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The ropes binding my arms dropped to the floor first. As she knelt to work on my ankles, I began rubbing the circulation back into my wrists.

Even her name is beautiful.

“He’s not lying,” she said simply. “He came here freely, to warn us. And I know for a fact he’s after Kyrkos.”

She finished with a jerk of the blade, then turned to face the three of us at once.

“Like it or not we’re all on the same side.”

Twenty-Two

ANDREA

It was crazy, seeing him here. Seeing him again. He looked even bigger now that we weren’t draped in shadows, or bent over from running full-tilt through the opulent palace halls.

Also, seeing him made my stomach do a sexy backflip.

Andrea, stop.

I couldn’t stop. Not after what we’d done. At the time I thought I’d been hate-fucking Xander Kyrkos — giving the murderous asshole one last happy sendoff before I stabbed him through the throat. But no. As it turned out, I’d fucked a very sexy stranger. One with shoulders that seemed more like a wingspan, and arms so big they looked to be the same diameter of my thighs.

And my thighs were pretty muscular.

Now that I was looking him over, my whole body tingled without my permission. It was like it remembered him. Like my pussy recalled the indescribably hot way he’d plunged into me from behind, pile-driving me face first into that bed until tears of euphoria were streaming down my cheeks.

Fucking him as Xander Kyrkos had been so forbidden, so taboo. So vile and disgusting and glorious and exciting. A clash of extremes — the best and worst of everything. All of it, surging through my brain, temporarily slaking my thirst to kill him with a nourishing flood of lust and desire.

But then learning he wasn’t Kyrkos…

Well, that was thrilling too. Like feeling guilty about something secretly magnificent… and then having that guilt lifted like a veil, all at once, in one quick rush of total absolution.

I’d run through the palace holding his hand, still seeping from where he’d ravaged me. At the time, I couldn’t think much about this incredibly hot stranger who’d given me the fucking of my life. But now…

Now he was standing before me, in the flesh. The same square-cut jaw, same intense, penetrating eyes. Same chiseled body. Same long, thick, incredibly hard—

“Alright,” said Holden, breaking me from my daydream. “What now?”

“Now we go,” said Marcus.

Marcus. Shit, even his name was hot.

“Why go now?” asked Randall. He yawned. “What time is it anyway?”

Marcus ignored him. “If I was able to find you, how long do you think it’ll take Indigo?”

The question was met with a span of uncomfortable silence. I knew right then and there, we were definitely leaving.

“Alright,” nodded Holden. “Randall, gather our shit.”

“Mind telling me where we’re going first?”

“Anywhere but here.”

The SEALs were fast and efficient. We dressed quickly, and it took them less than five minutes to gather everything they needed — my stuff included — while Marcus and I watched the door. At first it was awkward, standing there with him. Neither of us said a thing, like two shy dates in the back of a school dance, each waiting for the other to make the first move. And then:

“So how long have you been fucking them?”

I choked — physically choked — on my tongue. “W—What?”