Page 19 of Climbing Everest

My nostrils flare and a sound rumbles from my chest, the growl so raw and animalistic Everest widens her eyes and her lips pop open.

We had truly believed she attempted to ruin the marks, hide what those letters stood for, but it had been her father and his men who’d mutilated my beautiful girl’s body.

Now tears are pricking the backs of my eyes as I hold her weight with one arm and lift my free hand to tug down the collar of her sweater, my gaze glued to the plastic wrap keeping the large tattoo clean and protected.

There’s evidence of blood along with some ink pressing to the plastic and I have an overwhelming urge to grab a rusty, dull as fuck knife and carve her full name into my chest.

Not that I haven’t permanently carried her across the flesh of my back all this time.

She hasn’t seen it yet and while I hope she realizes the gravity of it, realizes I never truly let her go, that I never stopped loving her, it isn’t even close to making up for how we’ve treated her or what she went through.

Lowering onto the couch with her straddling my lap, I lean forward and press feather soft kisses across the outline of our initials and the design. Originally, I’d had Nico incorporate thorns to signify the way she’d ripped us apart, how prickly and dangerous she was.

Now…oh, that fucking design will be completely changed to nothing but beauty.

I pull her face toward mine, capturing her lips, slipping my tongue past the seam and reveling in the sweetness I never thought I would ever have the chance to savor again.

Even when we’d found her, made plans to bring her home, I hadn’t thought I would enjoy a moment like this again. Of course , I’d planned to fuck her, to own her body, to claim her in any way I chose.

But this isn’t me claiming my girl – this is a reunion. This is the very first hint of making up for ever thinking Everest would go against me, against us , that she would ever intentionally hurt us.

How the fuck had we so easily believed her father? We knew her, knew her better than anyone else in the world, including that cock sucking motherfucker.

When I raise my eyes to her face, I know she sees all the unspoken words there, but I don’t know if she can ever realize how much guilt has piled onto my heart, how broken I now am…and the whole time it was me who’d fucked up.

Well, and her father. And he will abso-fucking-lutely pay.

As my eyes burn with the tears I refuse to allow to fall, the tears I don’t deserve to release, I stare into her beautiful face. “Names,” I grunt out through my closing throat.

Her dark brows furrow.

“Who hurt you? Who all was involved? I want every single fucking name.”

“You can’t go there alone, B.”

Fuck. Hearing her nickname from so long ago, the nickname she’d adopted to protect us, makes my heart flutter. “I don’t plan on it. But they will all fucking pay with their blood for daring to so much as look at you, let alone hurt my girl.” And take away our child.

I have zero doubt her father had hoped the abuse would kill the child, but it wouldn’t have mattered, considering he’d ordered his men to kill his only daughter.

His only fucking child .

She inhales, the sound shaky, then licks her lips. “Mikhail. Eriks. Denis.”

“And this Viktor? He’s the one who saved your life?”

I’m running one hand up and down her back as I lift the other to cup her cheek.

“You can’t hurt him, or tell anyone what he did. Please,” she begs, grabbing my wrist with both hands.

I slowly wag my head side to side. “He’ll have a place after we burn every single thing your father built…if he wants.” Either way, I owe this Viktor dude everything. Anything he asks, it’s his.

She didn’t seem to know the woman when she told the story, but I suppose it could have been his wife, or even a sister.

But she’s earned favor from me, as well.

Cupping her face in both hands, I use my thumbs to swipe away the moisture there and press a soft kiss to her lips. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

No matter how hard I try, I can’t keep the emotion out of my voice, my words thick as I push them past the lump threatening to choke me.

When she leans forward and presses her lips to mine in a lingering kiss, I sigh and wrap my arms around her back, hugging her closer.

“Look at me,” she says when she pulls away.

I lift my lids and stare into her eyes, her face a little blurry with how close we are.

“I don’t and never have blamed you guys for what happened.

I mean…how the hell could you think I would ever willingly walk away?

” she says with one raised brow. “But my father and his sycophants are the only ones to blame for this. I think if the roles were reversed, I would have hated you, too. If I thought you’d walked away from me after promising me the world, I would have grieved and raged so hard.

So no…I don’t really blame you guys for how you acted when you found me. ”

“We’re still getting married. Well, you and Kato are and fuck yes, we’re making a full fucking public display of it.”

“He’ll come looking for me, Brix. He’ll try to –”

I cut off her words with my lips. She huffs against my mouth and shoves me back.

“I’m serious, Brixton.”

“Oh. We’re using full names, Everest Alina?”

Her smile is shocked as she stares into my eyes. “Hey! I didn’t use your middle name, Brixton Andrew Marshall.”

Madd and I aren’t Greek, but that never stopped Christos from bringing us into the fold and training us to be Kato’s seconds in command.

Neither of us have family, both went through the foster care system bouncing from families and group homes before Christos took us in for his own reasons.

And of course, those reasons weren’t exactly noble or charitable.

We were both prone to violence as kids and he trained us to use that shit to his advantage, and now to Kato’s advantage.

It felt as though the moment three young boys laid eyes on the dark-haired daughter of Christos’ rival…shit, even as a kid I’d known she was meant to be in our lives.

The friendship grew, we fell in love, and I never thought there would be a single moment she wouldn’t be there.

Until she wasn’t.

She’s here now, though, and I need to remember that. I need to do everything in my power to make sure she never leaves my sight again.

Okay, so that’s a little unrealistic. But, while Kato, Madd, and I decided to give her a shadow to keep her from running again, now I’ll make sure there are several guards near her at all times, whether we’re home or not. No one will ever hurt my girl again.

Leaning my forehead against hers, I say the words that have been locked inside my chest for four long, agonizing years. “I love you, Everest. Fuck…I love you so much.”

“I love you, B. I never stopped.” She tilts her head to touch her lips to mine.

The kiss is sweet at first, almost a gesture of comfort or perhaps reassurance.

But then it turns desperate. So many unsaid words pour between us, between our lips as our tongues thrust against each other, tasting and teasing.

My cock has been hard for two fucking days and it hasn’t gone down, especially with her straddling my lap.

When her arms go around my neck and her hips begin to writhe, I groan as I struggle to refrain from coming in my jeans like a fucking teenager.

It doesn’t matter how many people I’ve fucked in my life – no one ever has ever or will ever hold a candle to the way my sweet girl makes me feel.

“Fuck me, B. Make love to me. I need you so bad,” she murmurs against my lips.

While I want to rip her clothes from her body, yank her panties to the side and thrust into her right here on the couch, there’s been way too many miles and too much time between us.

I plan on spending as much time as possible recommitting every curve, every dip and valley of her body to memory, and erasing the memory of any other motherfucker who’s touched her since we’ve been apart.