Her cheeks glistened as she smiled through her tears. “Nothing could’ve prepared me for this. Nothing could’ve taught me to feel this way. I’m ready to forget everything. I’m ready to be selfish and steal you like you stole me.”
She cried out as I thrust my fingers deeper inside her, tearing my name from her lips.
“I—I only want you,” she groaned. “Only you. Promise me that I can keep you. Promise me.”
My heart…shit, my heart.
It unlocked.
The padlock fell free.
Her words were a key. Her forgiveness and love and strength and everything that made her pure stole me from my life of pain.
She changed me.
Right there.
Right then.
I became hers.
Irreversibly.
“I promise,” I swore. I needed to climb into her soul and cement everything we’d just confessed. “I’m so messed up over you. I—” I couldn’t talk anymore. I was too fucking fragile. Too overwhelmed.
I grabbed her chin, twisting her neck to kiss me. I took her mouth savage and strong. I drove my tongue past her lips and admitted once and for all that I might be a Hawk; I might be a son destined for tragedy, but none of that mattered as long as I had her.
She trembled in my hold as I kissed her deeper, harder. My thumb swirled on her clit, matching the rhythm of my fingers driving in and out of her pussy.
Her hips moved, using me to drive herself to ecstasy.
“Promise me that you’ll never cut me out. Promise me that you’ll never walk away—no matter how badly I fuck up.” I wanted to bind her in this moment—an ironclad agreement that she would never leave—no matter how bad things got.
Because I would fuck it up. She would end up hating me.
I had debts to extract, her brother to dispatch, and an empire to steal.
I wasn’t perfect. Her love didn’t make me a better man—it just gave me the strength to continue fighting.
Her inner walls fluttered around my touch. My mouth watered to taste her.
“I—I promise.” Another cry escaped as her hips rocked harder on my hand. I wrapped my arm tighter around her.
“Oh, God…yes…Jethro…please…” Her face flushed, every muscle hummed with the need to release.
She gave me complete control over her body and soul.
I lost it.
“Christ, I want to be inside you.” I grabbed my cock, riding my palm. “So much. So fucking much.” I jacked off with brutal violence, trying to tame the lust in my blood all while making it worse.
I’d never needed anyone as much as I needed her.
I’d never had the need to draw pain or bite or devour. But now I did. I wanted to ruin her. I was out of my mind with fucking desire.
Nila reached behind, steadying my hand. Her breathing was as ragged as mine. “I need it, too.” Biting her lip, she guided my pounding erection between her legs and pushed against the side. “Don’t hold back. Never again. I can handle what you have to give.”
I shivered. “Fuck, Nila.”
She wanted everything.
She wanted me. All of me. The twisted parts. The dark parts.
Me.
She was…peace. She was…sanity. She was…home.
She wants me.
I clenched my jaw. Her heat beckoned me. I was no longer human but an animal who needed to claim his mate.
Fisting the base of my cock, I bent my knees and thrust.
We both groaned.
It felt so fucking good.
Her slipperiness coated me, but it wasn’t enough. She was too tight.
A tameless growl echoed in my chest as she pushed back, forcing me to fill her faster.
“Shit,” I grunted as she pushed again.
“More. I need more,” she begged.
I almost came from the exquisite tightness of her body. Every ripple of her muscles was like a fist around my girth. My balls twitched, preparing to spurt inside this woman—my fucking woman—now that I was rightfully home.
“I have to work you. You’re not relaxed enough.”
She shook her head, her face twisting with need. “No. Give it to me. Goddammit, Jethro, please…fuck me. I can’t…” Her core contracted as I thrust again.
My lips pulled back as I drank in her piercing lust. “You need me inside you?”
“Yes. God, yes.”
I drove harder. “You need me to fuck you?”
Her head flew back as I forced my size past her body’s limits. “Yes. I need you. All of you.”
I was only half-way in. My dick was too much for her. As much as she wanted me, as enticing as her moans were, I refused to hurt her more tonight. Tonight was about pleasure.
“I’m going to fill you.”
“Please.”
“I’m going to fuck you so hard, you’ll stay wet for days just thinking of me taking you in this pool.”
Nila bit her lip. “Do it, Jethro. Punish me. Teach me that I belong to you.”
Fuck.
I’d never been a talker in sex. Never saw the allure of dirty whispers. But now all I could think about was talking filthy and wrong.
Reaching between her legs, I rubbed her clit—faster and faster with one goal in mind.
“You’re going to come for me, little Weaver. You’re going to drench my dick and let me inside you.” I breathed harder, rocking faster, forcing her higher.
“No, I want—”
“You don’t get what you want. This is what I want. I want you to know who’s fucking you. I want you to know whose cock is taking you. I need you to scream for me, Nila.”
I didn’t give her any reprieve. I forced her to feel everything. I wanted her orgasm. She owed me her pleasure.
Nila stiffened; her elbows gave out as she flattened against the side. “Stop—wait…”
“No.” I thrust with each swirl of my thumb, gradually spreading her—crawling inside. “I’m the one taking you. I’m the one riding you. I’m the one you want. Admit it!”
Her mouth opened as she silently screamed. Her entire focus turned inward.
I thrust harder. “Say it. Admit that you want me. Admit that you like what I’m doing to you.”
Her eyes wrenched open, connecting with mine.
My heart fell down a rabbit hole, completely under her spell.
“Yes, I admit it. I feel you. I want you so much! Fuck me. Please…fuck me.”
I couldn’t deny her.
My hips rocked, my thumb swirled.
“Come. Come on my cock.”
Her body rebelled, clamping around me. I struggled to breathe. I groaned as her pussy flexed tighter and tighter. I saw fucking stars.
“Jethro—” Her breathing turned to breathless pants. The muscles along her spine contorted with pressure. She wiggled, trying to dislodge my hold on her clit. “It’s too intense—”
I didn’t let her move. “You don’t know the meaning of intense. I’ll show you intense. I’ll show you what it’s like to live in a world full of fucking intensity.” Bowing over her, I bit her ear. “Come, Nila. Come for me. Let me give you pleasure after the pain I’ve caused.”
Her legs gave way; a long moan crawled from her throat.
Then, she detonated.
I caught her as an orgasm ripped through her core, sucking and melting around my cock. “Yes…Oh, my God…”
I clamped a hand over her mouth as she screamed in delirium. My forehead furrowed as incredible waves of pressure milked my cock as her pussy contracted.
I wanted to come. Shit, I wanted to come.
With each wave, her body tried to reject my size, but then…on the final crest of her orgasm, wetness gushed. She welcomed me with perfect rapture.
I groaned.
“I’m taking you now, Ms. Weaver. You’re all mine.”
Bending over her, I let myself loose.
In one vicious rock, I claimed her. I slid deep, deep inside.
There wa
s no resistance. Nothing barring me from filling her completely. The head of my cock banged against the top of her, tearing a guttural grunt from my chest.
“Christ!” I thrust again, loving how deep I could go. Her liquid heat slicked over me, turning friction into sheer-minded lust.
I could’ve come right there.
I could’ve come a hundred fucking times.
But yet again, I needed more. So much more.
Nila’s hands slapped on the side, her fingers struggling for purchase as I stopped thinking, stopped feeling, and gave into what I needed.
I rode her.
So. Damn. Hard.
I claimed her.
So. Damn. Hard.
I grabbed her hips and punished both of us for finding what we never thought we’d find. I broke myself by shattering my walls and admitting without her…I was nothing.
Nothing.
I fucked her. I loved her.
I gave everything to her.
My teeth sank into the spot between her shoulder and neck as sweat ran down my back. I wanted to puncture her skin. I never wanted to let go.
The diamonds in her collar reflected the sapphire of the water, blinding me.
Her whimpers echoed in my ears as she tilted her head, giving me more authority, more control with my primitive hold. Unable to stop myself, I bit harder, licking her salty skin, relishing in her flinch.
My teeth sank deeper, and only once I tasted the faintest tang of blood did I stand up and fuck her harder. My fingers gripped her hipbones, conveying greed and possession. My entire mind-set became feral, needing to conquer this woman.
My woman.
Nila turned her head, pressing her cheek to the side. A wince knitted her brows, her lips bowed in pain, but I couldn’t stop.
Wouldn’t stop.
“Yes. More, Jethro. More.”
My chest rose and fell with laboured breaths, my muscles spasmed as I sent my body hurtling into euphoria.
Her eyes opened and I lost myself in the dark chasm of mesmerizing love.
She loved me.
She fucking loves me.
The unmistakable vulnerability of such an emotion tore open my heart.
The cuts on my feet bellowed as I dug my toes into the silty bottom and rode her harder, giving her my entire length thrust after thrust after thrust.
“Nila—fuck—”
I jerked. My orgasm shot unrestrained from my balls. It exploded up my cock with such intensity, I folded over her back. “Goddammit,” I groaned, sucking in her hair as savage streams of cum erupted from my tip.
Her inner muscles demanded more, conjuring every last drop of semen I had to give. The release kept going and going, threatening to burst my heart as my body continued to devour hers. Ecstasy sparkled in every cell as I hit the top of her, spurting one last time as deep as I could go.
“Feel that?” I asked, grunting as a final wave stole my ability to breathe. Sweat ran down my temples, drenching my hair. “You’re inside me, Nila Weaver—as surely as I’m inside you.”
“You’re it for me, Jethro. You’ve destroyed me.” Her voice was soft, dreamy.
I bent to kiss her—the sweetest, gentlest kiss. “You’re wrong. You’re the one who’s destroyed me.”
Ending the kiss, Nila just watched me. No words. No questions.
She accepted everything I gave her. She hadn’t looked away while I lost myself in her—she’d given me something I’d never had before. She gave me everything—let me witness how true and steadfast it was.
Trust.
Connection.
No lies.
She fucking loved me.
She’d given me a new beginning.
“WHEN WILL YOU tell me?”
Jethro’s step faltered, his eyes shooting to mine.
His naked torso was damp and flushed with heat from the cave-springs, a white towel riding low on his hips.
He’d offered to carry me, but I’d chosen to walk—even though I was just as naked with only a towel hiding my modesty.
I was alive.
The sooner my body remembered how to move, the better.
Even though hate had killed me, love had revived me.
Jethro had salvaged me and brought me back.
He’d done more than bring me back.
He’d given me a new home—inside him.
I’m alive because of him.
The Second Debt had taken everything from me.
But Jethro had given it back a hundred fold.
We ghosted to a stop outside my bedroom door. Jethro was the perfect suitor, walking me home after the strangest day of all. His hand came up to cup my cheek, a sigh escaping his lips. “I will tell you, but it’s not a simple matter of blurting it out.”
I turned my head and kissed his palm, never breaking eye contact. “Whatever it is, I’ll understand.”
He smiled sadly. “That’s the thing; you probably won’t. To tell you what I am means I’ll have to tell you everything. About the debts, the reasoning, my role.” He hung his head. “It’s a lot.”
I shuffled closer, wrapping my arms around his warm body. “Tomorrow. Meet me after breakfast and take me somewhere far from here. Tell me then.”
His nostrils flared. “You want to go off the grounds? Away from Hawksridge?”
The thought excited me. I didn’t want to go back to London or seek out my old life—not anymore, but it would be nice to go somewhere just the two of us.
A date.
“You can trust me, Jethro. You know that. I wouldn’t run if you took me somewhere public.”
A painful shadow crossed his face. “I know you wouldn’t. And that’s what fucking kills me.”
My heart stuttered. “Why?”
He slouched, pushing me against my door so my back kissed the wood and his lips kissed mine. The kiss was fleeting and soft, but the emotion behind it squeezed my chest with an agonising weight.
I didn’t know what the weight was. But the pressure built and built with words dying to leap free.
I.
Love.
You.
After what had just happened between us, it was all I could think about. I wanted to scream them. Blare them. Let him know that my caring for him wasn’t conditional or cruel.
I loved him. For him. For his soul.
His lips skated over mine again—the sweetest connection.
“Jethro,” I breathed. “I—I lo—”
He froze, slamming his fingers over my mouth. “Don’t say it.” Dropping his touch, he shook his head. “Don’t say it. Please, Nila.”
“But why shouldn’t I…when it’s the truth.” The weight on my heart grew deeper, stronger. I had no choice but to tell him. The words physically suffocated me, needing to be said. “You mean everything to me.” Placing my hand over his heart, I whispered. “Kite…I’m in love with you. It doesn’t come with conditions or commands. I can’t hate you for what you did today or what you might do in the future. I’m scared and lost and absolutely terrified that I’m doing the wrong thing by choosing you over my own life—but…I have no choice.”
He sucked in the sharpest breath. “You called me Kite.”
My heart bottomed out.
His name bulldozed through the partition I’d managed to keep in place. My feelings toward Kite plaited with my feelings for Jethro.
I slammed deeper into love.
He’s mine.
His eyes squeezed closed, pressing his forehead on mine. “Nila…you—you don’t know what you’re doing to me.” He trembled in my arms, his hands bracing himself on the door. “Take it back. I—I can’t take so much from you.”
“I can’t take back something that already belongs to you.”
Tears.
I wanted to cry.
I wanted free my terror at falling in love. I wanted to beg him to be strong enough to choose me after stealing everything that I was.
I couldn’t compete with what he did to me in the spring.
He’d reached inside me and ripped my heart from my chest. I didn’t fight it. In fact, I’d carved it out for him.
My hands were bloody from presenting it to him with open arms.
I.
Love.
Him.
Before, I was in a cage.
I wasn’t any more.
I could see. I was free. I believed.
“Tomorrow.” He exhaled shakily. He clasped my jaw, running his thumbs over my cheeks. “You’re mine. You deserve to know the man you’ve chosen—the man you’ve saved.”
A shooting star sliced through my soul. “I saved you?”
A soft smile tugged his lips. “You have no idea, do you?” He kissed my forehead, filling it with overwhelming feeling. “No idea what you’ve done to me.”
His delectable smell wisped around us. I wanted to fall into him and never let go.
He whispered, “Tomorrow, everything that I am becomes yours.”
I shivered at the truth in his eyes, the echoing affection. “Tomorrow.”
With a barely-there kiss, he transmitted every emotion he couldn’t say and backed into the shadows of the corridor. “Tomorrow, I’m taking you away from here. I’ll give you what you’ve selflessly given me. I’ll tell you…everything.”
Overnight, I’d turned from a supple young woman to arthritic hag.
I didn’t sleep. I doubted I’d ever be able to sleep again with the excitement of what today would bring.
Jethro will tell me.
Finally, I would know.
Last night, I’d thought about reading the Weaver Journal to see how my mother and grandmother felt paying the Second Debt. Had they made note of it? Or were they like me and saw what the Journal was—a way to monitor our hearts and minds? I wanted to see if they’d done what I did: fall for their tormentors.
But despite my bouncing mind and infectious energy, my body grew stiffer by the moment.
It ached, it screamed, it needed to rest.
I’d returned from the dead.
Relearning to live again wasn’t easy.
I would have days of recovering ahead and it became painfully obvious when I went to stand. My shoulders cried from the simple motion of shoving my sheets away. My legs promptly went on strike as they touched the thick carpet.