Chapter 36
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
NATASHA
M y arousal faded when I spotted the lines of pain deepening on Lachlan’s face as he crouched to touch my pussy. Fuck me. I should have told him no.
Clearly, he was still feeling a little ouchie.
The old, not-stabbed Lachlan would have tossed me over his shoulder like a rag doll and spanked my butt all the way to bed.
We’d have to be gentle but I couldn’t complain.
I was too damned happy to finally have privacy and a whole night to spend debauching each other.
There would be too few of those nights once I finished healing up. Ella was already lining up my hits, beginning in less than a month, and I was looking at twice that long to complete the assignment.
After that? I wasn’t sure anymore. Part of me wanted to continue, but it would take years to execute enough slavers to make a sane person think twice before engaging in the skin trade. Frankly, it sounded exhausting.
The other part…
I wanted children someday. Maybe it was different for Ella, but I couldn’t see myself letting go of my baby long enough to kill someone who needed to be dead. And what would happen to my kid if I fucked up?
Daddy, Mama got shot again !
Great. My imagined offspring was a tattletale. A story like that would go over so well at parent teacher conferences.
If I fucked up really badly, I’d leave Lachlan behind to tell them I was gone. I already knew what growing up without a mother felt like, and although Lachlan would never abuse them, I refused to let my children miss their mom like I had.
Believe it or not, at just a scant few days shy of my twenty-third birthday, I finally realized I wasn’t immortal. I know, shocking, right?
Did Ella really need me to take out the trash?
Ronan had been a challenging kill because of his inaccessibility and the extent of his business dealings, but the remaining targets lacked the assets necessary for his level of security.
I wasn’t her only assassin, and I certainly didn’t need the money.
I’d already gotten a paycheck with a stupidly ginormous number of digits on it.
Hello, volcanic lair…
I definitely did not ask how Ella and Gabby Knox managed to transfer all of Ronan’s assets to the TLL Foundation without anyone catching on. I was a decent researcher, but hacking into international banks was not part of my skillset.
Our contract did say my employment was at will though. I could give notice after I got rid of Ronan’s associates, maybe pinch hit for the really difficult cases, or…
When Lachlan’s belt made a hiss of leather against cloth as he pulled it free, I decided to ruminate over my existential angst later.
Much later, because my gorgeous man was about to make me a very happy woman.
We wouldn’t have the fuck me and leave bruises kind of night like we both enjoyed, but maybe it was better that way. Maybe we needed soft and tender to counteract what we’d survived. The thought wasn’t any less enticing.
“You said I could peg you if I killed Ronan and survived.” I rose to my feet and slid Lachlan’s belt from his hands, then let it fall to the floor.
“So I did,” he murmured, his beautiful blue eyes sparkling with banked arousal mixed with humor. “I believe you’ll find lube and a strap-on in the bottom drawer of your dresser.”
Christ, that man… Who even did shit like that?
Apparently, my man did shit like that.
“Yum, but later.” Slowly, I unbuttoned his shirt, then stroked my hands over his muscular abdomen to his trousers. They slid down his legs and he kicked them away, along with his socks and shirt.
“Oh?”
“First, we’ll free the erection,” I murmured, tugging at his boxer briefs until they joined his pants on the floor. Careful not to touch his injury, I pushed on his chest until he reached the bed and sat down. “Lie back, but don’t bother thinking of England.”
He barked out a surprised laugh as I helped him settle against the pillows. “I told you that on our first wedding night.”
Yes, he had. Even though he’d hated me, he made my first time wonderful.
He could have locked me in the kennel that night, wearing a full face of theatrical paint and the tattered remnants of an ugly wedding dress.
He might have stolen my virginity on the lawn where I used to pee, or in front of his men while I was bent over a steel sawhorse after being hosed down with cold water and washed with what I still hoped wasn’t dog shampoo.
He didn’t. Instead, he gave me the perfect wedding night.
I never asked him why, and I wouldn’t because it no longer mattered.
We were different people, and I was in a place where I could cherish those memories for what they were.
I could separate our first night together from everything that came after because I now knew there had always been some part of him that cared.
And tonight, I was calling the shots. I’d make this time just as special for him as he did for me—hopefully without annoying his stab wound.
Didn’t mean I wouldn’t torment him. Just a little…
“So you did.” I went to the drawer he mentioned and found leather cuffs along with the promised strap-on phallus. And hell to the yum, there were even soy candles, some rope, a blindfold, and… Oh, man, we were going to have fun . “And payback is a bitch.”
* * *
LACHLAN
Without protest, I let Natasha cuff me to the bed. Less than a month ago, her words might have given me cause for concern. I would have wondered if I was about to be another notch in the bedpost cataloguing her kills.
People would probably say I was crazy for trusting her, but in our shared present, I suspected she planned to tease me to madness instead of drawing a blade across my throat.
I hid a smile as she licked her lips and gazed at me as if she couldn’t decide where to start, then carefully helped me turn to my stomach, making sure my wrists weren’t twisted in their bonds. I couldn’t help but wonder if she’d intentionally left them loose enough for me to escape.
Knowing Natasha, it had indeed been purposeful. For a moment, I wondered if it was a test of my resolve, but the thought skittered away when she touched me.
Instead of lubing me up in preparation for what I’d promised she could have, she straddled my hips. I smelled sweet almond as a slow trickle of warm liquid coursed between my shoulder blades. She smoothed the oil over my skin and began massaging the tension from my muscles.
“Oh, fuck.” My eyes drifted closed. In this moment, she wasn’t a deadly assassin. She was a woman intent on giving her man pleasure.
“Feel good?” she asked, working at a particularly stubborn knot where my neck met my shoulders.
“Very good.” My cock throbbed against the sheets, and I resisted the urge to rub myself against the silky fabric. “You can keep doing that as long as you want.”
Forever if she had a mind to.
Laughing softly, she moved to the other side of my neck and pressed her fingers into the tense muscles.
I bit back a gasp of pain but soon melted into a boneless puddle under her careful ministrations. Unfortunately, as good as the massage felt, it didn’t ease the ache in my balls, or the need to plunge into her delicious pussy.
“Sorry!” She lifted her hands, and I nearly moaned at the loss. “Are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
“I’m better than okay, and it only hurts when you stop touching me.
” I lifted my hips, reminding her of what we’d agreed to.
Although I’d never done anal and didn’t particularly look forward to upholding my end of the bargain, I didn’t worry Natasha would purposely harm me. “Do you need help with your strap-on?”
“Someone sounds eager.” She plucked the strap-on from the pile of toys and put it on, then slid a pillow under my hips. “Maybe I should blindfold you.”
Black silk covered my eyes, but I didn’t protest. Payback was indeed a bitch, and this night was for her.
She traced her fingers over my ass in a seemingly random design that sent sparks ricocheting up and down my spine. The snap of a plastic cap opening startled me, and I clenched reflexively as cool liquid dribbled between my ass cheeks.
Slowly, as if she was giving me time to object, Natasha rimmed me, spreading the lube until I felt it drip down my inner thigh. As I’d taught her so long ago, I relaxed and allowed her to push a slick fingertip into me.
“Naughty,” she murmured, making me realize I’d clamped down. “I just remembered I bought some ginger root. I wonder if I should carve a plug for you.”
Dark pleasure surged as she pushed her finger deeper to brush my prostate, and I bit back a gasp. “As you wish, Mistress.”
“Mistress? Does that mean I get to call you slave?” Removing her finger, she laughed softly. I imagined her rolling her eyes as I heard the sound of leather hissing through metal buckles behind me.
She drizzled more lube over my exposed asshole, then something fell to the bed next to me, presumably the bottle. It bounced, and I wondered if Natasha had emptied it completely.
“Nah,” she said before I could reply. “That doesn’t fit either of us, does it?”
“No. Least of all you.”
“Only when I want it to.” She shifted her weight behind me, and the hard tip of the phallus prodded my opening. “You once said I looked beautiful with your cock in my ass, and I can honestly say I understand the appeal. Say red if you need me to stop.”
Slowly, she pushed into me. I squeezed my eyes shut and forced myself to relax and push out, allowing her to seat the toy inside me, stretching my inner walls with a mixture of burning pain and incredible pleasure.
I groaned, unable to hold the noise inside. “Fuck…”
“Am I hurting you?” When I didn’t respond, she stilled and laid a hand on my shoulder. “Lachlan, answer me.”
“Don’t you dare stop,” I hissed, sliding my hands from the cuffs. When she didn’t move, I rocked my hips to encourage her.
“And what if I do?” I heard laughter in her voice as she eased the phallus from my hole.