Page 103

Something feels off. I’m not sure if it’s because the house is mostly our own again, with the guards staying scarce so we can pretend to live a normal life. Normal for the head of a Yakuza family who sleeps in the house where her old man killed more than a dozen assassins, anyway.

Gina swears the place is safe for us to live in. And, well, it’s kind of home. It was before Mom died, and I guess so now. I have plans to make changes, though. Mostly for my own tastes, not because of terrible memories. This is just a building, nothing more. I’ve never held connections to a place before like others have. It’s what you bring into it that makes it special, not the walls that hold it up.

I feel something coming. Something scary and dark.

I squeeze Atom’s hand and turn my head to look at him. He’s already looking at me, like always, it seems. His smile is soft, but there’s a sadness in his eyes. Something I don’t like to see. It squeezes my heart and makes my belly ache.

I roll closer and lean over him. He stills, letting my hand go as I bring it up to his face. I don’t know how I got a protector like him, but here he is. My feelings for him are complicated and confusing. But I push them down. I don’t want to think about feelings or anything else. I don’t want to think at all.

I kiss his eyelids, which flutter closed. Then I move to his nose, his cheek. A single peck on each before I lick my lips and wait for him to open his eyes once more and look at me. But he doesn’t see me, not really. His eyes are on my lips, and I can’t seem to deny his unspoken request.

I lean down and kiss him. It’s soft, gentle. Almost hesitant with the slow way we move together. Till the moment I open my mouth and let his tongue conquer me. A typhoon of passion swarms us, and we both fight to hold on, molding our mouths together over and over, kissing till we’re breathless and then kissing more because we can. He rolls us till I lie on my back, his arms around me to support me.

I run my hands through his hair, grabbing and tugging as I pull him toward me. His weight falls on me, and I welcome the heaviness of him.

“Cole.” I say his name like a whisper and a prayer all in one.

“I’m here, Sunshine. I’ve got you.” He pulls away to kiss along my jaw and lower, pushing my lace cami straps down. His lips caress every inch of my skin he touches but never go where I need him most.

I wrap my legs around his thighs, moving up and down to seek the friction I so desire. He moves with me, grinding his hard jean-clad dick into the soft skirt I chose for my “unofficial work from home” day.

I chose comfort in my outfit this morning, and I’m only upset that I didn’t choose even fewer clothes than what I have. Because anything between is a barrier right now. One I want to be rid of instantly.

“Please,” I beg as I grip his shoulders, already so close from his simple touch alone.

He chuckles against my skin, making me shiver from his breath and stubble that scrapes along my flesh.

“Is my Sunshine already so close?”

I don’t answer, only moan as he pushes his cock into me, hitting the sweet spot that I never want him to leave.

“Oh yeah. I can tell.” He stops nibbling my shoulder and moves to my ear. His hands are still anchored around me, keeping me in one spot as his hips continue to drill into me with a hard, steady pressure that never seems to be too far away from the spot I want.

“When you get close, you start to shake,” he whispers in my ear, bringing another shake from me. “Your teeth clatter till you can’t take it a second more, and then you chomp them tight as if to hold back your screams. But I don’t want you to be silent. I earned”—he thrusts deeper, and I cry out—“each delightful moan from your lips. Don’t hide them from me. Don’t be so cruel.”

“The… the guards.” I can hardly think when he moves like this. Talking is even worse.

“What about them? Do you think they’ll live if they see something? Gina will cut the eyes out of anyone who dares look on someone she claims as hers.”

He’s not wrong. Somehow, I think my lead guard and protector has developed a crush on me since she saw me shed some blood. A kiss on the cheek here, a caress on the arm there. Nothing too much that makes me worried she’d take it further. But she calls me hers. Hers to protect and guard.

“And what… what about you?”

Another time my mouth shares what’s in my heart but should only be reserved for my mind to hear.

“What would I do to them? Oh, Sunshine, I’ll obliterate anyone who dares to see something so precious. Like the sun, you are. Directly looking would make them go blind, and I would be only too happy to take their eyes and their heads.”

I shake my head as I push my hips up a bit more. He’s teasing me with the way he moves his hips in a circle, close and far all at once.

“No. Do you… do you have a claim on me? Is that how you see me?”

He doesn’t go still, but his words don’t flow like before. The quickness in his reply is gone.

“I’m whatever you need. Whatever you want me to be.”

He doubles down on the pressure and bites my neck in a way that has me coming like a girl with her first crush.

And maybe I am.