I will protect my wife at all costs.
CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE
HONEY
It’s quiet when I wake up and for a second I think I’m back in the club. I panic and a deep pang of loss hits me square in the chest because I’m not with Law. But then I really look around. It’s too bright here, the bed too comfortable and it smells like him.Like Law.I clutch the sheets tight and sink down into them again with a smile. I reach up and pull the blankets down around me with a laugh.
“It wasn’t a dream.”
I have to say it out loud. I’m not used to being able to keep things that feel perfect. Not things, not moments, not people. Nothing. It’s always there and gone the next second, but this isn’t like that. This is real and it’s mine.
My chest feels so full it could burst and I sit up with a smile so big it hurts my cheeks. I am deliriously happy. The smile vanishes though when I move to sit up and hiss at the ache between my legs.
“Fuck.” My pussy is sore and bruised. Of course it is. Law spanked the hell out it before he fucked me. I shift onto my hip because my ass is sore too from the night before. I’m standing with a wince when Law comes into the room. He clocks the look on my face and is by my side instantly.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I tell him but he doesn’t look convinced.
“I’m starting a bath for you.” Law shakes his head and moves to leave me but I grab his hand, stopping him. He’s beating himself up. I can tell from the pinched look on his face.
“I’m fine, I promise. I was going to be sore no matter what aftercare you gave me.” He opens his mouth like he’s going to fight me but I press on. “You did everything you could. It’s normal that a girl is sore after everything we did.”
And it’s true. The aftercare Law gave me was exceptional, just like it always was. He bathed me, used a soothing balm on the tender spots I’m feeling now while he doted and fussed over me until I fell asleep. I even woke up with an extra comforter pressing down on me.
“I don’t like that you’re hurt.” He glances towards the bedside table on his end of the bed. “There’s numbing cream I can use.”
I make a face. “No way. It smells.”
Law rolls his eyes at me. “Like pineapple.”
“Only if someone who’s never smelled a pineapple made it.”
“Fine. No numbing cream, but another-”
I shake my head and stretch. “No more baths. I’m fine.” I take a step and frown, trying to get used to the ache between my legs and the kinks in my muscles. Last night was the most activity I’ve had since I went into the club. It’s good that I’m out.
“I didn’t exactly exercise while I was in the club. Any longer in there and I wouldn’t have been able to run when I did. I thought I was going to die about a minute in.”
Law laughs and my eyes shoot to him. “I love it when you laugh,” I tell him honestly. He doesn’t do it often, but when he does? It’s a gift. It stops me in my tracks every time. He stops laughing when I say that, which I hate, but he smiles at me, which I love. I guess it's worth losing his laugh for one of his smiles. Those are just as good when it comes down to it.
“Only do it with you.”
He isn’t lying about that. Law is as stern and taciturn as they come, but never with me.
“Maybe you should try and laugh more. Make it a regular thing even when I’m not around,” I tell him, even though there’s a part of me that doesn’t want him to laugh with anyone else but me. It makes me feel special to know that a man like Law softens for me. Because of me.
He shakes his head. “Not much reason to laugh when you’re not around, princess.”
I blush and duck my head. I like that, but I need to get dressed. If I start thinking about how much I like what Law is saying or what he’s doing then I’m going to end up right back in bed with him, and I can’t do that. I thought long and hard last night. When Law thought I was fast asleep, I wasn’t. I heard him pacing. I knew he was on his phone arranging things today. I heard him working on making me safe when he should have been fast asleep with me. It was hours before he crawled into bed with me and held me. I’d listened to his breathing slow and then even out, and even then I didn’t sleep.
I tried to put it all together. Zeus. Law. Me. What part had my mother played in all of it if she was so easily discarded? Zeus couldn’t have loved her, or maybe he had? Anyone who made the mistake of loving my mother eventually grew to understand just how bad they’d fucked up.
Maybe him fulfilling my wish for revenge was just as much for him as it was for me. Even if it was, why was he so intent on using me to get an heir? Couldn’t he just have another child? He had to have another kid. It couldn’t just be me. And then Law. I know my father had allowed us to be together, but that had to be for a reason too.
Law is the most powerful man in the city. Law Acquisitions is unparalleled in manpower and capital. Its resources are vast and the man in charge of it all is a valuable connection. And that has me coming back to a very specific thought.
What if I was just bait to get to Law?
