“How?” she whispers, and then shakes her head quickly, causing her tempting hair to flutter around. “Sorry, that was rude.”
I reach across the table and grip her hand firmly, letting her feel all the possession writhing through me, all the hunger I feel at making her mine.
“You deserve to know. We belong to each other now.”
She bites her lip, causing a whole torrent of lust to hammer through me, my manhood swelling until it feels like I’m going to explode out of my pants. The tip aches and pulses and I almost pull her across the table, bend her over and spank that thick delicious ass, spank her over and over until she’s whining and begging for me.
“When I was younger, I used to work protection on the side, for a big firm, one of the biggest on the East Coast. I did this for four or five years, saving up every penny I got, and then I started investing in gyms. I became a silent partner in half a dozen establishments, and then one of those franchised, and I started bringing in real money.”
“Whoah.” She stares wide-eyed for a moment. “But why are you still a cop?”
“Because it’s who I am, right at my core. It’s what I am, what I’ve always been, ever since that junkie killed my parents. But I just wanted you to know, Natalie, I’m going to take care of you and our family. I’ve lived frugally my whole life. Now I know why. I was saving up for us.”
She wraps her free hand around mine, enveloping me from all angles, and leans down and kisses my hand softly. It’s such a gentle gesture, so unexpected, that for a crazy moment I think I might shed a tear.
I push it away with gruffness, but I can’t deny how much she’s provoked inside of me, a whole whirring hailstorm of desire and affection.
“That means so much to me,” she whispers.
We sit in silence for a time, Christmas music jingling in the background, the sound of the employees packing their things away filtering over to us.
“Come with me tonight,” I growl after a few moments. “I can’t let you stay here.”
“I can’t go, not tonight,” she says. “Kenny checks in with me in the morning and he’d go crazy if I went missing. Heck, I guess I am too. He’ll freak if I’m not there. And he doesn’t have a cellphone, not since he broke it.”
My chest tightens at that. My woman’s brother deserves a damn cellphone.
“Then I’ll bring you back in the morning…”
Her eyes widen and she shakes her head, instinctively, and suddenly I know this isn’t about Kenny.
It’s about Natalie not wanting to do anything tonight.
I almost tell her, Don’t worry, I can control myself.
But I know that’s a damn lie.
And then she lets go of my hands and reaches for a slice of pizza.
“Let’s just enjoy our meal, huh? I’ll come and visit Santa’s Wonderland tomorrow morning.”
I nod, even as the word soon roars into my mind.
Soon, I am going to claim her.
Soon, I am going to make her mine.
Soon, I’m going to show her just how much she means to me.
Chapter Twelve
Natalie
Nick is standing at the edge of the bed, completely naked except for his Santa’s beard and the hat, his smirk making the beard twitch as he stares down at me with hard ice-blue eyes. I try to laugh off the sight of him, but there’s nothing funny about the way his pectorals bulge, and the hard lines of his abs pop.
“Come on then,” I say sassily, leaning up on my elbow. “What are you waiting for?”
He chuckles warmly, and somehow his hot breath dances over my skin even from there. That’s when I realize this is a dream.
Don’t wake up, don’t wake up, I cry in my mind.
“Do you really think you could be that confident, little elf?” the dream-made Nick teases. “Do you think you could ever be that forward?”
I jolt awake with a quiet scream. I’ve learned to be quiet when I wake from nightmares, first because of the teasing in the orphanage and then because I can’t alert anybody to my presence here.
Dream Nick’s words bounce around my head.
Because he’s right.
When it comes time for him to claim me – which I sense is very soon, if the primal wild glint in his eyes is anything to go by – how the heck am I going to satisfy him?
He’s so much older, so much more experienced, and I’m… me.
I shake away the thoughts, reaching for my phone and glancing at the time.
What?
It’s almost eleven AM, an hour and a half after Kenny usually wakes me up.
Maybe if I was a normal big sister my heart wouldn’t start hammering in my chest right now, a slam-slam-slam that hurtles through my whole body and leaves me feeling like I could burst into tears. But my mind is filled with all the times in school when Kenny went AWOL, causing me to leave the school in a panic.