Lap of Luxury (Love Don't Cost a Thing)

He screws me with a deep but leisurely pace. I feel myself sinking down, down, into the mattress, pinned by his body and his cock. Completely vulnerable to him as I never have been before and wanting nothing but this.

“Harder, please,” I moan, and he obliges.

“You like your punishment, princesa. I’m going to have to do this to you often.”

If this is punishment, then I’ll take it again and again. I’ll surrender everything to the man, the only man, whom I need. Whom I crave, above all other things.

Lost in the sensations racing through me, I don’t even notice that the glow inside me is burning brighter and harder. My climax storms through me out of nowhere. I didn’t expect that I could even come like this, but I feel pressure on my clit even though he’s not touching it, and nor am I. I blaze so brightly that all my senses black out, and when I come back into myself Damir is growling and fucking me hard, in the throes of his own climax.

“Bethany. My Bethany,” he gasps. “We were made for each other.” Two, three final hard strokes, and he stills. Damir withdraws gently and rubs a loving hand down my spine. He pulls me up and into his arms.

“Was it the drugs,” I whisper, too exhausted to do anything but cling to him. “That made me feel that way?”

“It wasn’t the drugs, Bethany. They just made you relax. The rest was what you need. You’ll know it the next time I fuck you in the ass without the amyl.”

He leads me through to the shower and I slump against his chest as he soaps me lovingly. Then he tilts my mouth up to his. “You needed me to terrorize you. Overwhelm you. Consume you. So you can be free. I heard you asking for this that first moment I touched you.”

“Did you? How?”

“Not with your words. With your heart, your eyes, and I heard every word. I’ll always give you everything you need, princesa.”

I gaze up at him as the hot water pounds on his broad shoulders. He looks like a wicked prince. “Are you happy with what happened at the villa? Even though Navarro got away?”

He smiles slowly. Then he turns the water off and reaches for towels. He muses on my question for a moment, rubbing the towel in slow circles on his chest. “Yes, I am. Navarro might have got away from me, but it matters very little. He took Nataša, so I’ve taken what mattered most to him. He had to be punished.”

“You mean you loved her. Why is that so hard for you to say? Why must you always express your feelings through punishment and vengeance?”

Damir frowns deeply at me, his movements stilling. Then he tosses his towel aside and approaches me slowly. “Because this is what my love feels like, Bethany. It may be dark, and it may be selfish. It may terrify you. But it’s mine. And it’s all for you. Only. You.”

I suck in a startled breath. “If you love me, then say, I love you.”

He takes my towel from me and throws it over the bathroom door. “I just did,” he says heavily, and moves into the darkened bedroom.

I watch him go, shivering slightly as my damp skin cools. Liar. And his love isn’t only for me. No matter how much he claims to love me, he loves revenge more.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Damir

I go to the safe, punch in the combination and take the jewels out again. I don’t need to say I love you. I’ll show her what I want with something far more precious than words.

Bethany sits on the bed, wrapped in blankets, and I pour the jewels into her lap. Then start to adorn her with them. “Marry me,” I murmur, slipping a ruby droplet earring through her earlobe. “Wear these on your wedding day, and look like this on our wedding night. Naked and decked out with jewels.”

I fasten the necklace and bracelets around her neck and wrists, and place the tiara atop her head. She turns her wrists slowly, looking at the jewels, their reflections sparkling in her eyes. How well they suit her. I will dress her in them again when we find Mikhail. I want to see the look in his eyes when he sees Bethany wearing them. I’ll make him remember our sister whether he likes it or not.

“They’re so beautiful,” she murmurs, admiring the rubies and diamonds. “I wonder what they thought, the first person to find a precious stone. Who cut it so it caught the light? They’re like pieces of the stars and sea. Things that you can’t hold in your hands, or shouldn’t.”

I smile to myself, watching her. My girl has a taste for fine things, but more than that, she has a fine mind. I put my arm around her and tuck her safely against my body. “There’s one less wrong in the world tonight, my love. For the first time in twenty-one years, I shall sleep well.” I kiss her forehead. “Until tomorrow, when the hunt begins afresh.”

Bethany’s chest rises and falls in an almost imperceptible sigh. When I look down at her, her eyes are closed, so perhaps I imagined it.

She falls asleep in my arms like a glistening butterfly. Once she’s deeply asleep, I remove the jewels one by one and place them back into the safe. Everything I love needs to be locked up, where no one can take it from me, and it can’t ever get away from me.

When I wake in the morning, Bethany is still deeply asleep. I stretch luxuriously—

And groan.

My body is covered in bruises, and despite the hours in bed, I feel lethargic. Normally I awaken and jump out of bed as if a fire has been lit under me, but today all I want is to lay here and gaze at Bethany. After a while I let my eyes drift closed again, and fall back asleep.