“You have my orders,” I tell Kai. He nods, and I follow her out.
In the hall, she hasn’t gone far, and I catch up to her. “What the hell were you thinking? You are the one who came to me to kill that bastard, and now you don’t like the way I do it? You don’t have a choice, Angel.”
She lets out a long sob and then sinks to the floor at my feet. I hate the sight of her bare legs on the cold hardwood, but I crouch down beside her anyway. “What’s going on? Tell me, please, before I have to punish you, and neither of us wants that.”
She gasps and looks up at me through tear-dotted lashes. “P-P-Punish me?”
“You just walked into my command room, countermanded an order I made to my team, and disrespected me in front of them. What would your father do to you if you had done that?”
Her already pale skin turns ashen. “I just can’t let you give him money. More children will be hurt in the most terrible ways. He used to force me to watch videos he and his men made of…” She puts her hand across her mouth and swallows hard like she is about to be sick.
I tuck her head against my chest. It’s an awkward angle, but I need to feel her to step back from some of this rage. From the demand to claim and conquer at all costs.
“Talk to me, Angel. Talk to me so I don’t do something we’ll both regret later.”
She wraps her hands around my biceps and lets me hold her tighter. “Wh-hat should I say?”
“Anything, Angel. Anything.”
I hear her hard swallow, and then she shifts her head slightly. But she doesn’t speak. When she opens her mouth again, she starts to sing an old Czech lullaby, and her voice is…haunting. Not in a please stop singing sort of way. It echoes inside me straight to my memory, and suddenly, it’s not my angel and me, but my mother holding me, singing the same lilting song to lull me to sleep.
It sinks into my bones, instantly calming me in a way I haven’t felt since I was a child. I still and let her soothe away some of the chaos and some of the darkness.
I pick her up in my arms as she keeps singing to me and carry her back to our bedroom. It’s not until I set her on the bed that she stops, and I sink to my knees in front of her. She doesn’t make a sound when I spread my shirt open to reveal her bare skin and the tiny lace scrap of her underwear.
If I can’t take her, right here, right now, then I’m going to touch her this way. Give her back some of the bliss she’s given me.
I strip her panties away in one smooth motion, and her hands sink into my hair.
“Wait, please, don’t.”
I pause long enough to look up her body at all her pinky pale skin and the soft peach tips of her nipples. “I’m doing this, Angel. Consider it your punishment. We are moving things forward. I won’t sink inside you yet, but this is the payment I require for your interruption.”
Her fingers sift through my hair a moment, and I allow her time to think about it. Even if the result will be the same. Giving her time won’t change what I’m going to do, but if it gives her comfort, then I’ll use these little pauses to my advantage.
The seconds tick by without a word. And when she’s come to some sort of decision, she spreads her legs a little bit wider and lays her head back on the bed. Right now, she looks like she’s about to go through the world’s worst doctor’s visit. With a front row view of her pussy, I focus on my task.
She’s pink here too, and as I spread her open, she gasps. It makes me chuckle. “I haven’t even touched you properly yet, Angel. Wait a moment to be impressed.”
Her legs quake around my shoulders, and I reach out and scoop her by the ass to drag her toward me. I laugh again at her little squeal of surprise.
“Relax, love, I’m not going to hurt you. The opposite, in fact.”
I don’t give her time to shy away. I lean and slide my tongue from the little pucker of her asshole to her clit. Everything in her jolts, and I have to wrap my arms around her thighs to keep her from wiggling away.
I lick her again, this time for me, delving my tongue inside her to get a taste. Heaven. Just like I knew she would be.
Then I lick my way up to her clit in short, flat strokes. When I lathe her clit, she jolts again, her fingers finally moving in my hair again.