“I don’t like killing,” I tell him as the driver guides us through the city.
The regular people are waking up, heading to their normal lives, their regular routines. I feel like a different species as we glide past them, our windows tinted, our faces hidden.
“At least one good thing came out of this,” Patton says.
Yes. Lena. Her safety. Our life.
I keep it all repressed, buried deep down. “Yeah? What’s that?”
Patton grins. “The men aren’t speculating about you having a woman anymore. And you’re getting bonus points for her being Italian.”
I laugh. “I don’t care about that. I just care about her, whatever her heritage happens to be.”
“Still.” Patton chuckles. “It doesn’t hurt, especially with some of the older fellas.”
“I get that.”
My mind returns to my woman. Or maybe return makes no sense.
It’s been on her constantly, imagining how she’ll moan when I drive up inside of her, imagining how she’ll whimper and scream as I bring her to an orgasm. Or, envisioning sweeter scenes, holding her in bed, kissing her softly, cradling her so she knows nobody can ever hurt her.
I won’t let them.
After knocking gently, I softly pushed open the door to Lena’s bedroom. As I expected, she’s asleep, lying on her side with the blanket pulled up to her chin.
Jackson lies on the floor nearby, blinking his eyes open for a moment before huffing and laying his chin on his forepaws.
I walk across the room, glancing at her foot poking out from the blanket. Her tattoo stares up at me, reminding me of how bravely she sat when I gave it to her because she knew it was bringing her hope.
And now here we are. This is hope.
My carnal instincts try to make me ruin her peace.
The closer I get, the clearer her shape becomes from beneath the blanket. My cock twitches as I think about tearing the blanket away, ripping her clothes off with savage hands, getting her completely naked, and then staring down at her, at her flushed breasts and her eager nipples and the wetness of her slit.
My mouth tingles with remembered wetness, with her taste.
But then she makes a noise in her sleep, as though she’s lost deep in a dream.
“Luca,” she murmurs, the word difficult to make out at first. “Luca, Luca, Luca.”
Each word makes my heart drum fiercer, the sensation moving through me. It makes my chest go tight. It makes me want to fall to one knee right now and ask her the most important question of our lives, but this won’t be a sadist’s marriage.
With us, she’ll always have a choice…
Bitterly, the question comes.
What if she chooses no?
I climb into bed as gently as I can, shuffling up next to her.
She turns over in her sleep, moving close to me as though, even unconscious, she knows where she belongs.
I wrap my arm around her and press my body close, getting under the blankets with her. The heat of her body makes me rock-hard right away, and it’s difficult not to let my hands smooth over her, especially to her tempting-as-fuck pussy.
But then Jackson hops onto the bed. My heart warms even more, when I see what Lena has done – turned one of the bedside tables over, pushed it against the bed, so Jackson can use it as a step to get up.
The dog clambers over Lena and settles between us.
I blink my eyes open, grinning when I see how close he is.
It means I’m able to just lie here, even with the urgent flames consuming more and more of me, telling me to take her, to take her now.
Resting my head against the pillow, I move closer to both of them, squeezing Lena. I hope she can feel how wanted she is, how protected, even in sleep.
She sighs and cuddles somehow closer. It’s like she’s trying to fuse our bodies.
My cock is so hard it aches, the precome burning almost endlessly just from being close to her. It’s the shape of her ass, the way her globes hug my shaft through the material of her clothes.
But at the same time, it’s so sweet lying here with her, simply being.
Everything starts to drift away.
The war, Conor, all that pain….
It all fades to nothing as I bury my face in my woman’s hair, Jackson curled up next to my heart.
As I inhale her scent, I realize something.
This is what family feels like, real family, real belonging and affection, and protective hellfire. This is what I’ve been searching for my whole life.
I knew it the second I saw her, so I shouldn’t be surprised. But everything is a surprise with my Lena, even when I’m expecting it.
I’ll never stop being fascinated by her.
“Luca,” she whispers, her voice changed, more lucid.
“I’m here,” I say softly. “It’s okay.”
“Do I have to wake up?”
“Not until you’re ready.”