Page 26 of Whips and Chains (Saint View Murder Squad #2)

Her anger and irritation with me were practically palpable, even in the soft lamplight.

But I didn’t care. There was blood all matted in her hair, courtesy of the cuts she’d suffered from flying glass.

They didn’t seem to still be bleeding, but just the sight of her injuries had my fingers clenching into fists.

“You don’t know anything about me, Levi.” She shook her head sadly, gazing down at her hands twisting in the quilt.

“Bullshit.”

She glanced up at the harshness of my tone.

But I was so done with this fucking back-and-forth between us. I’d screwed up and I knew it. But I was over her pretending there wasn’t a connection between us. Something that went so much deeper than anything I’d ever experienced before, and one I wasn’t willing to give up.

I stalked toward her, but then kept going into the en suite connected to her room. I went straight to the bath and turned it on, running my fingers beneath the water, checking the temperature was warm enough.

Water flowed from the faucet, and while it was filling the freestanding, claw-foot tub, I hunted around what was clearly a guest bathroom, searching for something that smelled nice to put in the water.

“What are you doing?” Violet asked from the doorway.

“Running you a bath.”

Her lips pursed together. “I can see that. But what I actually meant was, why are you running me a bath?”

The caveman inside me roared it was because I wanted X off her body. I’d watched him fuck her, her fuck him, her take him deep inside while he filled her.

And though it had gotten me hot, there was a base desire inside me that demanded I erase all traces of him and fill her with my own.

But the bigger part of me was more evolved than that.

“I’m taking care of you, because you’re so determined to not take care of yourself.”

She glared at me. “I’m perfectly capable of running myself a bath, Levi.”

I spun around and moved in close, crowding her against the wall. “It’s not about the fucking bath and you know it.”

Her breath hitched.

But I just kept going, pressing right up on her because I couldn’t fucking stop myself.

I wanted to be all up in her space, so every breath she breathed was of my scent.

I wanted that smell of her body permanently imprinted in my brain.

I wanted to feel every rise and fall of her chest, her soft tits against me.

“It’s about the fact you could have gotten killed tonight because you were so hell-bent on avenging Toby’s death that you didn’t even stop to consider you could be walking straight toward your own. ”

Her bottom lip trembled, but her eyes remained hard. “I’m in danger all the time anyway. What the hell does it matter?”

I could see the fear behind the fury. Feel her terror behind the brave face she was putting on. I could practically hear the screams she was keeping inside.

“Oh, Vi.”

She crumpled, her shoulders slumping forward, her head falling against my chest.

I had my arms around her in a heartbeat, her tears soaking my shirt while she sobbed in my arms.

I cradled the back of her head with one hand, my fingers in her matted, bloody hair. I stroked the other up and down her back, whispering words of comfort into her ear, holding her while she finally let out the sadness and grief she’d been keeping inside her for days.

I waited for her to stop, but when she didn’t, I pulled back, undoing the buttons on her jacket.

She just stood there, head hanging, tears rolling down her face, and let me.

The corset and panties I’d seen her in at the club were beneath. I’d found them so damn sexy earlier in the night, but now they were just a barrier to taking care of her.

I edged around her, unlacing the corset and grimacing at the red marks it had left all over her body.

I hated she was hurting herself, shoving herself into a garment that looked like torture.

But I said nothing and let the corset fall to the tiled floor.

Her panties were next, and then I scooped her up in my arms, holding her tight for a few long moments because that’s how long it took me to convince myself I should put her down when everything inside me just wanted to hold her.

But I placed her down in the water anyway, sinking her to the bottom and reveling in the sound of her soft moan of pleasure as the water enveloped her.

“Tilt your head back. Wet your hair.”

She did as I’d asked, bending her knees so she could sink right down deep, fully submerging her upper half.

“This bath is amazing,” she said quietly when she resurfaced. “I never fit in regular bathtubs. I haven’t had one since I was a kid.”

It was definitely a rich person bathtub, not the shitty kind that was so small only a toddler could fit in. It was deep and wide and long enough for a woman who was almost six feet tall. She propped her arms up on the sides and tilted her head back, closing her eyes.

There were no bubbles to hide her body from me, and she didn’t try.

God, that was so fucking sexy. The way she wasn’t trying to shy away from me. The way she just lay there, so I could see every inch of her through the sparkling clear water.

I found a bottle of shampoo in the shower and grabbed a towel hanging on a rack. I tossed it onto the floor at the end of the bath and knelt behind her head.

The squirt of shampoo onto my palm left a fruity-smelling tang in the air, and I lathered up my hands before putting them into her hair.

“I’m sorry if it stings a little,” I said into the quiet of the room, working the soap through the matted lengths and rubbing with extra vigor at the strands that were coated with red. “I’m trying to avoid the cuts on your scalp.”

“Don’t. I don’t care about the pain. Your hands feel good.” She swallowed thickly, her dark eyelashes fanned out across her cheeks. “Please, just don’t stop.”

I would do this all fucking day if that’s what she wanted. There was a practical element of it, and that had been my only intention when I’d started, but she could ask me for the fucking moon, and somehow, someway, I would get it for her.

I didn’t know when I’d fallen in love with her, but it had been long before I’d gotten to see or touch her. This was just an added bonus.

I rinsed her hair once, then lathered it up again. The water turned soapy, but she didn’t seem to mind. Her body relaxed, inch by inch with every stroke of her hair, until it was glossy and her breathing had turned so soft and regular I thought maybe she was asleep.

“Levi,” she whispered.

“Yeah?”

“I’m sorry.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”

She didn’t argue, just sighed softly. “I don’t know how I got here.”

I didn’t either. But a big part of me felt like the shit she’d gone through in the last few weeks was on my shoulders. I knew I couldn’t take full blame. X and Whip were a part of it too, and her own decisions had brought us here as well.

But it didn’t ease the guilt over my part in Toby’s death. My part in the fact danger lurked outside these walls, just waiting for us in the shadows.

But here, she was safe and warm and taken care of.

Which was all I had ever wanted.

Maybe this wasn’t the house with the picket fence I’d promised her. But it was safety. At least for now.

And with threats and danger knocking on our door every time we stepped out of it, right now was all we had.

The scalp massage morphed into a neck massage, my fingers digging into the tight muscles and forcing away the tension. Every finger had a different purpose, my thumbs getting in deep, forefingers soothing the sides of her neck, pinkies brushing the throat I so badly wanted to put my mouth to.

I worked my way across her shoulders, and then down her arms, pressing into her palms, kneading her biceps, stroking her skin.

Sliding back up to caress her chest. The gradual rise of her tits.

Her breath switched from slow and relaxed to something faster. Something needier.

I stroked lower, taking two handfuls of her breasts, cupping them, and groaning at the way they spilled over.

“That feels so good,” she whispered. “Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me for something that is entirely my pleasure, Violet.” I could barely get the words out. They were deep and guttural and laced with need that was directed all at her.

“I’m not even touching you.”

“But you’re naked and wet and letting me touch you.”

She let out a sigh, her eyes fluttering open. She tilted her head back to look up at me.

My heart clenched so fucking tight I thought for a good long second I was having a heart attack.

But then I leaned down and planted my lips on hers, and the tightness in my chest ebbed away into something gentle and sweet.

Her arms lifted to hold each side of my face, and we kissed upside down, both of us soft and quiet, connecting in a way that was so different to the fast-and-hard fuck I’d given her the night before.

That had its place. It had been hot, and it had felt good.

But kissing her like this, intimately, with no audience…fuck. This shit owned my heart.

She twisted, flipping over onto her stomach, her rounded ass so fucking sweet peeking out of the soapy water. Her back arched so she could wrap her arms around my neck and continue kissing me, this time the right way up.

My lips parted, tongue seeking entrance, finding hers ready and willing. I grabbed the back of her head, unable to get enough of her taste, kissing her until my head spun, and all I could see and think and smell and feel was her.

“Need you,” I murmured over her lips, knowing I had no right but wanting it all the same. “Fucking hell, Violet. I love you.”

She drew back, but I didn’t want to see the questions in her expression. Didn’t want to give her the chance to tell me she didn’t feel the same.

I wrapped my arms around her back, hauling her up out of the bath, kissing her mouth so fucking thoroughly she didn’t have a chance to reject me.