Once I’m as naked as Justine’s vulnerability makes her, I raise my eyes to Justine’s face. She’s still facing the mirror, but her eyes haven’t left mine the past two minutes. “Turn around.”
It’s a hard struggle to conceal my smugness when she follows my order without batting an eyelid. Once again, she’s not being submissive. She’s just being open to the idea not everyone is out to hurt her.
I wait for her eyes to stop scanning my body before saying, “Come here.”
I can’t hold back my smile when she whispers, “No. I’m safer here,” so I set it free. It doubles the heat on Justine’s cheeks while ensuring me I’m on the right path. This is all new to me. I’ve never done anything like this before. I’ve only ever placed myself first.
That’s set to change now.
“I guess I’ll come to you then.” When I take a step forward, Justine takes a shaky one back. “Don’t run unless you want to be chased,Ahren.” My growl of her nickname reveals how far out of my depth I am. I’m struggling just as much as Justine. I’m just too fucking stubborn to back down. “I will chase you no matter how fast you run. Because I know that’s what you want.”
My cock throbs with want when my threat freezes her feet. She watches my stalk across the room with wide, hungry eyes, proving she doesn’t just want to be chased. She wants to be devoured as well.
I’ll give her what she wantsaftershowing her only the most courageous people have scars.
Some wear them on the body.
Others wear them on their hearts.
Justine wears hers beautifully.
With peering into Justine’s eyes, I gather her hand in mine before tracing it over the tattoo just left of my six-pack. Tears pool in her eyes when it dawns on her why the scales in the dragon’s head look real… because they are. My dragon tattoo conceals over half a dozen scars that sizes differ as much as the reason I have them. Some are grazes from being dragged, others are cigar burns, and the main one is from the acid on Rico’s back soaking into my hip when I struggled to keep him on his feet while moving him from the dungeon he was tortured in to his bedroom.
The second scar I show Justine is the one Rico gave me after he learned I organized for his wife to be raped and killed. When he used my knife against me, I did nothing to stop him. I tried to lessen the severity of the blaze when I order Blaire’s hit, but I still played with fire, so I deserved to get burned.
After showing Justine a handful of less memorable scars on my back and chest, I lower her hand to the gravely skin stretched across my right rib. This scar is more notable than the rest because it’s a reminder that no amount of fear will ever abolish my sins. I can beat them until their skin is as black as mine was when I was tortured. I can whip their backs until their blood pools around their feet, and I can stomp on them until their bones break under the pressure, but there is one thing they stole from me only now am I realizing no amount of retaliation will return.
My freedom.
I thought they broke me thirteen years ago.
I thought they stole my wish to live even more than the hell I was born in.
I thought I was worthless.
I know better now.
Time didn’t heal my wounds. Showing an angel her scars mean she is stronger than the person who tried to break her did. The wounds of our battles reveal how hard we fought to survive. We didn’t break, cower, or give up. We rose above the ashes and conquered the beast.
We chose to live.
With my chest sitting as high as my determination to show this beautiful woman just how perfect she is, I lock my eyes with Justine’s and ask, “Do you see me any differently now, Justine?”
She answers me in a way I never anticipated, but in a manner that may very well kill me if I don’t tread carefully.
She kisses me.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When Justine’s tongue slides across my parched mouth, I fist my hands into balls. My fight not to touch her is the cruelest I’ve faced. I’m not denying her kiss because our exchange is more emotion-packed than lust-filled. It’s because I know firsthand how fucked your thoughts become when you’ve been pushed to the brink.
I don’t want to break Justine. I want her to be free, so if I have to walk the through the gates of hell alone to ensure that happens, I’ll do it. I will do anything necessary to stop her wings being clipped as mine wrongly were thirteen years ago.
My resolve slips when Justine murmurs over my mouth, “I want you.” She locks her eyes with mine. They’re crammed with undogged determination. “I’ve wanted you from the moment I laid my eyes on you.” Her lips raise against mine as a mischievous gleam in her eyes brightens. “And now that I’m not your attorney, I can have you.”
When my lips crack into a smile, pleased she’s not mad I had her pulled off my case in a moment of childish anger, she fills in the gap with her tongue. The moan she releases while dragging her tongue along the roof of my mouth thickens my cock to the point it’s painful.
The tightness of my jaw gives away my fight, much less than the throb of my dick when she rakes her fingers through my hair to deepen our kiss. I breathe in her deep exhale when her endeavor to make us one has my cock’s head getting friendly with her aching clit through her scarce panties.
