She shakes her head. “I’m… good.”

I shield her and hold her close, then kiss the top of her head. I never want to let her go.

But I know I need to.

“Seamus?”

“Yeah, Cal? Oh, sorry, didn’t see you there, fuckface, oops, kicked you again,” he says. I don’t need to look to see he’s put the boot into O’Sullivan again.

“Take Lucie out to the car.”

“Clive’s on his way.”

I nod. “And call cleanup.”

“No,” she says, “Callahan, please don’t?—”

“Hush, Lucie Joy,” I say. “I told you I’m a bad man. I’m all the things you’ve seen and heard about me, even more. I don’t want you here for this. Go, Seamus. Take her.”

He leads her out and I loom over O’Sullivan. “Before I fucking make you suffer until your last breath, you and I are going to have a little talk…”

When we get home, I strip Lucie, kissing every inch of her exposed skin. I carry her over to the bed and lay her in the center of the mattress, then suck gently on her bruised breasts,kissing and licking each nipple before I make my way lower, pulling off her boy shorts.

I graze my lips over the bruises on her thighs and finally, I make my way to her sweet pussy, spending time between her legs, tonguing her folds until she comes apart in my mouth, over and over.

Her clit pulsates and throbs, swelling, and she goes stiff, shaking as she comes. Then I move up over her and kiss her bruised cheek before capturing her lips in a slow, romantic kiss.

“If anything happened to you, Lucie,” I whisper, “I’d never forgive myself.”

“I’m just happy you’re okay. Is he… is he…?”

I swallow. There are things I can’t tell her, things about the conversation I had with Paddy that I have to confirm. And she doesn’t need to know the terrible, horrible things I did to him. Things he deserved.

More importantly, she doesn’t need to know how her plunge of the knife was a slow death knell.

She doesn’t need that on her conscience. Not my Lucie Joy.

“He’s fucking dead and you’re alive and safe.”

“Are you going to start a war?”

“No one to war with.” That I know of. Maybe there’s a family member or two who’d care, but he wasn’t enough of an integral part of the Osinov Bratva to call for a battle. “It’s over. And right now, I don’t want to think about him. I want to immerse myself in you.”

“I thought you were going to make me suffer.”

I think about it as I start to slowly finger her. “Consider your punishment complete.”

Then I kiss her and remove my hand. I guide my cock to her wet slit and push slowly into her, reveling in the stretch andhow she welcomes me, each rung of my ladder pushing into her, making her moan and gasp.

This time I don’t take her hard or dirty; I just lose myself in her. Each deep plunge massages my cock, and she lifts her hips for deeper access. I set a slow rhythm, one that lets us go for a long, blissful ride.

She wraps her legs around me, and each thrust is like coming home, connecting with her in a way that’s not just flesh entering flesh or her hot, wet folds clinging to me. It’s something else, something reaching deep down into me and making me fly.

We start to move faster, the slapping of flesh, hot kisses and moans, it all makes me unravel. My God, she really is made for me. Every single part. Her tight cunt takes me balls deep, and she shudders each time I hit her spot. I try and keep my movements steady, but soon my control breaks and I can feel her start to clench and spasm around me, so tight each time it’s fucking heaven. The urge to come, to surge into release starts deep in my balls. I plunge into her over and over until the pleasure surges. My cock twitches and pulses as I pump my cum into her.

I groan, rolling her on top of me and kissing her hard on the mouth, claiming those lips for my own once again.

And then she wraps her arms around me.