Page 95 of Lovely Venom

I tighten my grip on Raina’s arm. “I’m taking her to my apartment.”

Rhys doesn’t argue and starts speaking Gaelic into his phone.

“You’re coming with me.” I run my hands up and down her body. “Have any more weapons?”

She grunts, “Thigh.”

I push her against the wall again, my knee right in the crack of her ass. A breathy moan escapes her lips. Using all my weight, I hold her in place. Her body is soft. She’s not coiled to fight me. Watching for a knee in the balls, I palm her thigh until I feel the blade.

I get her favorite knife with the black elk handle from the sheath on her pants and slide it along the floor toward Rhys. “Lock this up, cuz.”

I steer Raina toward the metal door that leads to the passageway connecting my apartment to the chamber. Time is valuable. At any moment, Raina can snap out of her shock and attack me.

“Can I trust you, Venom?” I ask softly. “We’re going to my apartment and we’re going to talk more.”

Raina breathes heavily. “Okay.”

I have to trust her. I have no desire to keep her or any woman a prisoner, tied up, and helpless. My bed, maybe? But for fun, not for torture. Okay, maybe a little torture. Like running my tongue on her clit to bring her to the edge of an orgasm over and over.

With my gun pointed, I nudge her ahead of me. “You know the way. Walk. Take your time. I’ve got all night.”

Nodding, she ambles. Her rubber-soled shoes are silent on the cracked cement heading down to my apartment.

“Did you break into my place again? Is that how you got into the tunnel?”

“Yeah,” she gripes, still sounding out of it.

We make a long, silent journey until I reach the steel door. I push it open and tell her, “Stand in the middle of my living room.”

Wordlessly, she obeys the command. Pleasing me but worrying me as well. She’s not ayes-woman. She’s a rebel. And that feral Albanian blood in her made her a risk-taker.

She stands the way I told her, hands dangling loosely at her side. No clenching fists, no pulse throbbing in her wrist. I bring over a metal chair and plant it in front of her.

“Sit.”

“I’m not a fucking dog,” she spits out.

“Take a seat, princess,” I coddle her.

With softer eyes on me, she plants her ass in the chair. But before she can react, I clip handcuffs to her wrists behind her back.

Squirming immediately, she spits out, “You bastard.”

I bring my face close to hers. “Take it as a compliment, Venom. I know there’s a fight in you somewhere that can come out any second. You’re no submissive. And I fucking love that about you.”

Christ, she’s perfect for me.

“It’s going to be all right,” I whisper, crouched in front of her. “I’ll protect you.”

“You can’t,” she whispers, sounding hopeless.

“Have faith, Raina.” I reach out, tilting her chin up so she has to look at me. “Ididn’t kill Levin Berisha.”

A sliver of awareness flickers in her expression. “Bullshit, they wouldn’t start a war if—”

“Mybrotherkilled Berisha.Andall the men he brought with him that night. I was there, but I didn’t pull the trigger. That was Shane.”

A Shane that not many people have seen.