Page 73 of Power

The success of our operation hinged on the elementof surprise. Only the men directly involved had been filled in on the plan. Each of us had vowed silence to protect our cause.

Elias remained unaware, a conscious decision I made for the sake of our mission. I couldn’t risk him inadvertently revealing our intentions to one of his men, someone who might still hold allegiance to his father.

Not even Cali had been informed--at least, not yet.

If everything played out as I envisioned, soon Ozias Xenos would rest at my bride’s feet. It was my deepest desire to offer her the closure she deserved.

Her sister’s vengeance had taken care of some of her tormentors, but Ozias was the architect behind it all, the one who had orchestrated their cruel actions. The others were mere pawns, following his orders. Without his influence, the burden of trauma and stress that Cali bore would never have existed.

It was time for him to face the consequences of his actions.

I had always thought of Elias as a smart man, yet I couldn’t help but think that his father was not as astute. Who in their right mind would believe they could harm one of Juno Vitalis’s daughters so gravely and escape unscathed?

If I were him, I would have left the country.

But men like him were trapped in their arrogance, convinced they were always in the right, always untouchable. They believed no one would dare challenge them.

Tonight, however, Ozias Xenos would find out differently. I envisioned peeling away his power as if removing his very skin. When I was through with him, all that remainedwould be a trembling shell of a man, stripped of strength and dignity.

And then, I would finish him under the vengeful eye of my soon-to-be bride.

As our team transferred to a fleet of waiting SUVs, my thoughts turned to Cali for a quick moment. The wedding was coming up, and soon, we’d spend every night together. We were to be wed at Avra and Elias’s estate, looking out over the sea, just as her parents had been married.

My heart raced at the thought of it. The idea of holding my bride in my arms, Cali’s beautiful eyes turned up toward me as we were declared man and wife, was overwhelming.

Something had changed between us in the last few days.

She’d managed to pull me out of my head and into my body. She’d tapped into the raw sexuality that she’d been begging me to unleash on her.

It had been rough.

It had been tempestuous.

It had been fucking delicious.

Since we’d connected in such a primal way, it was impossible to keep my hands off her body. We’d made love every single night, well into the morning hours, our bodies tangled together, breathless and panting and insatiable.

I’d sunk my cock into her sweet pussy over and over, fucking her harder than I’d ever fucked anyone.

And she begged for more.

She wanted it harder. Longer. Fiercer.

No matter what I did, she wanted more.

It was a dangerous line we’d crossed, but the feeling ofwanton, sensual freedom was addictive. It wasn’t just Cali who wanted more.

It was me too. The beast that I had tamed for so long had suddenly become feral, wild, and unstoppable. I needed her. The hunger I felt for her surprised me daily, growing and expanding until I was convinced it would never cease to increase.

I was starving for her body now, as if I’d locked my sexuality away and now that I’d finally let it blossom, my thirst for Cali was unquenchable.

I knew, of course, that I’d never purposefully hurt her. As we continued to increase the ferocity of our delicious fucking, I’d insisted she come up with a safe word and made her promise that she’d use it at the slightest discomfort.

It was the only way I could give her what she wanted, what we wanted, what we needed, and not worry.

After we’d set those boundaries in place, I’d found myself opening up in ways I never expected with her. We’d experimented with spanking and restraints and role-playing, and with each passing day, we grew closer and closer.

The bond of intimacy forming between us was profound.

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