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.
One of the guards kicks my knees out and then bashes me in the side of the head again for good measure. A trickle of blood leaks into my ear, but I can barely feel the pain. For me, this is foreplay. I give the council a smile and wait.
“Adrian Doubeck, you are here on charges of murder. You know killing outside the season is prohibited and punishable by death,” the woman at the head of the table intones. Her voice is bored as she reads the rap sheet like it’s a grocery list.
I stay silent. It was the first thing I learned from my very overpriced attorney. Say nothing, deny everything if compelled to speak.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” she continues, her eyes still on the tablet in front of her.
I keep quiet and take another hit to the head, this time a punch instead of the heavy metal of the guard’s weapon. I guess they want to keep me conscious for some of this, at least.
Finally, the woman looks up and meets my eyes. There’s nothing in hers. It’s like staring into a frozen wasteland.
She purses her lips, creating fine lines around her mouth. “Nothing?”
“You guys are going to condemn me anyway. Why should I help you?”
Her hands come up to wave at the collective. “Maybe we won’t. This is a trial, not an execution. You have nothing to say about the deaths of two high-profile society members who were your known enemies?”
I lick the blood off my lip and smile again. “Who were those again? Maybe you could remind me who I have supposedly killed?”
She sighs. “This is ridiculous. We aren’t going to get anywhere with him unless we escalate things. Bring in the girl.” The last was spoken to the guards, one of whom walks out of the room at her order.
My mind is racing. What girl could they be referring to? I lock eyes with the woman, her gray-streaked hair pulled severely back against her head. I can’t remember her name to even threaten her properly. “If you—”
The door opens again, and I jerk around to stare while Valentina is shoved into the room, but it’s not a guard behind her. It’s Andrea.
I’m on my feet in seconds, but I don’t make it to Andrea before the other guard knocks me down again, then uses another zip tie to secure me to an iron loop in the floor. “You fucking traitor,” I spit at her, trying to get free to launch myself at her.
Valentina is shaking, her knees bruised, her curls mussed from a ponytail. There are tears in her eyes, but her chin is steady, and she shakes her head at me. “I’m okay. Calm down. Calm down.”