Page 17 of Killian's Vengeance

“Okay, okay. Relax,” I said, rubbing my hand against her lower back in order to soothe her. It worked, as she put her head back down and relaxed her muscles once again. “I’ll take care of it. It won’t hurt anymore,” I said, eager for her cooperation and the opportunity to lessen her discomfort.

I didn’t want her to feel any pain unless it was for her pleasure and right now all these marks on her were only for my pleasure. I fucking loved seeing that perfect, even stripe on her ass, especially knowing no one had ever marked her skin like this before.

I took a deep breath—I had to control myself. Was I sweating?

I knew Willa was attracted to me. I read her body language throughout our interactions loud and clear, but I needed to be careful and not come on too strong. We needed her to help us find Lily, not to mention keeping myself out of jail. I couldn’t do anything to make her too freaked out. A bungled seduction by the guy who just kidnapped and whipped you against your will was just the type of thing to freak a person out.

I lightly applied lotion to the welt, becoming obsessed with the perfection of her ass, greatly enhanced from the flogging. As I rubbed it gently with lotion, I became even more obsessed with idea of spanking it, marking it, fucking it. I reached down and squeezed my cock, trying to get it under control. Jerking off in Logan’s office felt like a long time ago right now.

I massaged her ass and hips a bit because I was having a hard time removing my hands from her body. Her hips started to shift on the bed, and I wondered if she was getting turned on. My thumbs massaged just under her ass, skating to her inner thighs and I was tormented by what was so close, but so achingly out of reach.

I needed to get off her because I was seconds away from jerking her legs open and shoving my face between her thighs.

I quickly arose and painfully adjusted my dick in my jeans to ease the pressure before urging her to get up. “Okay, that should make you feel a lot better. It should only be a little sore by tomorrow.”

She rose up slowly from the bed and I almost groaned out loud to see her nipples poking stiffly through the fabric of her dress. Christ, I needed to get her some different clothes.

“Sit here and eat,” I said, gesturing to the table and chairs. Her food was probably cold by now.

She walked to the chair and gingerly sat down, shooting me a look of surprise as she did. “It doesn’t hurt nearly as bad anymore.”

I sat down on a chair next to her. “The lotion helps a lot, but your pain was also mental. You were in shock and under stress which exacerbates the discomfort.” I spoke in this detached tone, like I had nothing to do with creating those conditions in her. God, I was a dick.

She nodded her head and looked at her plate, a small grimace forming on her mouth.

“What's wrong?”

She looked up at me. “What?”

“I saw the look on your face. What’s wrong with the food?”

“Uh, I’m a vegetarian,” she said, her icy blue eyes peeping at me to see how I’d react to this confession. She was still nervous around me and sometimes I liked it and other times I hated it. This was one of the times I hated it.

I simply grabbed the bacon off her plate, crunching loudly as I woofed it down. “Okay?”

She snorted. “Yeah, that’s fine.” She cocked her head, long blonde hair cascading to the side like a waterfall. “You’re pretty good at reading body language.”

I leaned back in the chair and studied her. “It’s been a pretty mandatory skill since childhood. Being able to predict how someone is going to act, what’s going on in their mind, it’s a survival skill.” Why did I say that? Why the fuck did I bring up my childhood?

Whether it was wise or not, it certainly got her attention. Her blue eyes softened, and she reached her hand over to rest on my forearm. “Your childhood? Was it…rough?”

That was a fucking understatement, but I definitely didn’t want to share all that shit with her. I understood that positioning myself this way, as some sort of victim of a bad childhood, would probably endear me to her and make her more willing to help us, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

I shrugged. “Aren’t they all?”

She shook her head as she scooped eggs into her mouth and chewed. “Not mine. My parents were actually pretty great.”

I gave her a humorless grin. “Not to be a dick, but they couldn’t have been that great if they produced someone like Lily.”

Her shoulders slumped as she mindlessly chewed on a piece of toast. “They were actually pretty tormented about how Lily turned out. They couldn’t believe they’d raised someone so shallow, so selfish. They were so disappointed and confused. So was I. Lily always made it clear that she had no desire to be my sister and she used my parents as her personal bank for as long as she could.”

This was a great time for me to steer the conversation to her helping us, while she was reviewing Lily’s list of unappealing qualities, but an annoying part of me wanted her to continue to talk about her childhood. I shook off those ridiculous, sentimental impulses.

I had to remember I was doing this to avenge Mac. That was the goal, not behaving like a lovesick asshole with Lily’s sister. “Look, Willa, I know I have no right to ask you this, that what I’ve done is reprehensible, but you have to understand the situation. Your sister conned one of my best friends, took his money and when he looked into her and what she was up to, she got him killed. I know it sounds crazy, but I want you to help us. Help us find her so we can get to the guy who killed Mac.”

She blew out a breath, as if she knew this question was coming, though I doubt she did. I doubt she’d been prepared for any aspect of the last twenty-four hours. “Are you going to kill her?” she asked in a high, thin voice.

Okay, I could lie here and say no, absolutely not, but for some reason, I didn’t want to fucking lie to her. “I don’t know. If I said no, would you be more willing to help?”

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