered back, but he doubted she heard his words as sleep had already claimed her.
January 3rd
9:19 A.M.
I will burn the world to the ground to keep you safe.
Why was that the best foreplay? Even now, hours later, when she thought of Steel’s vow, she felt her body tingle, her blood heat.
She’d slept most of the day before away, and for the first time in well over twenty-four hours, she was starting to feel vaguely human.
When they’d finally arrived back at the mansion yesterday, Steel had taken her up to his room, put her in the bath, and washed every inch of her with a tenderness that had made her eyes sting.
Then he’d dressed her in one of his shirts and tucked her into his bed. Falling asleep encased in his scent had been exactly what she needed, and she’d slept deeply and dreamlessly.
Waking with him buried deep inside her wasn't what she had expected, but it wasn't unwelcome in the least. His promises that he would protect her body and her heart had pushed her into the best orgasm of her life.
“If you keep thinking that loudly, I'm going to have you tied to the bed screaming my name until it’s the only word you know,” Steel’s voice rumbled from beneath her, and Rose lifted her head from his chest and arched a brow at him.