Page 1 of Together We Burn
Prologue
Jake
Shewasgorgeous.Gloriouslynaked and sated, lying in my bed face down, one arm tucked beneath the pillow and the other hidden under her stomach. Her long black hair fanned out in loose messy curls across the mattress and her thick dark lashes rested peacefully above her cheeks.
I ran my hand down her back, hooking the sheet covering Stefany with my thumb and dragging it down to the perky round globes of her ass, watching her skin erupt in tiny goosebumps. A soft, throaty whimper parted her lips, the sound going straight to my dick.
Continuing my perusal with my fingertips, I brushed them from one side of her ass to the other, relishing the way her hips pivoted upward as I skimmed down the valley between her cheeks and up the other side. With the sheet pooled across her thighs, the soft pale glow from the moonlight seeping from the sheer curtains did little to mask the years of abuse she’d suffered.
A muscle in my neck twitched as my gaze regarded every fresh scrape and bruise that marred her beautiful body by the hands of some bastard who dared to touch her. But she assured me she had taken care of it. And I had no doubt she had.
Leaning behind me, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and quickly placed an order for pizza at a place just down the street from my apartment. Stefany would need the energy. I wasn’t done with her, having every intention of enjoying her pussy all night long. Devouring her, ravaging her, having her come so hard that she begged me to stop.
I pressed a kiss to her shoulder blade, dragging myself from the bed to shower as I left her to rest. Turning on the hot water and letting it come to temperature, I stepped inside, the warmth from the downpour soothing an ache in my bones that had taken residence deep inside for months now.
I should tell her. Come clean. Let her know I’d fucked up, fucked up the minute I saw her in the coffee shop.
It was too late to back out now. I had made my decision when I agreed to this. I’d have to deal with the consequences of the fallout. Because make no mistake, there would be one. Lying to a professional assassin was deadly. The web you weave always has a way of catching up to you eventually, ensnaring and exposing you for who you really are. Stefany was a ruthless, vengeful bitch who would make me pay for my sins with the flick of her wrist or squeeze of a trigger. And for her, I’d gladly drop to my knees and bare my throat.
I’d promised myself I wasn’t going to get in deep with this woman, but with every brick that fell from the walls she had erected around her heart, I found she was burrowing through my defences just the same.
Placing one hand on the grey-tiled wall, I hung my head as more unwanted emotions started to worm their way through my subconscious. Rubbing the heel of my hand against my chest, I straightened, grabbed the shower gel to lather it between my hands, and ran them down the contours of my stomach.
A soft knock came from the bathroom door as Stefany’s voice sounded over the water.
“Jake?” she called, popping her head around the doorframe dressed in the shirt she had frantically tugged and tore off me earlier. Her desperation to rid me of my clothing as waves of lust and passion overtook her was as much of a turn-on as being inside her. Okay, nothing would surpass the feeling of pushing into her tight cunt, but needy and completely desperate for me, Stefany was every part the fantasy. I was insatiable around her, my ever-increasing appetite distracting me from the dinner I had been preparing when she arrived at my apartment.
“Jake, the pizza’s here.”
I angled my body, revealing my bare chest covered in suds as my hands continued to rub the expensive shower gel, that was meant to smell like eucalyptus or some shit, into my skin.
Her eyes dropped to where my hands paused just above the defined V at my obliques, the annoying little muscles I’d spent a ridiculous amount of time on at the gym to get and maintain. But now, with Stefany’s hungry gaze looking like she was picturing licking along those lines, that time was completely worth the effort.
She sucked her plush bottom lip between her teeth, and it took everything I had not to say, “fuck the pizza,” and drag her into the shower with me so I could slam her against the tiles and sink back inside her. That thought alone had my dick pulsing as blood quickly began to flow south.
The idea would have to wait. She was injured and needed to be fed.
“Ah, okay, I’ll be out in a sec,” I said, watching as her eyes widened with the realisation she had been staring, and a slight blush danced across her cheeks. She nodded and spun out of the room as I laughed.
I quickly finished showering, reached for the towel from the handrail, and dried off. Grabbing a pair of grey sweats, I punched my feet through the legs and made my way into the hall, searching for Stefany.
“Stefany, did you—”
My steps faltered as a man dressed in black and wearing a balaclava smashed the butt of his gun into the back of Stefany’s head. Heaviness expanded in my chest as I watched her legs give out and crash to her knees.
Her eyes darted from me to the man now standing in front of her, rubbing his jaw. She must have managed to get at least one good hit before they bested her.
The man raised his hand as I took off down the hall in hopes of doing something to help her. What, I wasn’t sure. This was all part of the plan, but it wasn’t meant to go down likethis.
Not now.
And she wasn’t meant to be bleeding.
Her face jerked to the side as the man backhanded her before taking another crack at her temple with his gun, and her whole body flopped to the floor.
“Did you have to hit her so fucking hard?” I snarled, sliding to Stefany’s side and carefully cradling her head in my hands. Blood oozed from a gash in her eyebrow, and her cheekbone had already started to swell.
The man pulled his balaclava off and held his jaw again. Fucking pussy.
