Page 66 of Claimed By the Villain

When Jackie comes, she’s screaming my name, and it’s the sweetest fucking music I’ve ever heard.

I pound into her once, twice, three more times, then pull out, stepping back to coat her back with my release.

I pull her up again, her spine pressed to my chest, my heart racing out of control.

I don’t know how long we stay like that. All I know is I’m not ready to let her go yet.

Chapter 34

It’s like having a dream come true. The connection I’d been chasing with him comes in the most unexpected way.

“Don’t forget what I told you, Jackie. Feelings are off the table,” he says, pulling us back to reality. Because, as he never tires of reminding me, he’s not some fairy-tale prince. He’s Lucifer, who makes me tremble with his devastating beauty, just like the biblical fallen angel. The god of the underworld, cast out of paradise. A man who doesn’t know how to give himself to anything beyond a carnal encounter.

I turn in his arms to face him.

Feelings will never be off the table when it comes to you, Lucifer, but you don’t need to know that.

If I hadn’t just shared the intensity of his surrender minutes ago, his words might have made my heart bleed after such intimacy. But I know he fell into the abyss with me. For as long as our act lasted, Lucifer was lost in me. It wasn’t just sex, no matter how much he insists on that asshole speech.

I turn the shower on just long enough to rinse my back, then step out of the stall.

I grab a towel and, moving with calculated slowness so he has time to take in the sight of my naked, wet body he just claimed, I wrap it around myself.

Only then, already standing at the doorway, do I say, “Was that warning meant for me? Because it felt like it was for both of us.”

I walk back to the bedroom without giving him a chance to say anything else, and for once, I know I’m the one who won this round.

One week later

The paperwork for our marriage still isn’t ready, and Lucifer has been anxious and looking worried, though he tries to hide it. I think it’s about my safety. I’m scared too, if I’m being honest. But not for me, for his life.

I know what he does carries risks, though he’s told me, without giving details about his “profession”, that he doesn’t have to travel more than four times a year now.

But it’s different to go on a mission than to have someone specifically hunting you down.

Today, I came to the association where I volunteer for the last time, because I wanted to say goodbye to them in person.

Lucifer said it’s likely we’ll have to go to New Orleans before leaving for our honeymoon on a private island—one I have no idea who owns.

I was almost out the door when one of the assistants asked me to cover for her. She had just gotten a call from her three-year-old son’s school saying he wasn’t feeling well.

I know I’m safe in here, and besides, there’s a bodyguard outside watching over me.

That was the condition Lucifer set for agreeing to let me come.

I’m sorting through donated clothes for the children when my phone rings.

I smile when I see it’s Taylor.

“Life’s weird, isn’t it? Now that I’m back, you’ve gone and gotten yourself kidnapped,”she says instead of hello.

“Has anyone ever told you that you have a strange sense of humor, redhead?”

“Yeah, but I never took it seriously. I figure it’s more likely the world just isn’t ready for my sharp wit.”

“There’s a chance you might be right. How are you?”

“I’m good. I called to see how you’re doing. I was worried after the last time we talked.”