Page 150 of Caution to the Wind

“Is this enough?” I asked, voice rough with disuse ’cause I wasn’t used to voicin’ the things written in ink on the inside of my chest. “’Cause I haven’t been able to get you outta my head since the moment I saw you again at the hospital. I told you, you got your teeth and claws in me, Rocky. And the fuck of it is, even when I wanted so fuckin’ much to hate you, it wasmeI hated, for lovin’ you still and for wantin’ you now in this new way that rocks me.”

I gestured to the pieces of one paintin’ I’d taken my knife to in a fit of fury after I’d found out she was still workin’ with the triad. They were piled on the floor,’cause even furious as I was, I couldn’t bring myself to throw them in the trash.

I bent my knees to bring me closer to her level and cupped her gorgeous face in my hands once more. “You knock the wind outta me, Mei. Every fuckin’ time I lay eyes on you. And I only get it back when we touch, and the relief is a sweet, sharp ache in my goddamn chest.”

“Axe-Man,” she whispered, reachin’ up to clutch my wrists tight, as if she was afraid I’d disappear. “Don’t play games with me. Not when you have to know how long I’ve wanted you just like this.”

“No games,” I swore. “And no promises, either. I don’t got any answers but this. No matter what happens in this life, you mean somethin’ to me. I made the mistake of tryin’ to regret that and the truth is, I never could. Better or worse, you’re mine and I’m yours. This attraction might fade. A…relationship seems impossible with every-fuckin’-thing between us and in front of us. I gotta focus on Cleo, not to mention shit that’s constantly goin’ down with the club. It’s dangerous, and after we put Kate’s killers to bed, I want yousafe. But I will always be the Off-White Knight to your Rocky. That’s an oath I’ll swear in blood, and if I ever break it again, I give you leave to kill me by metal, wood, fire, water, or earth.”

Tears glazed Mei’s eyes, catchin’ in those thick lashes. But she didn’t let them fall, my Rocky, ’cause she was a fighter not a crier. Not even now in the safest place there was for her between my arms.

“I feel like I’m dreaming and it hurts because I know I’m going to wake up,” she whispered in a choked-off voice.

I made a noise low in my throat in response to that pain and decided to do somethin’ about it. I’d bought the stuff for a photo shoot Nova’d done with Lila, but I still had some of the paints lyin’ around ready to use.

Steppin’ away, I went to the work table in one corner and collected what I needed as I ordered her, “Get naked.”

There was a pulse of surprise in the air as she hesitated.

I looked over my shoulder with a raised brow and growled, “Now, Rocky.”

She bit her lip then slowly dragged the zipper of that tight leather bodysuit down between her breasts. Beneath it, she wore a flimsy lace bra in black and red and below that, unveiled with teasin’ gradualness, a matchin’ set of panties.

My hands flexed against the handles of the paint cans as I ignored the impulse to ravage her right then and there. Instead, I placed my items beside her as she continued to undress and then lay out a massive drop cloth and transferred everythin’ back onto that. Next, the canvas, a huge forty-eight by sixty inch spread I’d been savin’ for a landscape of Lake Mead.

It was better served for this.

I squatted to lift the lid of the red paint with my pocket knife, then the black, and white as I spoke. “Gonna show you just how fuckin’ beautiful you are to me. How worthy.”

She flinched, and I knew I’d hit home with that word.

My girl had a low fuckin’ opinion of herself, thanks to her fuckwad father, Florent, and the loss of so many people in her life. Me included.

My throat burned again, like my heart was on fire, and the only way to put it out was to make this fiercely beautiful woman feel seen.

“It’s body paint,” I muttered as I shucked my shoes and my shirt, decidin’ the jeans could be wrecked, and I didn’t give a shit. “It’ll wash off in water.”

I took Mei’s boots and leathers to the work table and then stalked back toward her, watchin’ the flush seep into her cheeks and spill down her torso.

“Gonna paint you,” I told her. “Then I’m gonna fuck you like I shoulda the first time.”

Before she could say a word, I was haulin’ her up into my arms, cuppin’ her sweet ass in my hands. She automatically wound her legs around my waist and drove her fingers into my hair. Her mouth was open, pantin’, waitin’ for me to claim it.

So I did.

And fuck, but how had I fucked her before without takin’ this sweet, lush mouth.

I ate at her, suckin’ the moans off her tongue, bitin’ into that lower lip ’til it was swollen and poutin’.

Only when she was thrashin’, a wild thing in my arms seekin’ more, did I drop carefully to my knees and lay her back on the drop-clothed floor, her hips still hooked over my lap. Arranged like that, black hair like the halo of a dark angel around her delicate face, I felt my heart come to a complete fuckin’ stop.

She lay there, chest heavin’, tongue trapped between her teeth as I reached for a thick brush and dipped it generously in the red paint. The moment the cool tip touched her skin, she gasped and squirmed.

I pinned a palm on her chest and growled, “Be still.”

She froze, only the quickness of her breath and those blown-wide pupils denotin’ her struggle.

“Good girl,” I practically purred as I traced the brush down over the inside of her left thigh all the way back to her foot, where I painted her toes one by one ’til they curled. “Be still while I worship you.”