Page 32

M egan’s asleep when I get home, so I’m quiet as I cross the bedroom to the bathroom. When the light shines on her face, I take another beat to watch her sleep.

Her hair’s pulled up into a ponytail, so I can see every inch of her face. I’ve never found so much peace by looking at anyone the way I do her.

Afraid to wake her, I step into the bathroom and shut the door. My muscles ache as I strip out of my clothes. Mostly my knuckles, but they’ll heal.

The fucking bastard won’t.

After turning on the hot water, I step beneath the stream, washing away the dried blood from my hair and skin. It swirls around my feet.

“Alexander?” Megan’s voice carries through the bathroom, and I open my eyes beneath the stream to find her standing just outside the glass doors of the shower.

Stepping away from the hot water, I open the door. She takes a look at the red-stained water on the floor and then to the pile of clothes at her feet.

“Ivan found him, then?” She toes the bloody shirt.

“He did.” I wipe my hand down my face, getting the water away from my eyes. “You were asleep. Did I wake you?”

“No.” She folds her arms over her stomach. She’s wearing one of my shirts again. It’s been three nights since I brought her home and she’s taken to sleeping in my clothes.

I don’t mind. Seeing her wearing my things fills me with peace.

A peace a man like me doesn’t deserve.

“Is he dead?” She looks up through dark eyelashes, like she’s not sure she really wants to know.

“He is.” I flex my hand, my knuckles are already swollen and bruised. It will look only worse in the morning.

She steps to the shower, picks up my hand, and brings it to her lips. Gently, she kisses each swollen knuckle.

“You killed him.” She steps into the shower with me, the water spraying her immediately, making the shirt stick to her skin.

“You’re not angry?” I brush my hand over her hair, partly to inspect the egg-sized bump. It’s down to the size of a marble now, and at least she doesn’t grimace when I graze it.

“He brought girls to that place,” she says. “I think he brought that girl there.”

“Sharon?” The seventeen-year-old who nearly died in my wife’s arms after saving her life. She had a hell of a battle that night, but she pulled through.

“Yeah. She called this morning. She’s home now. With her parents.”

“I know.” I wanted to be certain they knew the men involved with hurting their daughter had been taken care of. That not a single one of them was left with air in their lungs.

She takes another small step toward me, pushing me into the stream of hot water.

“Of course you do. You know everything.” She runs her hands over my shoulders, across my chest, and down my abdomen until she reaches my heavy cock.

It’s been hell not touching her these past few nights, but I needed to be sure she was all right. I needed to be sure my rage was fully contained so I wouldn’t hurt her in its stead.

Her hand wraps gently around my thick shaft and squeezes.

“Fuck, baby.” I push my head back into the spray. “Tighter, baby, squeeze tighter.”

She kisses my chest, licking away the water running down between my pecs. Her fingers tighten, making me groan.

“Did you make him suffer?” She lifts her eyes to mine with her question. The innocence I enjoyed so much the first time I saw her is still there; it’s just hidden beneath the darkness of what she’s experienced.

“I did.” I won’t lie. By the time he drew his last breath, he was begging for death to take him. What I couldn’t break with my fist, I tore open with my knife. “He hurt you. He deserved it.”

“He wasn’t the one who took me.” She presses her body against mine, letting the shower soak her.

“No. The man at the restaurant was one of Michael’s men.” His hands were removed first for daring to touch what’s mine. “Oleg betrayed us, he’s been working against us. He put you in danger. He deserved everything that happened to him.”

She looks at me, a sad smile on her face.

“Just promise me we won’t be using his skull as a centerpiece in the dining room?”

I laugh.

“No. He wasn’t worthy enough for that.”

“Good.” She slides down my body, stopping only when her knees hit the floor and she’s eye level with my cock.

“Megan.” I touch her cheek, directing her to look up at me.

I’m breathless as she drags her eyes up to mine, opening her mouth and bringing my cock to her lips.

A curse in Russian escapes me as her tongue darts out, licking the bead of precum from the head. This woman will be the death of me if she keeps this up.

I press my hand to the wall of the shower as she tightens her hold on my shaft and lowers her attention to the underside of my cock. From balls to head, she runs the flat of her tongue, and my eyes roll from the waves of pleasure pulling my balls tight.

My moan echoes in the shower as she wraps her full, pretty lips around my cock and sucks me down deep.

“ Ya sobirayus umeret. ” And it will be a happy death.

She takes me even deeper and my eyes roll. I can’t take much more of this. My balls are already pulling up hard and ready to explode.

Sinking both my hands into her hair, I fist it, pulling her back until her mouth pops off my cock. Even the little popping sound makes me want to unload.

“Never tell me how you learned to do this so well.” I move one hand to her mouth, running the flat of my thumb along her bottom lip. Water sprays across her face from the stream behind me and I can only wonder how pretty she’d be with my cum dripping from her cheeks.

Hooking my thumb into her mouth, I open it wide.

“I’ve killed enough men this week.” I plow back into her mouth, hitting the back of her throat in one thrust. She swallows hard around me, which only makes it better for me.

She mutters around my cock, and the humming of her attempt to speak vibrates down to my balls.

“Fuck, baby. Fuck.” I rock my hips and push deeper into her throat. When she looks up at me, tears mingle with the shower water sliding down her cheeks. The sight brings me that much closer to losing it.

She flicks her tongue along the underside of the head, and I break.

“Up.” I pull free from her warm, loving mouth and reach down for her, sweeping her up to her feet and shoving her against the shower wall.

“But I—” I silence her protest with a kiss. Her hands press against my shoulders, her fingers curling into my flesh as I lift one leg and line my cock up with her pussy.

I nudge her chin until I have her eyes focused on mine. Stray hairs that have fallen out of her ponytail stick to her cheeks, thanks to my manhandling. Her lips are slightly swollen from stretching around my cock. And all I want to do is plow into this woman until we both explode, but first, I want the words.

She hasn’t said them since the night I found her in that fucking cell, and I need them again.

I need her to hear them, too.

“I love you, Megan.” I push my cock against her entrance. “I would kill every man on this planet to keep you safe. I need you to know that. I need you to understand you’re safe with me. I will love you until the world ends.”

Not even death would change my feelings for this woman.

“I know, Alexander.” She smiles. “I love you, too. I can’t explain it and I don’t want to even try. You make me crazy, but I’ve never felt as safe, as loved as when you’re holding me.”

My throat constricts at her words. I’d only wanted three of them, but everything she’s given me has electrified my soul.

I seal my lips over hers and thrust my cock into her. She moans against my mouth, her lips parting and letting my tongue fuck her mouth while I pin her to the shower wall.

Her leg hooks around my hips as I drive into her, fucking her until she’s crying out from the pleasure I give her.

When she comes, her head rolls back, and she cries out. The little moans and gasps ricochet off the shower walls. Her nails dig into my shoulders as I find my own release.

The ecstasy of my orgasm is nothing compared to the heaven this woman has brought into my life. With all the drama, the danger, she dragged love into the light.

What was dark and untended is now bright and thriving.

I press my forehead to hers, gently putting her leg down and letting the spray of the water pelt my back.

“I will never let you go. To do so would kill me.”

She wraps her hands around my neck.

“I love you, Alexander. And I’m not going anywhere.”