Vengeance (Master's Protege 1)

But now it’s time…

I can help her find her parents’ killers, and I will help her seek the vengeance she craves. I know I have what she wants.

What she doesn’t know yet is how badly I want her. All of her. Completely, irrevocably… forever.

One day after target practice, I ask her to come up to my office. When she walks in the door, my heart does a somersault. I lean against the edge of my desk and beckon to her.

“Come here, baby.”

I love that look she gets when I call her to me. Part daring, part hopeful, and all kinds of aroused.

When she reaches me, I run my hand up and down her back slowly, until she breathes a little freer and she lays her head on my shoulder. She fits right here, within my arms. She belongs here.

The office is so quiet, my words hang heavily between us.

“Candi says we’ve had nothing but quiet here in Salem. The biggest issue is keeping the teens from toilet papering the House of the Seven Gables on Halloween.”

“I could stop them.”

She snorts. “I bet you could, but you’ve got bigger fish to fry, don’t you?”

I do. I run my hands along her shoulders, then down her slim waist to rest on her hips.

“You want to find your parents’ killers, Violet?”

I watch her shoulders rise as she inhales, then fall as she lets her breath out. “I do, Cain. More than anything in the world.”

Anything in the world.

I trace my fingers along her spine. “You helped me find my sister.”

“Yes.”

“And that, sweetheart, was your first task for me.”

She nods, as I slowly turn us so she’s now leaning against the desk and extend the trajectory of my touch. Past her back. Up her shoulders. Over her collarbone, then lower to where her ass meets the desk.

“But I want more than your work, Violet.”

I place a gentle kiss on her neck, then open my mouth and suck in her damp, sweet flesh. I watch her knuckles whiten on the edge of the desk.

“What do you want from me?”

I place my hands on either side of her. My frame dwarfs hers. “I want you.”

A slow blink as she absorbs my words.

“Me?”

“You. All of you. Carte blanche to do whatever I want to you, whenever I want to. Anytime, anywhere.”

Her eyelids flutter closed, like a little bird’s, her words a mere whisper. “I have the distinct feeling I’d… both hate and love every minute of what you’d do to me.”

“Love and hate are so irrevocably entwined, aren’t they?”

She places her hand in mine, and her eyes flutter open. “Yes.”

I’m not sure if she means yes, she agrees with the sentiment, or yes, she agrees with what I want.

“Yes?”

When she smiles, her eyes light up, moon-kissed amethyst that enchants me to my soul. “Yes, Cain. I accept your terms. I’m yours.”