Chapter 49
Chapter Forty-Nine
EDIE
“Whatcha got?” he asks.
I smile. “You’re going to have to guess. Lie back and grasp the headboard.”
He gives me a suspicious look and scoots back, grabbing the metal bars at the top of the thing.
“Now close your eyes,” I say. “You’re going to have to tell me what you feel.”
He closes his eyes.
I crawl up over him, trying to keep everything quiet so he doesn’t hear the telltale clinking. I straddle his chest and lean up to kiss his Arianiti’s eagle tattoo. “I love this tattoo,” I say.
“Me too. And I love that you knew it.”
“Me too.” Quick as lightning, I handcuff him to the bed.
His eyes fly open. “Edie, no.”
“Sorry, but...”
“What have you done?”
“You know what.”
He yanks, trying to free himself. “Where are the keys?”
“Nowhere you’re going to get to,” I say. “And don’t think you can get out of them. They’re Bender’s cop cuffs.”
He swears softly under his breath.
I’ve been thinking about the cuffs ever since he said he was going to that meeting. He wouldn’t be in danger from his own men if it weren’t for me. It’s my turn to protect him.
“I need to be across town in under an hour,” he says. “Take these off.”
I climb back on him and kiss his chest. “You saved me; isn’t turnabout fair play?” I move down, kissing his abs.
“The kind of man who wouldn’t go to that meeting? The kind of man who runs from his own men with his tail between his legs? Putting you in danger along the way? That’s not a man you want, Edie.”
“Spare me the patriarchal bullshit because that’s exactly the man I want.” I kiss his belly button. I kiss the lightly furred stretch of hair below his belly button, the soft place that rises and falls with his every breath.
“I wanna wake up in bed every morning with the man who doesn’t go to that meeting.”
I plant another kiss.
Another.
I look up to find him watching with those angel-devil eyes, watching my every movement.
I slide my hands over his abs, trailing kisses back up his hot skin, over each and every muscular contour, all the way up to his strong chest.
“I have to go, princess.”
“Not happening.”
“You don’t get to decide that.”
I unbutton his pants.
He whooshes out a breath. “Edie... God... what are you doing?”
“You know what I’m doing.”
I lower the zipper. My wrist is killing me, but I don’t even give a shit .
“Edie,” he gusts out.
His cock is a rock-hard ridge. I kiss it. “I could make out with your cock for days. Days and days and days.”
His breath sounds ragged. Everything feels wild and real and a little bit dangerous. Because it is.
“You can’t... you....”
I yank down his pants and boxer briefs. His cock springs up.
Luka isn’t a man who likes to be managed. Or stopped from doing things, but there’s no going back now.
I lick the bead of precum off the tip, and he hisses out a ragged breath.
“Need you...” he groans.
That’s more like it. I pull his pants all the way off, down his legs, off his ankles. I want him so bad I can’t think.
“Yes,” he rumbles. “Show me that scorn, princess.”
“Forget it. That’s so far from how I feel right now. So far away.” I kiss the side of his cock. “You came for me, Luka. You knew it would cost you, but you came anyway.”
“Don’t make this more than it is,” he whispers. “Nothing but a transaction?—”
“You could’ve stopped that test. You could’ve stayed king, but you rescued me instead.”
I kiss the other side.
“I was only here for the vengeance,” he grits out, “and you were only here for your sister. We both got what we wanted. End of story.” He mumbles something about a transaction .
“This is more than that. Look in your heart—you know.”
“You don’t want to know what’s in my heart.”
I crawl up more and kiss his chest. “I already know what’s in your heart, so you can fuck the fuck off because I love you.”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I love you, and I think you love me too.”
His eyes blaze. I can’t read his expression for once. Is he happy? Angry? It doesn’t matter .
“You loved being king, and you came for me because you know this is more than a transaction. We make each other better, and it’s my turn to rescue you now.”
“You can’t.”
“Watch me.” I whip out a condom and unwrap it. “I love you like crazy, and you can’t stop me.”
“You’re gonna see that I’m right.”
I caress the sides of his cock, silky and hard. I wrap my hand over it loosely, exploring the shape of him, tracing the vein on the side with my thumb. I’m torn between taking him in my mouth and having him that way or getting right to the fucking. “I want you on every level possible.”
“God, put it on already.”
“There’s the spirit.” I roll on the condom.
I hover over him when I’m done and look down at him, right into his eyes. The whole world seems to have fallen silent except for our tandem ragged breathing.
“Luka.”
His expression gentles.
Maybe he knows I won’t let him go. I fit us together, enjoying the tip of him in me, lingering in this place.
His breath is ragged.
I lower down on him, watching. I’ve never felt so connected to anybody ever.
Warmth floods my body.
With a groan, he thrusts his hips, filling me deeper.
“Yes,” I say.
He thrusts up again, hard. It’s delicious, the feeling of him hard in me, quelling the ache between my legs.
He speeds up, but it comes to me, then, what he’s doing. He’s going for our usual feverish pace, all desperate and clawing.
“No, wait.” I press down on him and stay. “This isn’t that kind of fuck.” Slowly, I grind on him, making small circles of pure magic .
“This can’t be something it isn’t,” he says.
“It already is.” I bend down to kiss him. “And it’s already another kind of fuck because I love you so much.”
He squeezes his eyes shut, trying to cut me off, to cut us off. But what we have is undeniable.
We’ve imprinted on each other, primal as thunder.
I skim my palms down his body, consuming him, being consumed. I want to stay in this delicious feeling of being lost with him. It’s all I want.
I lean down and nestle against him, pressing into him as we roll against each other.
Time slows. Everything falls away. My mind is mush, and I don’t even care.
“Princess.” He kisses my forehead.
Shivers lick over my skin.
His lips are magic. My clit is a bundle of nerves and sparkles.
His hands skim down my arms, a detail I’m too gone with pleasure to process.
He turns us so that he’s on top. He moves into me sweet and slow.
I gaze up into his eyes, mesmerized by his expression, so serious, so intent. He tries to act like he’s not with me, but there’s no denying it.
Pleasure blooms inside of me.
He leans down to kiss me. He thrusts into me again.
I shatter apart into a billion shards of light.
He gasps my name and presses his forehead to mine. Over and over, he whispers my name. Edie, Edie, Edie, Edie . I hold him tightly as he comes, shuddering into me.
Edie, Edie, Edie, Edie. He kisses my cheek, down my throat.
He takes my lips with his.
I mumble into the kiss.
Strong hands skim up my hips, my ribs, my arms, up to my hands, pressing my hands over my head .
There’s a clinking sound coming from somewhere. Cold metal on my wrists.
What?!?!
I come to my senses too late and realize he’s gotten free, and he’s cuffing me to the metal headboard now.
“Hey!” I jerk at the bonds.
“I’m sorry,” he says, standing up.
“What have you done?”
“Is that okay on your wrist? I tried to make it loose, but I can’t let you get away.”
“What the hell?”
“I have to go. You know I have to go.”
“You don’t have to go!”
“I can’t run and hide, I told you. Running from danger is not what a dirty barbarian does. And it’s not safe for you.”
“Who cares?”
“I do.” He leans down to kiss me. “I don’t run from my men, and I don’t put you in danger.”
“Fuck off, don’t kiss me if you’re gonna let yourself die!”
“Nobody knows the future.”
“I have a pretty good guess!” I yank desperately on the cuffs.
“Shhhh.” He pulls my panties back on and then my pants. He pulls the sheets up over me. “I’ll message your sister to come free you.”
“You can’t leave me here!”
He removes his archangel Michael medallion and puts it over my head.
“Omigod,” I whisper, my vision blurring as unshed tears burn behind my eyes. My chest tightens with a pain so raw it’s almost physical.
“A man protects those he loves.” His voice is steady, but there’s something in his eyes I’ve never seen before—a vulnerability that cuts deep .
“Did you just tell me you love me?” The words catch in my throat.
“Yes.” Just one word, but it changes everything—the air between us, the rhythm of my heart, the entire universe.
Rage surges through me, hot and unstoppable. I yank at the cuffs until metal bites into my skin, but I don’t even feel the pain. “You can’t tell me that and then voluntarily go out in a hail of gunfire!” My voice breaks on the last word, a sob threatening to tear me apart.
“Edie.” He stands at the foot of the bed, gazing at me. “Do you mean go out in a standard-issue-criminal hail of gunfire?”
“Stop it! That’s not love, Luka—that’s goodbye.”
“A hail of gunfire straight from criminal Costco?”
“It’s not funny!”
He kisses me on the cheek.
“Fuck off!”
He takes one last look at me. “There’s that scorn.”
With that, he’s gone.