Kai pacing in the hallway lets me know it’s time. I hoped to slip out before she noticed, but she grabs my hand tightly in hers when I shift to the edge of the bed. “You weren’t going to sneak out, were you?”
“Considered it,” I admit.
Tears coat her eyes and then slip down her pale cheeks, curls sticking to the wet trails. “Come here,” she whispers.
I crawl across the bed, shoes and all, to take her into my arms one last time.
When I told her the council wouldn’t try to take me out, I lied, and I lied well. They want nothing more than to wipe me off the face of the earth so they can take over my little piece of it. So I can’t challenge them as I have been since my father died.
She’s so soft and warm in my arms I don’t know if I can bring myself to let go. Her hands roam down my chest and latch onto my belt buckle.
“Angel…” But there’s no real fire in it. Not until she leans out to capture my lips in a kiss that threatens to melt my bones.
Her fingers turn frantic to open the belt, and my cock turns to iron as she delves her hand inside my boxer briefs and cups me tightly.
“One more time,” she says. “I need to feel you inside me right now. Please.”
She’s already working my pants down to my hips, and I trail my hand up her bare thigh to find her curls already soaked for me.
It takes seconds to roll her over, bring her ass to my cock, and slip inside her wet sheath. She sighs against my forearm cradling her head as if she’s been waiting to feel me for ages and not hours.
I clasp her hip and pull her hips in me while I surge forward. I’m already about to come between the frenzied need for her and the way her cunt clenches around me so sweetly.
When she whimpers, I trail my hand over her hip and delve my fingers in to find her clit. I skim it gently, and she trembles against me. “How does that feel, Angel?”
“Perfect.” There’s a tremor in her voice too, and I push away my own feelings to focus on her. I can give her this. One last time, I can make her feel good.
“Push back against me. I’m going to make you come so hard.”
She follows my orders, and I trace the curve of her thigh back to her hip and then her tight little ass. It takes some maneuvering to squeeze my hand between us, but the second I swirl my thumb around her hole, she gasps.
I gently feed my thumb into the little ring of muscle, and her hand shifts down to take over at her clit. “Come for me, Angel. Let me see you fall apart.”
She shivers again, and I watch her face as she squeezes her eyes closed and then shudders so hard her knees knock together.
“That’s it.” She’s so perfect. So fucking perfect. I pull my hand away from her ass, grab her hips and slam into her body a couple more times. That’s all it takes to follow her into my own orgasm.
After, I carefully ease away so I don’t mess up my suit and clean us both up. When I return, tears ghost across her eyes again. “Change your mind.”
I sigh and shake my head. “We already discussed this. I have to go.”
“Change your mind,” she repeats more firmly.
This time, I give her a kiss on the forehead, then the lips, and head toward the door where Kai is waiting for me.
He thinks he’s going with me, but I order him to stay behind, guard Valentina, and don’t let those bastards get to her no matter what. “Guard her with your life. Understand me?”
With a clenched jaw and red eyes, he nods once. Anger in every line of his body. He can stay pissed at me for all I care. At least he’ll be alive.
The drive to the meeting location is short, and I’m surprisingly clear-headed with the scent of my wife on me as I enter the building. Two men stop me just inside the doorway and pat me down head to toe. “Someone worried?” I quip.
My face splits open in pain, and I blink a haze out of my eye and stare down at the edge of a semi-automatic weapon the guard used to clock me with. I meet his eyes and hope he sees his death there because if I get out of this, he’s going down first.
The second guard grabs my upper arm and hauls me forward. I’ve got some height and weight on him, so I don’t make it easy. They take me to a door, zip-tie my hands, and then trot me inside. Around a conference table sits the current heads of the council, and I stare down every single of those motherfuckers and hope to put the fear of God into them.