Page 58 of Blood & Kisses

He tips the gun upwards slightly, then drives it down on a different angle, pinching a little, but it feels good. “Maybe I should,” he replies smoothly. “You drive me nuts.”

“Good,” I sigh. “Squeeze the trigger, put me out of my misery. If you don’t want me, then kill me.”

Tsk, tsk, tsk, “Oh, I want you,” he snarls gravely. “I want you bad.”

Emotions topple over, and tears stream down my face. “Then why are you so cruel?”

He hesitates, and I see a different side to him for the first time. To punish me again, he pushes the gun harder against the inner walls, making me gasp.

“Why?” I moan as my skin prickles, and my entire body tenses as an incoming orgasm tremble through me. “Why are you so cruel?”

In a sudden move, he pulls the gun out of me and slams it on the table as the impending orgasm fades. He pushes his chair back abruptly and stands up over me, roughly grabbing my wrists and pinning them down above my head.

Those eyes hold resentment and anguish but also something else, maybe fondness. I find it so intimidating that I turn away from him. His hand catches my chin, and I turn my head back to face him, drilling those into me.

“There’s nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, Rae,” his voice frighteningly. “If I catch you, I’ll never let you go.”

The words are whisked from my mouth. I’m stumped, speechless, bamboozled. The room is spinning as my world crumbles, and I long for him to pick me up and hold me and never let me go.

“I did it for you,” he adds confidently as he releases one of my wrists to caress my bottom lip with his thumb. “I threw that rapist out the window for you, and I’ll do it again in a heartbeat.”

My emotions overflow as I begin to cry. “You were the only one that understood what happened to me,” I sob. My body trembles as he releases my other wrist and takes me into his arms. “It was always you.”

“Hush, hush,” he whispers into my ear, rubbing my back and kissing my cheek. “I’ve got you, Rae. I’ve got you.”

I wrap my arms around his neck, and he pulls me close. I can feel his heartbeat thudding against my chest and his warm breath prickling my skin. I believe him. I believe his every word.

“They won’t hurt you anymore, Rae?” he whispers into my cool skin. “No one will ever hurt you again.”

My eyes close as I sink into his warm embrace, thinking that life couldn’t get better than this. He sways to a tune in his mind, and my body lifts off the table. He then places me on the floor. But he doesn’t let me go. His bear hug intensifies, tighter and more loving, whispering in my ear that everything will be okay.

And, of course, it will be if I have these three men beside me, fighting off the bad guys during the day while seducing me under the bedsheets at night.

Yes, nothing could get better than this. Until…

Gabe’s phone starts as the front door opens and slams shut. “Gabe,” Blake yells urgently. “We’ve got trouble.”

29

I scramble to put my shorts and panties on as Cormac arrives, runs to the cupboard under the stairs, and returns carrying firearms. “Blackadder’s fuckers are on their way,” Cormac stresses, tossing a firearm to Blake and another to Gabe.

“They got wind about…” Blake glances at me, zipping up my shorts. “Crow and Blackadder is fucking mad.”

Gabe checks the firearm over to make sure it’s loaded. “We expected this,” he says calmly and in control, then turns to me. “Do you know where the saferoom is?”

“Yeah, but can’t help you?” I protest because I don’t want to be left alone.

“No, Rae, you’re not getting hurt on my watch,” he presses, pointing toward the door so I can hurry up and leave.

“You survived the fire, Rae,” Blake adds, buzzing full of adrenaline, kissing me on the cheek and a light smack on the butt, “and that made him mad; now he’s fucking fuming because we knocked off his pal.”

“The stupid loser,” Cormac chimes in, “underestimated us if he thinks we’re gonna sit around and take it from them after they tried to kill you.”

“You need to be protected, Rae,” Gabe asserts. “It’s you he’s after because you can testify against him if it ever goes to court. So, he wants you gone.” He nods toward the stairs. “Go. We’re not going to let him near you.”

I walked away from my men, glancing out the living room window to see if anyone was out there, and I couldn’t see anything out of place. I pause and glance back while the boys are in the throes of discussing their plan. “Gabe, the code.”

“Huh?” his brow furrows.

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