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“I promise—you’re going to love it.”

Not a doubt existed within me. He stripped me out of the rest of my clothes so efficiently, he left me breathless. The rose petals were like silk against my skin after he set me in place then rose.

I tugged my hair loose and shook it out as he stripped off the rest of his clothes with the same kind of efficiency as he had mine. He was a beautiful man. They all were, each in their own way and I wanted to memorize every inch of them.

“What are you thinking?” He was already crawling onto the bed, his heavy erection dragging along my thigh and leaving a little path of pre-cum.

“That I want you.” I managed to push the words out before he stole my soul with a kiss.

“You’re going to have me,” he promised. “Everything, Firecracker. You’re going to have everything.”

He didn’t need words after that. He told me he cared with every stroke of his finger. Made promises with his tongue as he ripped orgasm after orgasm. When he raised his soaked face to grin at me, there was such a wild energy in the air.

“I was right,” he murmured and I blinked.

“About?”

He slid up along me, settling into the cradle of my thighs and with his hand around his cock, he thrust into me in this slow, perfect slide. I arched to meet him, but I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“I love my dessert,” he whispered. “And I want more.”

His next thrust pushed all the air out of me. The one after that began to rock the bed. When it knocked against the wall, I laughed. Humor filled his eyes as he wrapped his hands against the top of my head, shielding it. Then he really pounded me, the bed, my thoughts, and pretty much everything else right into that wall.

I might have screamed. I might have just shouted out his name. Honestly, I lost track of how many times he made me come. When I roused enough to catch my breath, he offered me water and then my options for dessert.

Hopefully, we’d survive round two.

Chapter

Twenty-Four

GRACE

We left Rachel’s Paris apartment seventy-seven hours after we arrived. It was a little longer than Bones wanted, but no longer than necessary. At least, that was how it came across. Alphabet hadn’t slept much. He’d either been building a new machine while babysitting his laptop or he’d been chaining them together.

It was fascinating to listen to him describe what he was doing and why he was doing it. I couldalmostfollow the steps, even if I could never replicate the instructions. I split my time between all of them. Lunchbox and Bones were out of the apartment more than in.

Meetings.

Supplies.

Other stuff.

It was the other stuff that made me curious, but they weren’t always specific on what they were doing. Voodoo had to leave for twenty-four hours to collect “weapons.” Considering we were inFrance, that made sense. They didn’t have access here to what they had at home.

Not that it seemed to slow them down. They focused on what they needed, they made a list and it just happened. Like the rest of the chaos we’d been embroiled in. Like surviving. Like breathing.

We needed it. They would get it.

Simple as that.

From Paris, we headed to Lyon. We cleared out the apartment, including packing up extra food to take with us to our new safe house. I left a physical note at the apartment to thank our hostess and sent Rachel a message thanking her as well.

Her response just made me laugh.

Rachel:Just remember you owe me a photo shoot at some point. I will collect.

It was so utterly normal. As long as I was still breathing when this was over, I planned to deliver. Unlike our first trip out of Paris, we didn’t split up completely. We did take two vehicles—and neither was one we’d been using.

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