Page 133 of Sweet Venom

I must’ve done something right in a past life to be the lucky bastard who makes her heart beat like that.

I closed the distance between us and kissed her tenderly. She kissed me back the same way.Fuck. So sweet.

When I pulled back, I rested my forehead against hers, both of us standing still in the moment.

“I’ll make him pay,” I whispered, my voice rough, low. “He’ll regret ever laying a finger on you.”

Her eyes closed for a moment, a small shiver running through her as if my words of war brought her peace. When she opened them again, they were soft, softer than I had ever seen. “Good,” she whispered.

She knows exactly what my vow to her means— and still, she hasn’t protested. She hasn’t run from me.

My thumb traced the soft line of her jaw. “Poe,” I whispered her name like a prayer, the word leaving my lips almost reverently.

I leaned closer, my lips brushing the top of her forehead. Yeah, I’m one lucky son of a bitch.

“You’re too fucking good for me,” I murmured. “I know that, but I’m too selfish to care. I can’t let you go. Not now, not ever. I?—”

I almost say the words that have been stuck in my throat for years.

She noticed yet she didn’t make a big deal of it.

“I know,” she said with a knowing smile. “Now fuck me like you don’t.”

She knows…

With a wicked smile that matched hers, I loosened her robe, letting it slip from her shoulders and fall in a soft heap at her feet. I almost came in my pants at the sight in front of me. She was fully naked and I almost fell to my knees for the masterpiece that she was. My gaze traveled from her gorgeous face down to her perfect pink nipples—that begged to be sucked—down to her taut belly and my favorite part… that pretty pink pussy.

Mine… the beast inside growled.

And because I was a man obsessed, I did exactly what was asked of me. I took my precious cargo into my arms and did what she asked of me.

I fucked her like I didn’t love her.

When it was over and she had my cum all over her skin, I took her into the shower and fucked her some more until there was no doubt that she was mine… and I was hers.

And fuck, that was never going to change.

Chapter

Thirty-Four

GHOSTFACE

Poe

“I’d walk through hell if I knew you’d be waiting on the finish line.” — P

Isat in the large leather chair in Azariel’s office, my laptop open in front of me, fingers moving quickly over the keys. The words were flowing tonight, maybe because, for the first time in days, I didn’t feel like I was holding my breath.

The anxiety that had coiled so tightly around my chest last week had loosened its grip. I felt safe here. With him Azariel. And I wasn’t about to let one cowardly asshole with bad intentions undo everything that had started to bloom between us.

But as the words came, so did the memories. Flashes of that moment—the way he grabbed me by the neck, the helpless jolt of fear— rushed forward. My fingers hesitated on the keys, then instinctively moved to my head. I paused, my hand hovering over the spot where the butterfly stitches had once been.Now, there was nothing but the soft, tender skin beneath my fingertips. It healed quickly. The scar was still there, but it wasn’t angry, not as fresh. It already started to fade just like the fear and anxiety the assault brought.

When that man had wrapped his hand around my throat, it had dragged something old and buried to the surface. I’d been little the first time I felt that kind of terror—almost snatched from my mother’s arms. My father had been nearby, thank God. He got to us in time. But I remembered the panic in my mother’s eyes. The way she held me tighter for days. The fear that never quite left.

And this time… it all came back.

But Azariel had been there. He made sure I was safe. That nothing worse happened. That man could’ve killed me. Over what? Money?

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