CHAPTER 37
I love you.
My hands squeeze the soft flesh of her thighs where they hold her against me, keeping every part of her touching me.
I love you.
I can still taste the sweetness of the words on my tongue, like a drug, they work my system, sending me higher, needing more, a fix never sated.
In the bedroom, I only allow her down to reach for the shirt tucked into her shorts, pushing the light material up and over her head only to throw it behind me and then I reach for the clasp at her back.
I love you.
No one has ever said those three words to me.
My mother died when I was young, so I don’t recall her ever saying it, and my father was never the type; he showed but never told. Though he always had a lot to say about a woman’s love. The woman’s love.
I didn’t expect it to come in the form of a bratty, reckless, stubborn mafia princess, but you know what? If I want it from anyone, it’s her.
I unclasp her bra and toss that to the ground, leaning back to watch my hands cover her entirely, the bars pierced through her nipples warm to touch. Her lips are pouty and swollen, her lids hooded.
She matches me in every way. Pushes when I pull, takes every blow and delivers her own.
I’ve never given much thought to soul mates, didn’t think they existed despite the ramblings of my old man telling me they’re a real thing. He had it with my mom, supposedly.
He never did remarry.
She tips her chin toward the ceiling, a low moan slipping from her lips that raises the hair on my arms.
So fucking pretty.
Though dainty, she possesses the unwavering strength of the surrounding mountains, her resilience an echo of their granite faces. As strong as the storms that roll through the valley, an unfaltering force of nature.
I drop my fingers to the button of her shorts, flicking it open, but she doesn’t give me a chance to remove them as she takes control and slips them down her legs, leaving her in only her panties.
The C burned into her thigh has healed enough that the bruising is all but faded shadows, the skin raised, showing it’s new but fixed.
My knees hit the carpet ahead of her, and my mouth presses to the fresh scar.
My C. My brand. My name.
She jolts at the contact but doesn’t move away, her hands falling to the top of my head to thread my hair between her long fingers.
Hooking my fingers in her panties, I let my eyes travel up her body as I pull them down, baring her to me before I gently coax her back until her spine hits the wall and I follow, immediately hooking one leg and then the other over my shoulders where I’m knelt on the carpet, her pussy right at my mouth.
Her breath rushes from her as her skull hits the wall, my breath fanning across her pretty pink lips, the silver balls of the piercing catching in the light.
“Such a pretty fucking cunt,” I praise, sucking her clit into my mouth.
Her back arches away from the wall, making her almost slip, but I square my shoulders, keeping her pinned as I bury my face between her legs.
Her thighs tremble on either side of my head as I punch my tongue into her, the taste of her like damn honey, so sweet and addictive.
I could spend an eon on my knees for her, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
Her nails score my scalp, and her moans fill the room, loud and unashamed as I bring her to the peak.
I swipe my tongue through her lips before I stop at her clit and flick it mercilessly, her quakes becoming more violent as the precision of my strokes has her climbing that much quicker, right up until she crashes in a loud groan that has my cock jerking in my pants.
She screams my name as I work her through it and when she sags against the wall, her breaths coming in heavy but short pants, I lower her feet to the floor, keeping her steady as I rise and let her taste what I do to her from my lips.
She kisses me lazily, her body lax and pliant in my arms, fully trusting me with herself, and if that doesn’t make my heart swell three fucking sizes.
She is the last person I ever expected to knock down all those steel walls I raised to protect myself and this ranch, but she razed them all to the ground and walked on in, a grin and a kiss waiting for me to meet her.
I coax her toward the bed still not made from where she rolled out of it this morning, urging her down onto the mattress and then stand, taking my fill of her soft curves and the flare of her hips, her strong thighs and raven hair.
She watches me from beneath her long lashes as I strip off my clothes and then lay myself over her, holding my weight on my forearms, my lips find hers.
There’s no rush to the kiss, no frenzied, urgent need, and she kisses me back just as softly, gentle swipes of her tongue, soft whispers of her fingers as she feathers them over my shoulders and down my arms. Her legs lift to cradle my hips, the head of me pressing to her hot, wet center.
Slanting my mouth, I sweep in deeper, needing more from her, needing all of her, and my hips grind, the slickness between her legs making it easy to use her body.
She lifts her hips slightly, my cock slipping further down until the head notches at her entrance, and I still, a breath rushing from me.
Slow with her is impossible. I know the moment her cunt envelopes my shaft I’ll be lost.
“Take it,” She whispers against my lips. “I’m yours.”
“Fuckkkkkk,” I groan as I slip into her, her legs widening to allow for my body. Her breath rushes against my mouth as I pull almost all the way out and thrust forward, hard, jolting her body up the mattress. I need deeper, harder, faster.
And she takes it, matching me, pound for pound, nails biting, heels pushing against my ass to keep me inside.
“Say it,” I groan, my chin hitting my chest so I can watch myself stretch her tight pussy open, my length coated in her arousal.
“I–” She gasps as I slam into her, stealing her words, a zap tingling down my spine.
Her head tips back as her hands grip my arms, her orgasm coming quick and heavy, legs tightening around me.
It forces my own, the pleasure a tidal wave that washes through me, and there’s no stopping it.
I spill into her with a long groan, my face buried in the side of her neck as my cock jerks and pulses.
For a few long seconds we lay there, panting, sweat dampening our skin until I feel her turn her head, and then there’s a bite of pain, her mouth latching onto the already bruised skin on my neck.
I chuckle, allowing her to refresh the mark, and once she’s happy, her lips press against it, and she meets my eyes where I hover above her.
“Happy with your brand?” I rasp.
“Depends,” She grins, “You happy with yours?”
“That C on your thigh looks awfully good, darlin’.”
“I fucking knew it.” She rolls her eyes.
I laugh before I pull from her, wincing at the loss, and let my eyes drop back to the brand. “Don’t much like it hurt you though.” I admit.
“I’m not afraid of a little pain, Knox,” She replies, slipping off the bed.
I capture her wrist before she can walk away from me. I know she needs to clean up, that I’m leaking out of her, slipping down the insides of her thighs, but I need to make sure she understands something.
“Nothing will hurt you again, Elena,” I force her to keep my eyes.
“That isn’t a promise you’ll be able to keep, Knox,” She sighs but gives a soft smile, one that doesn’t quite reach her eyes, “Pain and I go way back, if there’s one thing that’s certain, it’s that I am going to get hurt. That’s the life I have chosen.”
I could try to convince her to leave it all behind, to forget about it, but I know it would be futile.
I release her wrist, and she crosses the room, slipping into the bathroom, “You know,” She says before she closes the door, “Death never scared me, I figured when it’s my time, it’s my time, that it was the plan but now?
I’m not sure if it’s fear or something else, but this,” Her eyes drop to the floor and she shakes her head, “This I don’t want to lose or leave behind. ”
The door clicks closed before I can reply.