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“I’m not leaving her,” Knox said. “She’s fucking terrified. I can feel her trembling.”
“I’ll go get her clothes,” Allegra said. I followed her out of the room. Once the door was closed, I leaned against the wall. Allegra stepped into me and wrapped her arms around my waist. Tears slipped onto her cheeks.
“Come.” I scooped her into my arms, carried her into our room, and set her on our bed. I kneeled on the floor in front of her.
Allegra slipped her fingers through my hair. I lifted my face, took her hand in mine, and rubbed a dried blood stain with my thumb.
“I want to take a shower.” She tightened the jacket around her. “I need to wash tonight off of me.”
I released a long steady exhale, fighting the emotions burning through my chest. Certified virgin. But Deidre’s virginity wouldn’t matter if they broke her mind.
And my beautifully brave wife wasn’t cowering from her experience, but they’d broken her body. Bruises marred her once flawless flesh. Hazel eyes still sparked with fire but now darkened with a dangerous perception. They’d taken her innocence. She’d killed men today.
Had they taken anything else from her?
I stood, laced our fingers, and led her into the bathroom. As I started the shower, she paused in front of the mirror, touched her face, and carefully traced the bruises. Her fingertips brushed along the edges of her cracked and tender lips.
Her gaze lifted to mine. “I’m sorry.”
I closed the distance between us. “Are you sorry for protecting your sister?” I kept my eyes on hers in our reflection as I pressed a kiss to the delicate spot beneath her ear. “Sorry for trusting the only man who has never wavered in his loyalty to you? Sorry for risking your life? Sorry for bringing me to my knees? For forcing me to admit my weakness?”
“Weakness?”
With a gentle tug, the suit coat slipped from her body. She gasped at the black and purple injury to her ribs. Bruises marred the flesh of her breasts and discolored the skin around her clavicle.
“Emotions make a man weak. I think of nothing but you. I want only you. Topolina, mylittle mouse, I’m nothing without you. I have nothing without you.”
With a featherlight touch, I trailed kisses along her shoulder. She trembled with every whispered breath over the rim of her slightly parted lips.
“You’re the air I breathe.” I rasped my thumb across her tightened nipple. “The fire in your eyes heats the blood in my veins.” I sucked a kiss to her neck. “I need to be where you are. I’m yours.”
“I have only ever been yours.” Her gaze softened. Her words became a whisper. “You don’t have to ask me. I’d slit my own throat before I let another man touch me.” She turned in my arms. “I will only ever be yours.”
Pain clawed its way into my throat. The tightness, the fear, the suffocating truth that she could’ve been taken from me.
“Fuck, don’t ever leave me.” I slipped her wedding ring from my pinky. The red stone blinked and sparkled.
“You’re all I want.” She exhaled, her body leaning into mine. “All I’ve ever wanted.”
Steam filled the small space. She was all I could see, her scent surrounded me, and a turbulent spiral of possessiveness coiled tightly inside me.
I rested my forehead against hers. “I’ve made promises to you. But those were made by an arrogant man who failed to realize he owed more to his wife than the protection of his name.”
She touched me, her fingertips soft against my beard. “We both made empty promises.”
“I can change.” I would for her. “I’ll never doubt you again, never question your loyalty to me, and I’ll never betray your trust in me.” My voice quivered. “I never want you to fear me, Allegra.” I stared hard into her eyes. “I know I left you broken.”
I slid the ring onto her finger. “I only took it off because I knew I was breaking my vow to you. I couldn’t wear your ring when I knew I was breaking your trust in me.”
I kissed her fingertips. “I’ll be by your side. I’m going to spend my life loving you.”
She lifted her face to mine. “I love you.”
Allegra
I curled my fingers around his neck and pulled his mouth to mine. His touch branded my body, and his kiss caught fire to my soul.
With one hand, he cradled my head and the other slid over my hip and onto my ass, crushing the contours of my pelvis to the rigid length of his cock stretched along his groin.
