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“You will leave. You can’t stay here forever.”
“We’ll figure it out. We’re in this now. The only way out of it is in a body bag.” Somehow, his brutal words comforted me. I nuzzled into his warmth, feeling peace for the first time in weeks. “You won’t try to end it again. Remember the pain of losing me, Lola. Don’t forget it.”Remember the pain.The same thing I’d said to myself, yet now I was standing on the other side of the fence. Before it was supposed to stop me going back, now it would stop me from leaving.
“I don’t think I could ever forget it,” I murmured. His fingers traced a line down my back that sent a shiver straight up my spine. God, I’d missed him. We stood in silence for I don’t know how long, our souls reconnecting, when he suddenly spoke.
“Adam.” The name on Alfie’s lips turned my stomach.Adam. I could still feel his beady eyes on me.
“He just showed up. Total fluke.” I looked up at Alfie. “What happened to him?”
“He’s been warned off. He’d be an idiot to bother you again.” Adamwasan idiot, but I couldn’t think about that now. “Come, I need to get you somewhere less public.” He took my hand and started leading me up to the high street, tapping on his phone with his free hand.
“Alfie, ouch! Slow down!” I couldn’t keep up with him in these stupid shoes.
“What? What is it?” I pointed at my feet. I was beginning to lose all feeling in my toes. “Stupid girl,” he muttered, scooping me up. I let him carry me the rest of the way to the high street where Elliot was waiting with the Rolls.
He deposited me in the back and slid in next to me, pulling me to him quickly as if being parted from my body for only a few seconds was too much. I leaned into him, burying my face inhis chest. His hands stroked me tenderly. I sighed as the tension dissipated from my body.
“Play Vivaldi,” I mumbled. “‘Winter,’ please.” His arms tightened around me, pulling me closer, his face buried in my hair, and as the opening chords struck, I slipped away.
When I woke I was being carried through the all too familiar lobby of the Carlton Hotel. I’d arrived here in an evening gown, paint splattered dungarees, and now the shortest dress known to man. What must they think of me? Honestly, I was too blissed out to care. He’d come back to me.
Somehow, he managed to scan the code for the lift without putting me down. I tightened my grip around his neck as we rose, pulling him closer.
“I’m going to keep you, O’Connell.” I bit my lip so hard against the well of emotion. It was like being poised on the edge of a cliff. I’d held on for so long and now I was exhausted from the fight and all I wanted was to let go, to fall and let him catch me. A single tear escaped and rolled down my cheek.
“Oh baby.” He carried me into his suite before putting me down. Then he brushed the tear away with his thumb and pressed his forehead to mine. “You’re mine.” I nodded because what choice did I have? I was his when I saw his face on the big screen. I was his when I yelled at him in my kitchen. I was his in a garden where he seduced me. I was his when I crashed into his car and hadn’t even seen his face yet. I was always going to be his and he was always going to be mine.
“Say it, O’Connell, I need to hear you say it.” I turned my tear stained face up to him, his gaze intent on mine, his full lips soft and so ready for me to kiss them. He was so perfect.
“I’m yours.” Everything went silent as I spoke the words. I’d just signed a contract right on the dotted line. There was no getting out of this now. Standing here, in this vast display of wealth, in front of this perfect Adonis of a man, I was overcome by his power, his infinite resources. There was no way I could ever run from him the way I did with Adam. Alfie could track me to the ends of the earth if he wanted to.
“And you’re mine,” I told him. “All of you this time, Alfie. I need all of you, even the parts you want to keep hidden.” His eyes flashed, shocked that I was claiming him. I don’t know why I’d ever thought I could have a dalliance with this man. I was an all or nothing kind of girl and he was an all or nothing kind of man. We were made up of extremes, he and I, built on passion and filled with souls that felt everything too keenly.
“I’m yours.” His thumb traced a line over my lips. It was hard to believe he was really here, but I knew what would make it feel real. I kissed his thumb gently, keeping his gaze.
“I want you.” The wonder in his face disappeared and was replaced by that wickedness that I was craving so desperately. His hands moved to my waist, lifting me onto my toes, and I swear he growled at me. In seconds he had me slammed against the wall. He lifted me as if I was no more than a feather. I wrapped my legs around him. He reached under me, undoing his trousers with movements uncharacteristically frantic. Alfie Tell wasneverfrantic.
I felt between us for his length, he dragged my underwear to one side, and without even a kiss to commemorate our reunion, he impaled me.Thiswas how he kissed. I cried out at the sudden invasion. God, that stretch, that pinch that pushed me almost too far.
“Look at me,” he snarled, and I forced my gaze back to his. He began to move. He gripped my hips, digging his fingers into my flesh. The fact that we were both still fully dressed madethe act feel more lurid. I panted as he pounded me, watching as he worked me up and down his length, driving his hips up with every thrust and slamming into me. I whimpered with each invasion. It was so deep this way, so intense, and I felt completely at his mercy.
He slammed in all the way to the base and ground himself against me, rolling his hips, urging my orgasm almost to a peak. I cried out, my eyes pleading with him.
“Take it,” he snarled and picked up the pace. He fucked me like an animal, raw and primal. Through my pleasure-filled haze I was beginning to understand why. He’d come back tonight to claim me in front of my other suitors and now he was finishing the job, making sure that I understood it too. No matter what, my body would forever be his. It would forever be attuned to him.
“Alfie, I’m close, I’m going to…”
“Wait,” he growled and fucked me harder, pushing me closer to the edge. I clamped my legs tighter around him.
“Alfie!” I cried in desperation. I couldn’t hold it off. I felt him expand inside me. His gaze remained glued to me, dark and hooded. I could see that his senses, his mind, every part of him focused on one thought only—rutting into me. Fucking like animals do.
“Come,” he ordered, and I did. I fell apart around him as wave after wave of pleasure rocked my body. He thrust again and again, filling me up, coating me. I fell limp against him, held up between his body and the wall. He surrounded me, his lips a breath away from mine as he spoke.
“Kiss me, Lola. Kiss me like you kiss me.” I lifted my mouth, pressing my lips to his, letting him feel how much he meant to me. With his lips on mine, his arms around me, his length buried inside me to the root, and his semen coating me, a warm feelingglowed in my chest then began to spread to my fingertips, to my toes. The feeling was Heaven. Bliss.Home.
Thirty
Iawoke on the couch, wincing as the blistering sunlight scorched through the balcony doors.