Page 5 of Love Her

His lips pressed into a firm line. “No.”

I narrowed my eyes. No elaboration. No reassurance. Justno.

“If it’s not you…” My mind spun, clicking through possibilities like a safe cracking open. “Then it’s Corvo.”

His silence was louder than a confession. My pulse quickened, a faint roar building in my ears as the implications sank in. “Rhaim, ifyou’reworried, what does that mean for me? Am I in danger?”

His gaze flicked to the door in the mirror, then back to me, and for just a second the mask slipped. Concern etched lines at the corners of his eyes. “Not yet.”

The floor seemed to tilt beneath me, the weight of what he wasn’t saying pressing down hard. “Not yet?” My voice rose slightly, incredulous. “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

“Lia,” he growled. “Youaresmart. Smarter than anyone in that room downstairs. But right now, you need to trust me.”

I swallowed hard, every instinct telling me to push for more answers—but his intensity pinned me in place. “Fine,” I said. “But don’t think for a second this conversation is over.”

I caught the faint curve of his lips in the mirror, a shadow of a smirk. “I wouldn’t dare.”

“I’m not a kitten, Rhaim. I have claws,” I shot back, my voice edged with warning.Said every real cat, ever.

“I know,” he replied, his tone shifting to something smoother, calmer—deadlier. “And I want to feel them on my back. Soon.” Then his gaze caught mine, steady and unflinching, as the next words fell. “But right now, I need to be in you again.”

And I—I needed that, too. I reached for my underwear with one hand, peeling them down quickly, kicking one heel out of them, as he undid the buckle of his belt and fly of his slacks—and then his hand reached between my legs, grabbing my tampon’s string to pull it out—an easy feat, seeing as I was already wet—tossing it behind him for some forlorn future cleaner to find.

His other hand went to circle himself and he dragged the head of his cock across my opening. I closed my eyes and bent further forward, feeling the curved lip of the sink press against my belly, offering all of myself over at once, until I felt his palm around my throat. My eyes blinked open and I found my face perilously close to the sink’s large brass hardware. “Watch your teeth,” he warned, and pushed in.

3

RHAIM

Iknew the second I got inside her, Lia hadn’t forgotten she belonged to me.

This could only be a frantic, frenzied thing, we were both needed downstairs, and who the fuck knew when Senator St. Clair would actually show up, but I would be damned if I didn’t get the chance to rail her again while she still trusted me.

I needed her to believe that I would never give her up, and actions counted more than words.

She made a quiet sound as I bottomed out, teetering on her heels to hold me as I took her deeply, and in the mirror I watched her entire body relax, like she’d been waiting for this moment her entire life.

She was so beautiful.

So responsive.

And somine.

I didn’t care what I had to do, or who I had to kill.

I had to be smart…but I didn’t have to be sane.

Then her eyes fluttered open, her eyelashes as delicate as the moth tattoo on the inside of her wrist. “Rhaim?” she whispered.

“Shh,” I said, running soothing hands down her sides, to grasp her waist. “I’ve got you,” I said, and rocked forward into her again.

I thudded into her, feeling her sheath me, and I wanted to come inside her at once, like a teenager in a backseat after prom. Two months of nothing but my hand and my memories had prepared me poorly for the real thing, but I knew I couldn’t use her like that.

Not if I wanted to keep her.

She put one hand out against the mirror’s glass, to help her brace herself against my rutting, as her other hand raced under her skirt to rub her clit. No other man had had her since I’d taken her last—I had Sable keep an eye on all her electronics—but even if I hadn’t, right then I would’ve known, by the way her full lips parted, the tiny gasps she gave every time I filled her, and the way her half-lidded amber eyes met mine in our reflection.

When we fucked, it was like she was made for me, and she fucking knew it.

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