Page 105 of Lovely Venom

I rock her without even meaning to. My body just does it.

“I’ve got you,” I whisper over and over. “You scaredthe shit out of me.”

Her fingers curl weakly into my shirt. I think she’s trying to talk, but the words aren’t there yet.

“You can’t leave me, Raina,” I say into her hair. “I just got a taste of losing you, and I swear I can’t handle it.”

I pull back enough to look at her. Her lashes flutter. Eyes glassy. Her mouth twitches.

“You talk too fucking much,” she rasps.

A choked laugh punches from my throat. It’s broken and tight. “The mouth on you. If you weren’t fighting for every breath, I’d teach that mouth a lesson with my cock.” I press a kiss to her forehead.

“I’m okay now.” She tries to push away. “I’ve been dealing with this my whole life.”

“You’re never going through something like that alone again,” I say, holding her tight. “Not while I’m alive.”

She coughs, her whole body sinking into mine as we sit on my floor. I can tell she believes me. Believes that I fucking mean it.

I will let her be the strongest woman in the world, stronger than I am. But I’ll always fight to be the one who gets to carry her when she can’t breathe.

“What now, my love?” I stroke her forehead. “What do you need now?”

She clears her throat, taking tentative breaths like she’s not sure the air will be there. But she’s silent.

The kind of silence that haunts me.

Until she utters, “You need to let me go.”

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Raina

Leave. Leave. I have to leave.

I hear the words in my head and then see them on Connor’s face.

“No.” Connor shakes his head. “You are only safe here with me.”

Noel and Valdrin want me dead. I’m not safe anywhere. That truth twists my entire life into knots.

I summon my strength. “I don’t belong here,” I mutter through dry lips.

“You belongwith me,” Connor says, velvet-wrapped in steel.

My stomach flips, and I welcome the discomfort after a major asthma attack. Any amount of pain is better than suffocating.

“Why?” I ask quietly. “How can you know that?”

“Jesus, Venom. How can you notseeit?” His fingers grip the messy strands of hair plastered against my damp forehead. “From the first night I fucked you, you got under my skin. I didn’t even know your name, but I was already obsessed with you.” His voice drops, rough and low. “I’d been looking for you. I would’ve found you eventually. Tied to the Albanians sent to kill me or not.”

A lump settles in my throat. “Connor.”

“I would have preferred you not come with the complication. But fuck it, my life is boring. You certainly shook things up.” A humorless laugh breaks from his chest as he leans in, lips pressed to my temple. “You’re perfect for me. The way you fight. The way you think. The way youfeel.”

A garbled sound echoes in my throat,but I don’t know if it’s a laugh, a sob, or one more gulp of air. “You don’t even know me.”

“I knowenough.” He roughly exhales, his anger softening into something raw. “And I’m falling for you.”