Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105065 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 525(@200wpm)___ 420(@250wpm)___ 350(@300wpm)
I don’t reply. There are tears burning the back of my eyes. The question I really want to ask is how long it took him to notice I was gone. It’s crazy, and stupid, but it’s there. Lachlan unbuckles me and pulls me across the seat so I’m sitting in his lap. He presses my head against his chest and kisses my hair over and over.
“I thought you were gone,” he says. “I thought they took you, and the last thing ye’d think of me…”
He becomes too choked up to speak, and despite my best efforts, the tears start to spill over. Him being emotional makes me emotional. I can’t help it. I know what he thought. That I’d just learned he was due to marry someone else, and it was the last thing I would remember before I was taken. I can’t discuss that with him now. I’m not in the right frame of mind to think clearly. So I tell him what he needs to hear instead.
“It’s not your fault. They were waiting for us. Someone must have told them about Niall’s party.”
He nods and runs a shaky hand through his hair. I’ve never seen him so worked up. So off balance. If I had any doubts about what he may have felt for me, or the lengths he was willing to go, it’s all over his face now. It only manages to crush me that much more.
“I should’ve considered the possibility,” he says. “I should’ve…”
“Lach.”
He returns my gaze with pleading eyes and I give his hand a little squeeze. “That doesn’t matter now,” I tell him. “What matters is that you shut down their operation. Promise me. I need your word that you will.”
His hands move up to cup my face as he leans closer so there isn’t a doubt about what he has to say next. “Ye have my word, butterfly. I will burn them to the ground.”
I nod and reach up to touch his face. I believe him. He will do this for me.
“Take me inside,” I plead. “I need to get cleaned up.”
Two minutes later, he’s got me inside the house, carrying me down the hallway in his arms. Lach pushes open the bathroom door with his shoulder and sets me on the counter. He kneels down to take off my heels, and then slowly works his hands up my body, checking over my wounds.
I don’t miss the fact that he hesitates around my thong, glad to find it intact, but the question still lingering in his eyes.
“They didn’t,” I tell him. “I wouldn’t let them.”
“Thank Christ for that, sweetheart.” He stands up and buries his face in my neck, inhaling me. His hands are rough on my body, possessive, and it hurts. But I don’t care. I need this right now. I need him. He kisses my face, gently, and everywhere but on the lips. Smoothing back my hair, he rubs his palms over my shoulders, warming me.
“Where does it hurt?” he asks.
“Everywhere,” I tell him.
I already know what he’s thinking. His eyes are turbulent, filled with regret and a thousand other emotions. He needs to go deal with this nightmare, but I don’t want him to leave yet.
“I want you to take it away.”
He pauses and then nods, turning on the shower and helping me get the rest of the material off my body. He helps me inside the shower, and then makes quick work of his own clothing, stepping in behind me. For a long time, we just stand there under the hot spray, me leaning against his chest while he holds me in his arms. I’ve never felt this way before. Felt so emotional. So… helpless.
“I’m sorry, Mack,” he says again.
I turn in his arms and catch his face in my hands, pulling it down to mine. His eyes flare when our lips meet and I wrap my hands around his waist and tug him closer.
“I need you.”
My words ignite something inside of him. Something he must have been holding back. Because a moment later, he has me pressed up against the wall, my legs around his waist as he pushes inside of me.
“They will never touch ye again,” he swears as he drives into me. “I’ll make certain of that.”
It shouldn’t turn me on, but it does. His possessiveness, his need to protect and avenge me. Do I feel sorry for the scum that are trafficking women or the wrath that’s about to befall them? Hell fucking no I don’t. I know how the system works. There is no justice as swift and righteous as what Lachlan will dole out.
I tangle my fingers in his hair and kiss him with the brutal need to express my gratitude. I knew he would come for me tonight. I knew it. I want to believe he would always come for me, but I know it isn’t true. It isn’t the time, but I can’t stop myself from asking anyway.
“How long do I get to keep you for?”
He stops thrusting and stares down at my face, my tears mixing with the water from the shower. His fingers brush over my cheek and down my throat, pausing over my heart.
“Do ye think I’d ever let you go?” he asks.
I look away. His eyes are lying to me. Telling me that what he says is true. But I know it isn’t. I won’t be his mistress. I won’t be his anything. This thing between us was doomed to fail from the start.
“You’re going to marry one of them,” I choke out.
“No,” he growls.
But when I look up at his face, the indecision is there. The confusion. This is his duty to the syndicate, and I can’t change that. Even if I could, I’ve been lying to him all along too. I have to accept that I can’t keep him. The only thing I can do now is enjoy the time I do have with him.
“Fuck me, Lach.”
He does. He drives into me frantically, smashing my back against the wall with his need to claim me. I’m digging my nails into his shoulders, squeezing my legs around him as I try to hold on.