Page 39 of Blind Devotion (Letters of Ruin #1)

Round two was just as mind-blowing as the first. She passed out on me shortly after, but I’d woken her up with a tray of food, only to take her again once she had her fill. We didn’t let up until both our bodies gave out. Even then, we spoke for hours in each other’s arms.

We talked about what she remembered about us. About what made her question who I was to her from the beginning. About what she remembered from her captivity with Bogdani.

It was difficult to hear her talk about the seasoning done to coerce her and the other girls into compliance, the punishments or broken bones dealt, the drugs her traffickers used to keep them in line without ever numbing them completely.

I wished I hadn’t killed them off so quickly.

I had this urge to find every single buyer who ever stepped foot on that boat and peel their skin off bit by fucking bit before cutting off their limbs, then cocks, and watching them bleed out.

When the memories made her panic, I spoke of my own to distract her.

I told her about my youth. About the smiling, carefree boy I barely remembered myself as before I failed my family.

I told her what I’d never told anyone before: my captivity.

How some gang members from the Netherlands held Yannick and me hostage to get back at my father.

How they used Yannick in the vilest of ways and made me watch.

He was only eleven at the time, and I eight.

I was spared that, but my scars weren’t solely mental.

From beatings and cuts on my hands, my face, my arms, my back.

If I cried out, they took it out on Yannick.

If I was quiet, they didn’t touch him. I wasn’t able to keep quiet often, and Yannick hated me even more for it, just like he should have.

“You were only a boy.” Tessa tried to reassure me.

It didn’t assuage the guilt that made me sick to my stomach because it had also caused our estrangement.

“How did you get out?”

“Erel, my second. The man who caught us earlier.” I loved how red her cheeks turned.

“He was the son of the gang member whose brother I should have shot. He hated his father. The month Yannick and I were trapped in that house was probably the first time Erel didn’t suffer his father’s fists.

He was the one sent to feed us whenever he was fit enough to walk, and in the end, he was the one who got us out. He’s like a brother to me.”

She kissed me gently after that, one soft kiss to ease away our pain. It led to another and another until I was once again inside her. This time slow, loving, careful, like she was the most precious part of me. And she was. I never should have let her go. I wasn’t capable of it again.

Hours later, she slept in my arms, like she belonged there. Her entire body was relaxed. Her stress lines smoothed out, no visible distress on her at all if not for the reddened scarred skin around her eyes.

This woman undid me. As delicate as a butterfly, as fierce as a tiger, as beautiful as an angel, nothing compared to her. There was nothing I wouldn’t do for her anymore. There was nothing I wouldn’t give her. For her, I’d lay the world forever at her feet.

She stirred against me, her eyelids fluttering open, a smile on her lips I wanted to capture. Then she snuggled further into me.

“How long have you been watching me sleep, you creep?”

“You have a way with words.”

“You like it.”

I snorted and squeezed her tighter to me. This lightness in my chest was unsettling.

“I’d like to contact my family today.”

A lump settled in my throat.

“Adrien?” She rose on her elbows. “My mother and Renzo must be going crazy.”

I hated the way she said her brother’s name, so full of hope and longing, as if she couldn’t wait to spend time with him when we’d only just found each other again.

“Not yet.”

“Why not?”

Because I’m worried he’ll try to take you from me. I’m worried I’ll kill him for it, and you’ll hate me.

Because you’ll go with him and leave me behind.

Because he never stopped looking for you while I abandoned you, shot you, then repeatedly threatened your life.

Because you deserve better than me, and I’m afraid you’ll realize it.

“I want you to myself right now. There’s no one else in this bed but us. Ever.”

“We’ve been here a whole day already.”

“Not good enough. I want more.” I drew her in closer.

“You can’t keep me locked up anymore, Adrien.”

“I can and will if I have to.”

“Not if you want this to happen again.”

“You think you can take your body away from me?” I grabbed her chin and turned her face up toward mine.

“What, you can dish but you can’t take?”

“Only from you, ma rescapée . Only you.”

She kissed me gently.

“I’m not going to let this go. I need to talk to them. They deserve to know how I’m doing.”

“You chose to stay. Now I’m not letting you go.” I held her tighter, already addicted to the feel of her. With my hand against her heart, I told her, “ ?a, c’est à moi .” This belongs to me.

“Always,” she whispered.

I cupped her breasts and wrapped my lips around one puckered nipple before licking around the next.

“ Les miens .” Mine. My hand slid down her belly and over her pussy lips.

A finger tapped her clit. On a moan, she arched into me, and I thrust a finger inside her.

“ ?a m’appartient aussi. Tous ce que tu es, tout ce que tu seras, est à moi.

” This is mine also. Everything you are, everything you will be, belongs to me.

“Yes,” she keened, her hips riding my finger.

I needed to be inside her. To own her. To possess her so that she never forgot where she began and I ended. This, us, was just the beginning. We were a story with no end, and I’d prove that every day for the rest of our lives.

My cock nudged her entrance, and with one quick thrust, I was swallowed up again by her tight heat. I pounded into her from behind like an animal.

“Marry me.”

“Adrien,” she whimpered.

My hand wrapped around her throat. “Marry me.” Thrust. “Be my wife.” Thrust. “My end and my beginning. My butterfly to your lion. I’ll be your protector. Your man, the demon everyone sees but you.”

Her loud moan as I went particularly deep filled the room.

That was a noise I was going to hear every single day from now on.

She clung to the hand that pinned her hips to me with every assault of my cock.

Her whimpers grew, higher, stronger, but still she gave me nothing.

There was no world where she didn’t say yes.

“Marry me, Tessa. Don’t make us waste another day.”