Chapter 38
Mrs. Bates had filled my room with English garden roses again.
Lily came in after me, carrying a tray from the kitchen.
“The roses are just amazing. Most people are afraid of him, you know, but not me. I see how lovely he is with you. Oh! To be so lucky in love!”
She bubbled with excitement when Mrs. Bates wasn’t around, and it made me smile.
“You’ll find love too, Lily, but first you have to get out of this house more often,” I teased.
She grinned. Me too.
“Do you mind taking that down to his room? Better go now before he comes up.”
In a little dance, Lily floated out the door, and I raced into the bathroom to quickly shower. Afterward, as I plucked out the pins from my upswept hair, Will’s voice boomed out in the corridor. His presence was as large as the estate, and neither one thrived without the other.
God, I’d missed him.
I grinned and opened the door.
The kids had intercepted him. Lissie clung to her superhero’s back with her arms hugging his neck while John made his case for an afternoon out with his friends.
Will interacted with them and cared for them just like a protective father might, again making me want him even more.
“Go on then, John. You remember what I said about tonight.”
He swung Lissie around to his chest, kissed her head, and nudged her toward Nanny Sue, who waited by Lissie’s bedroom door.
Then, with scorching eyes and impatient hands, he turned to me and pulled me into his arms.
“I waited years for you, woman. And still, you keep me waiting.”
“Well, you know what they say about those who wait. Good things, right?”
He swooped me up with a grin and took me to his room, locking the door behind us, and the same fragrance from my room crashed into me.
I stared at his bed.
He’d had Lily turn it down and add a blanket of rose petals.
He pulled the shirt over my head and unfastened my bra. His tongue was quickly in my mouth, taking a greedy kiss, and then he moved his kiss to my breasts.
“So beautiful,” he said.
He took one and then the other into his mouth.
I moaned and twisted my fingers through his hair.
Will fiercely tugged down my jeans and my panties, then he motioned with his index finger for me to turn around.
“Show me your back, Elle.”
I stepped out of my clothes and turned my back to him.
He gathered my hair and pushed it over my shoulder. While holding my hips in his hands, he stared at my back for a minute before kissing the tender pink blemishes there. He’d worked through his anger over what happened in the attic, but his heart still seemed to struggle with it.
“It’ll never happen again, baby.”
I shivered as another one of his velvet kisses touched my skin.
“I know.”
Turning to face him, I kissed the base of his throat, gripping his shirt, pushing it upward. He yanked it over his head and tossed it away.
His chest was beautifully sculpted, so broad, so smooth even with the scars. I kissed it, kissed the scars, kissed the brotherhood arrow on his shoulder.
He pulled me against his body, into his powerful arms again. The fine hair on his arms made me think of the sexy golden trail that started just below his navel and led into his jeans.
I pulled back, and he watched me unzip and unbutton his fly.
He bent to kiss me, making sure I couldn’t escape his mouth by twisting my hair around his hand. So with his mouth covering mine, our kiss deep and perfect, I slipped my hands into his jeans and pushed them over his hips.
I broke our kiss, dropped to my knees, and kissed my way down on him.
“Baby, you don’t have to?—”
But he lost the words when I took him into my mouth. And with a savage grunt, he fought to control his thrusts, wrapping handfuls of my hair around his fists, resisting his urge to push into my throat.
His eyes glowed when I looked up at him.
“Christ, Elle, you’re killing me.”
Then he jerked me up from my knees and carried me to his bed, where we fell into another deep kiss that I prayed would never ever end.
“Open,” he commanded.
Taking charge of my body, he positioned my legs where he wanted them and pushed his fingers inside me.
I cried out, knowing he’d cover my mouth with his and swallow it.
He didn’t want to keep me quiet—he wanted to control my sound in a way that let him feel the vibration, not just hear it. When he saw my reactions to his touch, it wasn’t enough for him. He needed to consume it, to feel it in his soul.
Power and control—that was who he was.
His desire for control in bed had nothing to do with violence, so I gave it to him. I would give him anything. Still, I couldn’t help clawing at his shoulders, desperate for more, desperate for release.
A knowing smile—that damn smirk—hit his lips as he gathered my wrists with his one hand and put my hands above my head.
“Grip the pillow and do not let go. You’ll want to, but I said you may not.”
I nodded, holding on to the pillow, and he continued wearing that smirk.
“Good girl.”
“But Will, please. I need?—”
He shut me up with a fiery kiss. A kiss that wasn’t destined to stay in one place. He used it to devour my body, taking it lower, tugging on my nipples and my skin with his teeth… until he buried his face between my thighs.
He drove me insane with his tongue while curling his fingers inside me, shattering me with such intensity that a billion stars danced through me, and I screamed his name.
Our eyes connected, and a sense of urgency obsessed him.
He shot up and slammed himself into me with one hard thrust, then stopped as another cry burst out of me. This time, he swallowed it. He locked his gaze on to mine.
“I can’t live without you,” he said hoarsely.
I agreed. It was the same for me. I only nodded.
Will kissed me, thrust once, and circled his hips before stopping again.
Nothing less than full control would do. Control of me. Control of himself.
Even as his muscles strained, as his breath quickened, as his eyes burned so intensely, he made slow, measured moves, proving he wouldn’t ever again lose himself when he made love to me.
I acknowledged Will’s victory with a nod…and a calculated smile. And then I pushed him to the one place he couldn’t control. Through our eyes, I demanded that he say more, do more, prove himself more.
With his arm beneath me, his hand gripping my ass, Will jerked me harder against him and pushed deeper into me at the same time.
He understood my certifiably insane need to challenge him. And I understood how reckless it was to push a man like him. One of the reasons we fit so well together.
“I love you, Elle. I kill for you without regret. You are mine.”
He crushed his lips to mine and teased with his hips again.
“You willmarry me. Say the words to me.”
Lost in his eyes, my soul fell deeper into his, and I found everything I had ever wanted.
“I will marry you,” I said in a breathy whisper.
Intense emotion stirred in my chest, causing my hands to fall away from the pillow, to cover my heart, but he quickly grabbed them and pinned them to the mattress, lacing his fingers with mine.
“Say it again.”
“I’ll marry you, Will.”
In the slight way he did for only me, he bowed his head to lock in our commitment.
Then, caught up in my complete submission, he finally let go and thrust into me over and over, loving me hard on a soft bed of roses.
I traced the new tattoo on Will’s arm and watched goose bumps rise on his skin.
“I want to decide about the title today. I want your input—it affects you as much as it does me,” he said.
I kissed his chest, then lay my head on it.
“Well, are you leaning in one direction?”
“Keeping it will strengthen us.”
“How? I mean, what would it stand for or change?”
He grumbled to himself, his chest rumbling against my cheek.
“Peerage titles are a mark of status, a fascination for many, not much more than that. There isn’t any practical value. But there is one benefit that interests me. It’ll draw allies to us…quite a lot of people will support us just to be associated with the title.”
“How would it affect the people living in the county?”
He shrugged.
“It’ll give them something new to celebrate.”
I yawned.
“So no new income to put back into the community?”
He yawned.
“No, but I have plenty of money to fund whatever venture you have in mind. Name it.”
“That’s crazy to say, Will. You know I don’t have a lick of business sense.”
I rubbed my face against the golden stubble on his jaw, and he chuckled.
“Ah, my lovely little artist. Just paint me a picture, baby. I’ll execute the plan.”
“You mean James Jackson will execute your plans.”
He tickled me as a reprimand for the offense against his ego.
“James Jackson my arse. My company. My money.”
I wriggled and laughed like a child.
“Will, quit it or I’ll pee! But you’re right, though. I need something to do.”
“Work with me, Elle. Run one of my businesses. Or we’ll buy another one for you.”
I rolled my eyes.
“We’ve established that’s not my thing.”
“I’ll have you close to me every day, one way or another.”
We dropped it at that, with him getting the last word, and then we quickly fell asleep with our arms and legs and the sheets all in a tangled mess.
But it couldn’t have been more than two hours later when the restrained thunder of Will’s voice woke me.
He had moved to the sofa in the sitting area of his room and now talked to Thomas. What they said made no difference to me. I wasn’t willing to let go of the bliss we created earlier, so I lay there, faking sleep, and let them talk.
“Tell me how she did while I was gone. The truth this time,” Will said.
“I told you she was angry. And quite short tempered. Like I said, I told her you were hunting our brother’s murderer and looking for his body. I didn’t want to fight with her or upset her more by lying to her. She’s too smart for that. She settled in after a bit, but then all the hand-to-hand training rubbish started. And listen, I don’t want any part of that…she shouldn’t be doing it.”
“I’ve thought about it, and I’ll allow it but with John only. Ben will continue training them.”
Palpable silence filled the room, and then Will released a long, heavy breath.
“She suffered. Her first reaction was to hit me.”
“Seems like the two of you are good now.”
“Yeah. I appreciate you Thom and how well you protect her when I’m away.”
Thomas hesitated for a moment.
“Yeah, well, I wear the ink, same as you.”
“I didn’t want that for you, you know.”
Silence again until Will continued.
“Any leads on Jack Lewis’s location?”
“Not yet, but I’ll find that fucker. I meant to ask if we need to manage immigration. I can pull together a rootkit and access their system within a day or two.”
“No, leave the Home Office alone. Her heritage is strong enough to file for citizenship. But it doesn’t matter anyway…I’m going to marry her.”
“Not hard to figure out your plan after seeing your freshly inked arm.”
“It’s not part of a plan. I love her,” Will snapped.
I turned my face to be sure he couldn’t see me smile if he looked my way.
“Why do I feel like you’re holding something back?” Thomas asked.
Will didn’t respond audibly.
“Ah, more leverage. Why didn’t they use MI5 for the job?”
“Target was an MI5 officer. Enough said, Thomas.”
“Right. What about this evening? Any concerns? And tell me, why the fuck are we even hosting this dinner party?”
“You know Mum plans it every year to close out the Seafood and Wine Festival. I don’t want to take that away from her. We’ll use it to draw out the mole Uncle Robert mentioned. Brief the security team when you go down…everyone must be on high alert. One more thing, you need to get on with joining the firm. I need you there.”
Thomas didn’t respond out loud, so I wondered if he nodded in agreement.
“Ben said security is running seamlessly. You agree, Thom?”
“It’s quite a good team.”
“Good. Anything else, brother?”
“Not now. I’ll go get the team briefed and see you later.”
There was movement, then the door opened and shut.
Will came back to bed and pulled me into his arms.
I still pretended to be asleep.
He kissed the top of my head and then whispered to himself.
“This fucking war has only just started…”
I let out a small gasp, and my eyes popped open.