Page 95 of The Chief
“I was infatuated with her, I can’t deny that. But I think I was more in love with the idea of what she represented than Fallon herself.” When I was satisfied with the temperature, I slid the small square of terry toweling under the flow and soaked it.
“I don’t understand.”
Sliding the other strap over her elbow, I hooked my finger in the center of her bra and pulled, exposing her to me. Fuck, she was gorgeous, and she was mine. “Fallon represented everything I thought I wanted in a woman. I wanted someone soft and compliant. Someone who healed rather than maimed. Someone who would do as I told them.” I shook my head, unable to believe what I was about to say. “I wanted someone who could absolve me of my sins.”
“What sins?”
I stared into her guileless blue eyes flecked with seafoam green, knowing I’d finally found my equal. “The first time I killed a man, I was twelve. I didn’t want to kill him, but I’d been hanging around with Finnan and his half-brother since I wastwo and I wanted to join the clan that Finnan would one day run.”
“You were only twelve?” she asked in a whisper.
I nodded, loosely balling up the face washer and dropping it to the counter. “I remember everything about that day. Why it had to be done. How it had to be done. It was my initiation into the clan.”
“You were so young, though.”
“Only three years younger than you when you killed Brian,” I pointed out. “The guy I shot was the son of a man that Finnan’s dad, Kellen, wanted to persuade into working with the clan. I wanted to be part of the brotherhood so badly I did what was asked of me.”
“Why did you want to join the clan?”
“Finnan and his half-brother, Torin, were the only brothers I wanted, even if they weren’t related to me by blood. Kellen was the father figure missing from my life.”
“What about your mother?”
I shrugged. I hadn’t thought about the woman who had birthed me in a very long time. “She was a whore at one of the brothel’s the clan ran twenty-five years ago. She was nobody of importance.”
“You don’t know who your father is?”
“No.” It used to bother me, but I’d learned soon enough I was better off without him. Besides, I had Kellen to fill that void. “It doesn’t matter who he was, anyway. My mother got nothing from him aside from being knocked up.”
“How old was she when she had you?”
“Seventeen. Just a baby herself, really.”
“Where is she now?”
“Dead.”
Tears clung to Molly’s lashes, and I hated that I’d put them there. Reaching up, I collected a single tear and brought it tomy mouth. Tasting her. Her eyes never left mine. “Fallon was a pipedream. I’ve always struggled with losing my innocence that day, and I felt like Fallon would be pure and good enough for both of us, but…” I tucked a loose tendril of hair behind her ear. “I was wrong. What I really wanted was someone strong enough to stand up and fight beside me, not just patch me up afterward.”
On a shaky sob, Molly kissed me, pressing her breasts against my bare chest. Skin to skin, I felt her heart as it thundered beneath her ribs, the tempo an echo to my own. Within seconds, the kiss turned into an inferno burning between us. I had to claim this woman. Now she knew everything there was to know, I had to seal our fates together.
Chapter 30
Molly
Keir’s mouth moved over mine with pure determination. Like he was trying to erase the last twenty-four hours of trauma with his mouth and body alone.
And I let him.
I let him replace all the negative with the feel of his body on mine. Let him trade my bad memories for good. I embraced them all, content in the knowledge I was finally at peace. No more running and hiding. For the first time in a little over nine years, I could breathe.
He shifted down my body, leaning me against the marble countertop. The sharp edge cut into the small of my back, but with the way Keir used his tongue, I didn’t give a fuck. He dropped to his knees before me, urging me to wrap one leg over his shoulder. The movement left my pussy exposed to him, and he stared at me for a long moment.
I braced for his warm tongue but was surprised by the touch of the now cooled face washer he’d been so intent on wetting earlier. With a gentleness that shouldn’t have surprised me, he cleaned me.
“What are you doing?”
His eyes rose to meet mine. “Cleaning my pussy. We’ve both been through a lot these last couple of days. We need to get cleaned up and rest.”
