Total pages in book: 42
Estimated words: 40057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40057 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 200(@200wpm)___ 160(@250wpm)___ 134(@300wpm)
His jaw clenched. “Damn straight. Nobody will ever take you away from me.”
The words were a protective vow that would’ve terrified me coming from anyone else. From Reeve, it made butterflies swirl in my belly.
With his nostrils flaring, he still looked like he was one second from losing it.
“I’m so sorry I scared you,” I breathed, my voice cracking.
His head snapped up, his eyes blazing as his hands came up to cup my face. “None of this is your fault, baby.”
My throat tightened painfully as I ground myself in the steady heat of him. “I was so scared. They talked about carving the tattoo off my leg. And even though I hate it with every fiber of my being, the thought of what that meant—”
“They’re gone.” His hands slid down to my shoulders as he pulled me into him, his lips brushing against the top of my head. “You don’t need to worry about anything they thought they’d do to you. It’ll never happen. I won’t let anyone touch you.”
“I don’t want to wait to cover it,” I blurted, pulling back to look him in the eyes so he could see how serious I was. “But instead of using one of my designs, I want you to draw it.”
Shock flickered across his face. “Me?”
“I’d trust you with anything and everything,” I whispered. “And tonight, you proved exactly how much I can. Letting you design the tattoo you’ll ink over this feels small compared to what you did for me tonight.”
He let out a low rumble as he crouched, his palms sliding down my thighs. When he reached my calf, his thumb brushed over the mark Jareth had put there. His touch was tender, as though he was promising to erase it from existence.
Reeve looked up at me, heat burning in his dark eyes. “Thank you, baby. You have no idea what this means to me.”
His thumb traced the symbol again, slower this time. This time, his touch sent sensual awareness in its wake.
I sank to my knees and twined my arms around his neck. Then I let him see everything I was feeling. My relief, desire, and trust that had rooted itself too deep to ever go away.
Reeve cupped the back of my head with one trembling hand. “Tell me you need me as much as I do you. Not because you’re scared. Because you’re mine.”
I didn’t hesitate to answer, “I want you so much.”
Straightening, he hauled me up, his mouth crashing against mine. The kiss was everything I didn’t know I needed, but it wasn’t enough.
He gave me more in a blur of breathless touches and whispered promises. We spent the next several hours cementing our bond until the world outside his arms didn’t exist at all.
18
ONYX
The thing about shadows is, they don’t always come at night. Sometimes they find you in the daylight. On a quiet street. In the last place you thought you'd be found.
Jareth Marks learned that the hard fucking way.
The bastard ran the second he knew we were coming. Vanished from the art world like smoke. Shredded every document, wiped his computers, pulled his accounts, and even abandoned the studio he was so obsessed with.
But the Hounds have fucking teeth.
Wizard had been working nonstop. He scrubbed every digital trail Marks had ever touched, dismantling his networks one by one. He filed all the symbols Elena had drawn for us in a digital vault that was stored in our SKIFF room. The IPs tied to Marks’s hidden servers were ghosted.
We cleaned house, digitally and financially, while Ace ripped the money pipeline apart from the other end. Every offshore account was burned, all the fake non profits collapsed, and any silent partners and money launderers were buried under layers of misdirection and corporate dead ends.
The Hounds had been circled on too many maps. If anyone connected Elena to our operation, the blowback could cost us. So we erased the ties, one by one, until not even the dirtiest fed or wiliest criminal could pin anything on us. No signatures. No accounts. No prints. And no survivors from the side that made Elena a target.
It took a couple days, but Wizard finally turned up an address.
I’d been on ready alert since we rescued Elena, so when he handed over the location, I went right into action. It was early, so Elena was still sleeping. I gently kissed her until she was mostly awake, mussed and so tempting. But I was done with this shit hanging over our heads.
“Got to go, baby. Shouldn’t be too long.”
“Is everything okay?” Her tone was curious, but I could see her holding back any more questions. We’d talked about what I could and could not share with her. She’d proved, yet again, how fucking perfect she was for me by accepting the limitations without hesitation.