My relief at holding her was compounded by the intensity of her own embrace. She clawed at my back as if she could press closer, her nose tucked into the side of my throat, her lips stamped to my hammering pulse.
“My sweet little thing,” I realized I was saying, the rough proclamation a mantra. “My sweet little thing.”
Bianca just squeezed me tighter, locking her legs around my waist in a fully body hug.
“Sir?”
I ignored Hank, smoothing my hand down Bianca’s silken hair, pressing a kiss to her forehead. I wanted to lay her out on the nearest surface and check every inch of her skin for injury.
“Sir?” Hank tried again.
I adjusted Bianca so I could look over her head, pressing her cheek down on my good shoulder. “What?”
Hank blanched at my tone. “What do you want done with the attacker?”
“He’s not an attacker,” Bianca surprised me by saying, pulling away and squirming so I was forced to put her down.
“For fuck’s sake, you can’t possibly be so naïve to believe I’ll forgive the motherfucker for pressing a gun to your head.”
She glared at me, all softness and gratitude forgotten. I’d never tell her that the sight of her familiar scowl was almost as welcome as her smile after days without her presence in my home.
“If you call me naïve one more time, Tiernan, it’ll be the last,” she warned, drilling a pointed finger into my chest before casting a wary glance at Santo who was being hauled unceremoniously to his feet. “I’m ready to forgive him for more than just putting a gun to my head.” She sucked in a deep breath and expelled it so harshly it stirred her hair. “But he’s not just a random attacker or the man who abducted me when I was a kid. If he’s who I think he is, that man is my uncle.”
11
BIANCA
“Take him downstairs,” Tiernan growled to his group of employees as he snuck an arm around my waist and tugged me hard into his side. “I’ll be down shortly. And someone get Beckett Fairchild out of my damn office.”
“Yes, sir.” A man with a name tag that pronounced him as ‘Hank’ barked a sharp series of orders to the crew and they immediately dispersed as quickly as they’d appeared.
In moments, Tiernan and I were alone on the massive casino floor.
A fission of fear scoured through me, different than the kind I’d felt with a gun trained on me for the second time in two weeks.
Palpable fury emanated off Tiernan’s large body in waves that buffeted against me and alchemized something in my gut. Something base, almost animal, that got off on fear and transmuted it into pure molten desire.
“He is the last man who will ever touch you.” The words rumbled through Tiernan and into me.
I gasped when he carted me up into his arms and took two brisk steps to the same table I’d only recently gambled on. He deposited me roughly on the felt, his body carving out so much space between my splayed thighs that the muscles burned from the stretch. His big hands splayed on my ass and tugged me even closer so our bodies were fused through our clothes.
“I won’t let you go,” he warned, his voice ravaged by fury and something like agony. His fingers flexed compulsively, almost too tight. “Not after this. You can’t expect me to let you out of my goddamn sight when there are too many people out for my blood. Out for the secret of who you are.”
“Tiernan,” I said, just his name, as if that was enough to explain the multitudes of reasons why I wanted to be with him at Lion Court but didn’t trust him, why I wanted him with enough passion to sear through my soul but couldn’t let myself have him.
"You want to see me beg for your forgiveness, Bianca? I'll do it on my knees between your thighs and by the time I'm through with you, you won't remember anything but pleasure." His eyes were all black, his pupils’ thin frames for the ferocity of his intent. He shook me slightly in frustration. “Do you want me to carve your fucking name into my chest to prove to you that I am mad for you? Lost to you? Nothing will ever fucking do again except for you?”
“Yes,” I said, my throat raw from the honesty of the word. “Yes, I want all of it. Just once, I want someone to fight for me!”
Tiernan’s hand came up to grasp my chin, holding it steady so he could lean forward and press his forehead to mine. He was so close all I could see were those green eyes as pale and warm as diffused light through trees.
“I’ve been fighting my entire life, Bianca.” That rough palm traced the edge over my jaw and framed the entire left side of my face. “So I know, this is one fight I won’t lose. You know now, the kind of man I am, I’ll kill anyone who tries to hurt you, who even thinks about taking us from each other. Do you understand?”