AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I can’t listen to anything else, moving back to my bed, I plop down and try to starve off the panic racing through me.
He’s going to come for me.
And there’s no reason he couldn’t. He has resources no ordinary man does. He has the means to ruin me for what I’d done. And if I were him, that’s what I’d do. Self-preservation gets the better of us. He’s going to re-bury me, and this time I’m not certain there won’t be actual dirt involved.
“Sorry,” Gage says, moving back into the room. Seeing me on the edge of the bed heaving massive breaths, he drops to his knees and lifts my face. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re going to be fine!” he tells me.
“The things I did to him...I’m like him. I’m a monster, and now he’s free! He’s going to come for me, Gage.” My hands are shaking, and I grasp them together to stop them before Gage drops his touch over them.
He shakes his head. “He’s not coming for you. And what you did was warranted. Shit, more than what you did was warranted. He got off easy if you ask me, and I know he’s going to feel the same fucking way, but it’s going to be short-lived, you’re right. I’m going to find out who helped him escape, and then he’s going to be mine.”
Shaking my head, I stammer, “We can’t. We need to leave it. I’m fine.”
“No, little one, you’re not.” His hand caresses my cheek lightly, his touch calming me. “You will be, though. I’m going to watch you take back what he took. Just as I did tonight. And fuck, it was beautiful.”
My chest heats, body thrumming to life under his touch and his words. I’m fucked up, and I know I am. I shouldn’t be feeling this way for a man who’s clearly a psychopath, but all I want is him to lay me back on my bed and make me forget Emery. Make me forget that his touch ever existed.
“You were magnificent, as I told you. You will be okay. But you’re not right now, are you?” he asks, brushing his thumb over my open mouth as a moan expels onto his rough flesh.
I shake my head. “No. I’m not.”
He nods. “But you will be, won’t you, little phoenix?”
He leans forward, his breath fanning across my lips, calling a depraved side of me to the surface like blood in the water calls a shark. My eyes shut. “I will be.”
“That’s right,” he whispers, his lips a hair’s breadth from touching mine.
My breathing is ragged at best, and I can think of nothing else but him. Of his searing kiss. Of his body moving inside mine.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask.
“Because you’re mine, Carina. And I protect what’s mine. I wasn’t there then, but I’m here now, and he’s going to fucking pay.”
A whimper escapes me at his admission, his words breaking my resolve as tears escape my eyes and betray down my cheeks.
“This flesh will never know another bruise. You’ll never again be broken. Not as long as I draw breath.” His words filter through my ears, waking every nerve in my body as they move through my brain.
“Where have you been? I needed you for so long,” I sob, opening my eyes to see pain slip through his eyes like the shadows he loves to hide in.
“Wandering an empty, dull world, looking for you. I’ve always felt my life’s purpose was beyond the next job, around the next corner...” he trails off, words failing him.
I smile, wiping some of my messy tears off my face. “And then I spilled coffee on you, and you said there it is?” I ask, a laugh bubbling out of me.
He smiles warmly, and it’s the first time I’ve seen something overtake the danger that resides on the surface of his face. And it’s beautiful. “Exactly.”
“I know you said you need time,” he says, sighing and sitting back on his haunches and changing the moment. “But I don’t know if I can go back to the shadows, Carina. If you want me to, I’ll do as you ask, of course. I don’t know why, but I will.” His smirk is something I won’t soon forget. It’s filled with his reluctant admission of how much power I have over him, and I know he’s only given it for that reason. His mission seems to be to give something back to me.
“Too much has happened tonight, Gage. I can’t think anymore.” Dropping the towel, exposing myself to him, I crawl on my bed and slip under the covers. “Stay with me?”
He stands, contemplating. I’m sure it’s strange for him to think about beinginthe bed and not standingoverit for once.
“You can smell my panties if you want,” I tease, pointing toward the hamper.
His jaw ticks as he tries to fight a smile. “That’s how it is, hmm? You’re already so comfortable with my stalking you that you can joke?”
I shake my head. “I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay with the idea that you were standing over my bed. Although...” I trail off, rubbing my finger over my lips as I contemplate how to say what I want to say.
He kicks his boots off, slipping onto the bed and lying next to me over the covers. “What? Tell me.”
