His thumb traces across my cheek, and something in his face eases. “Angel…” he breathes. “I wonder what kind of force you’d be if your father had seen your potential and made you his heir instead of his burden.”
Tears slide down my cheek again. “Then trust me when he didn’t. Let me be your partner in this. But first, we take care of our child. It’s our responsibility.”
For my entire life, I’ve been the victim. But now, I can no longer afford to be. I let Rose get killed while I could do nothing. Since then, I’ve gone over and over what I could have done to protect her while I had the chance. The chance being at any single point before that night. I won’t be a victim anymore, and neither will our baby. Not while I’m breathing.
He gathers me up in his arms, turning me across his lap. “Angel,” he says again in barely a whisper.
I can only wrap my arms around him and cling. Praying he doesn’t push me away, not now, when I’m finally doing the right thing.
We stay that way, our bodies entwined, and I don’t even care that Kai is feet away. Let him see. Adrian is my entire heart, and I won’t let it slip from my grasp again.
His breath is hot against my neck, and his fingers dig into my rib cage like he is waiting to lose me all over. If anything, I need to fix that. Make him see I don’t want to go anywhere. Never again.
The room is dead silent, and I realize Kai has stopped typing. I lean away, and Adrian releases me enough to look over his shoulder. Kai is sitting, his hair tousled, a lollipop between his lips. His gaze is intent on the screen above him, so I turn my focus there.
There’s a string of text, lines of code, I suppose. Not that I can read any of it.
“It’s done,” he declares around his candy.
Adrian nods against my neck. “Leave us. We’ll talk later. Make sure you speak to the others about it all. I don’t want to hear about it again unless it needs to be used.”
Kai snaps his laptop shut, sweeps his suit jacket off the back of his chair, and slips out of the room in seconds.
As soon as the door is closed, Adrian lifts me from his lap and slides my ass across the table in front of him. “I hate this, Angel. I don’t need to tell you because I’m sure you see it. But I also understand why you’re doing this.”
I swallow hard about to speak, but he shakes his head slowly, stalling me.
“I know you only want to keep him safe, and that’s the only reason I allowed Kai to do it. But hear me, Angel. If you leave again without it being a life-or-death situation, I will kill you myself. Don’t put me through that again. I can’t take it.”
“Never,” I promise, wrapping my hands around his neck. “I’ll never leave again.”
53
ADRIAN
The smile she gives me is worth all the heartache I just suffered in the last several minutes of her explaining what she needs. I dip my face down to nibble at her bottom lip until she’s panting and clutching at me. Just the way I like her.
As I press into her, she slides forward on the table to cradle her knees around my hips and lock me in place between her thighs. “You’ve surprised me,” she says, arching her neck so I can skim my lips down the column of her throat.
Between nibbles, I ask, “How?”
Her hands fist in the hair at my nape, her body leaning toward me, arching into every touch I smooth over her clothing. Clothing she is wearing far too much of.
I peel the sweater off her body, happy to find her breasts bare and her nipples at attention for my mouth already. “Mmm…Angel, are you trying to tease me?”
She shrugs all innocent, but her eyes are heavy-lidded while she clings to me, craving my next caress. “Wasn’t on purpose. I was just trying to get back here quickly before you and Kai walked out of the room and left me to fend for myself.”
“Never.” I dip my hand into the front of her leggings and cup her pussy, my fingers sliding along her wet seam. “I’d never leave you to fend for yourself. That just seems cruel when I get so much enjoyment from taking care of you.”
She huffs at my playful words, both of us knowing the issues between us right now aren’t strictly about sex.
But then she’s easily distracted by my fingers rolling over her clit until I pinch it lightly and make her jolt in my arms. “What are you doing?” she asks into my shoulder.
“Maybe after all this pain, I just need to touch you. I need to put my hands on your skin and remember how it feels to make you come apart in my arms.” I use my teeth on her neck this time to mark my claim. “I need to know you’re real, and you’re here, and you’re mine.”