43. CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Damien

As soon as Ashton called, I knew.

The bones in the body knew. My twisted heart fucking knew .

“Quinlan has escaped.”

He was given one simple instruction. Before Quinlan moved in with us, we told him she is to never leave our penthouse. Ever. For nothing.

He and Shawna were the only ones allowed in. No one else was supposed to see her face. Out of the question.

For her own safety and for our peace of mind.

We couldn’t trust anyone. Other than these two people, we had to keep her identity a secret. Ashton and Shawna were vetted after a grueling, thorough background check. NDAs were signed. They were good to go.

That first time they were there was smooth sailing.

Today turned out to be an entirely different story.

To say we’re disappointed in Ashton would be the understatement of the century.

Rome and Liam wanted to be here. More like, Rome wanted to kill Ashton for letting this happen. But before I hauled ass out of the office, I told them I’d talk to her today.

As in talk-talk.

First, though, I have to calm both her and my goddamn self.

“Mmm-mm-mm!” Quinlan wiggles between me and my SUV. Her hot breath tickles my palm as she screams into it.

Her tongue is sweet on my skin when she licks me. Her teeth are sweeter.

As sweet as she is, it doesn’t change the fact that I’m two seconds from losing it.

She was going to see Rex.

“You think you deserve to be let go?” The fear I still feel turns me into a raging psycho. I’m aware. Can’t control it. “You risked yourself. You fucking risked yourself, Quinlan. Rome was clear about what happens if you’re being reckless with our property.”

More screaming. More wiggling. She must be drawing attention, no matter how hard I pin her to the SUV’s door and shield her with my body.

See if I give a fuck. I’ll destroy anyone who comes close.

Like he could’ve destroyed her.

“You think…” We’re in the middle of the street. I snatched her over to the side. My hard cock presses between ass cheeks. “You think you’ve earned your freedom?”

“Sir, what’s going on here?” A man’s voice at my side.

He isn’t wearing a police uniform.

He’s worse than a cop. His phone is in his hand, and he’s close.

Quinlan’s face and the location we’re at would be all over the internet.

Woman kidnapped in broad daylight.

Rex wouldn’t need to use his connections in the force to take her away from us. The internet trolls will do that for him.

I’m in no mood to charm anyone. Problem is, this wannabe vigilante with his phone is forcing my goddamn hand.

“She’s my…” My wife . She is, even though it can’t be proved. Neither of us has a ring on, and I doubt he’ll count my scar as one. He’ll be even more suspicious then. “She’s my girlfriend.”

He blatantly ignores me. Lifts the phone higher. “Miss, are you okay?”

Nosy fucker. I remove my palm from her mouth. Turn her to him, hugging her to me. I grin at the balding idiot who dares meddling in my business.

“This is a game.” When I pin her harder to my cock, Quinlan gasps. It’s a pleasured one, she can’t help it. I won’t complain, especially since it works in my favor. “We’re playing, aren’t we, darling?”

Her desire to break free is so overwhelming that I feel it through our clothes. Every breath. Every thought. The subtlest movement.

I. Feel. Her.

“Yes, honey.” Her voice is sickly sweet. Venomous. No one would pick up on the underlying annoyance in it other than Rome, Liam and me. No one. “I’m sorry you had to witness it, sir.”

The man’s unsure. Uncomfortable. A beat passes. He’s still looking at her, searching for signs of distress.

All I can think of is Take your filthy eyes off what’s mine .

That’s not the whole truth, though, is it? I’m not just mad. I’m throbbing.

Her legs would spread for me if I bent her over right now. A little spit, some stretching with my fingers, and I’d be able to push into her ass.

Sure, it’d hurt. Granted, every prick on the street would have front row seats to our show. But it’ll be worth it.

She’d cry. She’d beg for my forgiveness for running off and risking her life.

“Okay.” The stranger glares at me, judgmental as all fuck. “Okay.”

That’s it. He turns his back to us, and I haul Quinlan up in my arms. Her feet go up in the air.

“Damien, I—” Her hands rise to stop me. I still throw her into the passenger seat. She pushes the door open, her eyes mad.

I’m not having it as I glower at her. “Little captive.”

“No.”

I shove her inside, slamming the door in her face. She punches the window, and I smile at her. Cross my arms over my chest.

Her hands go to the handle, shaking it from the inside. When she realizes it’s locked, as does the window, she flattens her hands to the glass.

“Let me out.”

The smart thing to do would be to go inside the car and drive straight home. Away from prying eyes. Away from people who might record our interaction.

Then again…I’m a sick fuck. And she’s safe, in a way. The windows are tinted. People who aren’t as close as I am wouldn’t see her.

I do. I walk closer, casting my shadow over her.

Her gray eyes widen. “I was on my way to—”

“You’ve forgotten your place.” I can’t help it; I put my hands parallel to hers. “Good thing I’m here to remind you.”

Her lips part, eyebrows knitting, she’s adorable. And I don’t feel like playing anymore. It’s time I have her. It’s fucking time I told her I’ve never been this worried in my life.

My heart goes wild in my chest. She could’ve been taken.

I’m inside the car, both my hands on the wheel.

“What the actual fuck, Quinlan.” We blend into traffic.

He could’ve hurt her.

Her hand wraps around my arm, fingers digging into my suit jacket. “You have to let me go to him.”

Him. I know who him is.

“First of all, fuck no.” My hardened gaze meets hers. Back to the road.

“You can’t lock me up forever.” She leans over me, her hand stretching to the unlock button at my side. The one she forgot about when I surprised her by throwing her in here.

“Sit back down.” Unfortunately for her, I know every single pleasure point in her body. I move a hand off the wheel to pinch her nipple. Twist it, then brush the hardened peak between my fingers.

It helps that she’s not wearing a bra.

It also upsets me to no end that she went out into the street like that. Where the rest of the world got a glimpse of what’s ours.

“Please, stop.” She’s sighing at my touch, her frantic movements slowing.

“Sit back down,” I repeat.

We’re at a red light, which allows me to take her hand in mine, suck on her middle finger. I push it into her mouth and thank fuck, that does it. She leans back to settle in her seat.

“You’re cheating,” she whispers when I tug on her wrist.

“I’m a lawyer.” I open the button of her jeans and shove her wet fingers beneath the waistline of her panties. “I manipulate the system for a living.”

Good fucking God, now I’m jealous of her fingers. Jealous and turned on.

“Rub yourself. Make it feel good and don’t you dare stop.” We’re driving again, the damn road demanding my attention. “You were going to see Rex? Why the fuck would you do that?”

Betrayal. I hate the notion. Resent it.

Quinlan didn’t run off to warn Rex. She couldn’t have.

She’s been acting strange when she thinks we’re not watching. Her lips curl in disgust as she stares out the window. She tugs on her hair while she works. Yesterday, when I spied on her from my office, a single tear rolled down her cheek. She swiped at it fast.

I caught her regardless.

Her moans suck me back to the present moment.

“Enough.” I curl my fingers around her wrist, tugging on it.

The car is filled with the scent of her arousal. What an absolute agony it is to stay focused on the road, to not get down on my knees and lick it off her.

I need her to talk. I need that more than I need to make her come, and that’s saying a lot.

“Rex,” I grit out, sounding like the kid I was eons ago.

The boy who snapped at the sight of his foster siblings’ bleeding abdomen. At their tears.

Quinlan didn’t hurt anyone. Least of all me.

That sobers me right the fuck up.

“What were you thinking, going there on your own?” Softness seeps into my voice. A sliver of it, anyway.

The valet in our building walks up to us. I roll the window down. One stern no from me, and he’s back to his station. He won’t get to smell her cunt. She’s ours.

“I hate him.” Her cheek is pressed to the car seat, tired eyes searching mine as I drive to my parking spot. “I had to tell him I hate him. Scream at him. In his face. He needs to hear how much I hate him.”

“Because of everything he’d done to you?” I slam the brakes harsher than necessary.

Narcissistic fuck. He’s hurt her that bad.

I’m going to gut him. I planned on a little knife play, tit for tat, before I slashed his throat and was done with him. He won’t get off that easy now. For all the years I wasn’t there for Quinlan. For the childhood he stole from her. For the guilt he’s planted in her head. He and her toxic fucking parents are dead.

“No, Damien.” Her fingertips land ever-so-lightly on my cheek. Her gray eyes glisten. “For what he’s done to you .”

My scruff is far too rough for such delicate fingers. She deserves better. So much better.

She’s never getting it. All she has is me.

“Damien.” This plea. She’s asking me for something.

For the truth. My truth.

If there was ever a moment to tell her what happened to me, this is it. We’re both exposed nerves. Me from worrying about her. Her, so beautiful with her anger and her sense of mission.

Rex’s days on this planet are numbered. Numbered as in two more weeks. She could run off again during that time.

She could stop believing me during those two weeks.

Unless I said something.

“Shh.” I plant a kiss on her knuckles, placing her hand down at her side.

My lips curve up, an attempt at pacifying her.

Her pout and the pain that bleeds from her hurt me more than anything.

Failing her hurts. Not to my ego. It’s my goddamn soul that’s crumbling within me.

This. Isn’t. The. Place. I can’t hug her the way I want. Can’t look into her eyes and then spank her if she pities me.

“Damien, what’s going on?”

She didn’t pity Rome. Didn’t pity Liam. If I give her a reason to feel sorry for me, she’ll take it. Quinlan will give me what she thinks I need.

Her pity won’t just wound me. That shit will stay with her and end up coming between us.

Unacceptable.

“I’m fine.” My fingers snap around her wrist faster and harder than I’ve ever held her before. Her pulse roars beneath the pads of my fingers. Fear. Good . I’ll soothe her again later. I’ll always find ways to bring her peace.

“Stay where you are.”

“Okay.”

My body goes on autopilot, overriding my need to hug and kiss and fuck her. I don’t tear at the buttons of my shirt, baring my soul to her. My scarred skin.

I do none of that, nor do I try to appease her by smiling or cracking a joke.

She’s there with her arms open when I open the passenger door. She loves the monster. Loves three of them. And this particular monster carries her home.

We’re quiet on the ride up to the penthouse, on our walk to the kitchen.

The knife block comes to view, and I grab one before returning my arm to where it belongs. Right there around Quinlan.

Liam talked to her about his past in the dark. Rome had the punching bag.

The knife is what I need.

“Where’s Ashton?” she asks as I climb the stairs.

A dry laugh. “You’re not asking about the knife?”

“No.” Her chin dips, her gaze darting to her stomach and back to me. She thinks she’s the one who’ll have her skin broken in return for a peek into my soul. So sweet. So. Sweet. “I wonder what happened to Ashton. You didn’t kill him, right? It was my fault.”

“You’d like that.” The corner of my mouth lifts despite the heaviness in my heart. “That I’d kill someone for you.”

“No.”

She’s such a liar. I’ll let her have this one. “We had him fired.”

“What?” Quinlan tightens her grip on me, her face blanching. “He couldn’t have stopped me. I tricked him, then sprinted out of here. Please, Damien, be reasonable.”

“I’m anything but reasonable when it comes to your safety.” I glower at her while I’m crossing the hallway to my room. “He fucked up royally. We paid him a decent severance package on top of what the building management offered. Hush money. But he won’t be working here anymore.”

“Please—”

“Rex could’ve taken you from us. Could’ve done worse if he realized you loved us.”

“It’s my fault.”

“Enough.”

“Damien…”

“Enough.”

“Fine.”

I throw the knife on the mattress at a safe distance from us so it won’t hurt Quinlan when I place her on the bed.

Her arms cross over her stomach as soon as she’s seated there, fingers hooking into the hem of her top.

“Keep it on.” My teeth sink into my bottom lip, my head shaking. She’s gorgeous in her eagerness. With the button of her jeans open and the zipper pulled down. “For now.”

Her gaze shifts to the knife. When she’s staring at me again, questions fill her eyes.

“Just listen, darling.” I arrange her so she’s seated on her knees in the center of the bed, the knife at her side. I’m on my knees before her, pressing a finger to tip her chin up. “Can you do that for me?”

“Anything.” The fire in her eyes is mesmerizing. Liam would’ve gotten lost in her gaze. I sure as shit am on my way. “I don’t even know what he did, and I wanted to hurt him. Damien, I wanted to kill him. With you. For all the days and weeks and months that I wasn’t there for you. I haven’t had the best life, but I’ve been fine. I’ve been ignorant and privileged. No one laid a finger on me, while you’ve been out there. Carrying the pain by yourself. You had your friends, but I should’ve been there. I should’ve asked for your forgiveness. I shouldn’t have loved Rex. You were just a boy. You, Laurel and Jagger. He had no right.”

Her voice cracks at the end, splintering into a million pieces.

“Listen to me.”

My heart beats louder than it ever had. I ignore it, never loosening the grip on her chin. The pain and guilt eat her up from the inside, and screw that. If anything’s going to terrorize Quinlan, it’s us.

“Yes?”

“To say you lived an ignorant and privileged life is a fucking joke.” I shove one sleeve of my jacket off my shoulder. I release her for the second it takes me to shrug the other one off. Her chin is tipped up by my fingers again. “You’ve lived with guilt, with the responsibilities that have been shoved down your throat for years. He guilted you into believing it’s okay for a kid to carry these burdens on her own. Poisoned you for years.”

“So what?” Quinlan is exquisite. Rome’s thunderstorms flash behind her eyes. Liam’s fire is there, too. Both my friends’ personalities are embedded in her. As well as my sickness. “So fucking what, Damien? It was nothing. It was nothing compared to what you must’ve been through.”

“So what? That’s what you’re asking me?” With my hands on her shoulders, I force her down, ass to her heels. “We talked about this. During all this time he’d been brainwashing you, did he ever stop to mention he had foster kids?”

Her eyebrows shoot down. Her head shakes.

“That’s right.” The buttons of my shirt slide out of their loops one by one, from top to bottom. I’m hyper-aware of the fact that I don’t have an undershirt beneath it. Everything hurts, and I don’t stop. “Now you do. You couldn’t have done anything back then.”

Her throat bobs as she gulps. Her eyes never leaving mine. “Okay.”

“Jagger Powell. Laurel Lambert. Me. We were his first and only foster kids.”

Her hands cover mine at the last button. Gripping me instead of comforting me.

“We couldn’t escape his cruelty.” My vision blurs at the edges as memories slam into me. I shake them off. “There was no running from it. Nowhere to hide when Rex decided we deserved a kick in the gut or a punch to the ribs. When he escalated and had Harlow hold us down.”

She doesn’t resist me when I flip my hands, grasp her wrists and lower her arms to her sides.

“Quinlan.”

“Yes?”

“This is why they held us down.”

She stares at me as I rip my shirt off my body. There’s no pity as she examines my scars. There’s strength. There’s love. Devotion, even.

“You cut me the other day.” There’s a question in her whisper. “You let me cut you. Are you okay? You could’ve said no. You didn’t have to do it.”

“I was aching for it,” I answer, knowing full well what I’m about to ask of her is going to be far more intense than anything we’ve ever done. Knowing how ready I am. “That was love. That was bonding. It had nothing to do with torture and pain. There was nothing ugly about it.”

“Okay.” Her resolution makes her features harden. “Okay.”

“Jagger and Laurel have those too. I couldn’t always save them.”

Nothing. She offers me nothing other than her touch. Every patch of skin, or pink and white scar tissue that Quinlan caresses, hurts. Hurts so bad. My abs flex, but I don’t want to flinch from her. I memorize the feel of her fingertips on me. The way she explores my body.

“You did your best.” She leans in, her lips pursed to kiss my abdomen. My scars.

The stark reminder of what happened when I wasn’t strong enough. When I was at an overwhelming disadvantage against Rex.

The marks I have to stare at every day. The marks I don’t want on me anymore.

“Don’t.” My hand wraps around the side of her neck.

When I tip her face up with my free hand, the air gets knocked out of my lungs.

“What’s this?” My tone is taunting, even though I’m struggling to breathe. I tighten my grip around her, using her to remind myself I’m not that kid anymore. I can protect her. I always will. “You’re angry.”

“Told you,” she grits out, feral. “I went out there to…” A rugged breath escapes her. It’s a challenge for her, to talk while my fingers bite into her skin. Her eyes shine brighter. “I ran away so I could kill him. He’s a monster. He hurt you.”

“I didn’t tell you what he did to me.” There’s no need to ask if Rome or Liam said anything. My trust in them is absolute. “What makes you think it was that bad?”

One of her eyebrows quirks. Her hands are on my thighs, nails digging into me. I groan at the exquisite pain. I’m hard. So fucking hard. I also don’t forget she owes me something.

I tug on this beautiful girl’s hair. “Answer me.”

“Not the specifics. You didn’t have to.” Quinlan’s confident as she slides one hand up blindly. She avoids my crotch, stops above my belt, her fingertips skimming the bottom of my scars. “You’ve given me all of you. Your friendly side. Your twisted side. The depraved side. All of you. Except your abdomen. You only took your shirt off when it was dark, when I had my back to you. Liam or Rome have been careful too. That’s how I knew it was bad.”

“That’s it?” I trust that she’s not lying to me. That she’s believed me just because, without explanations or sob stories. Christ, do I trust her. It also feels too good to be true. After being dismissed by the authorities so many times, this is too fucking good. “Me, hiding my abdomen? That’s all you needed to just”—I snap my fingers—“go after Rex? Your half-brother?”

“I. Believed. You.” There they are. These words. Her mouth saying them. I have to breathe through them. Have to breathe them. “From the very first day, I believed you. You didn’t have to convince me of anything. You didn’t have to show me this…” Her voice goes raspy, her teeth gnashing. “This horror that was done to you. Your underlying, never-ending pain was enough. And I fell for that side too. I believed you. Do you hear me? If not, I’ll repeat it. Today and for the rest of my life. I. Believed. You. I believe you, Damien Black.”

“Ms. Palmer.” The air in the room is filled with her. She’s everywhere, inside my lungs, curled around my heart. Under my skin. “You make it easy to love you. Too goddamn easy. Are you trying to get back at me for fucking with your head? Is that it?”

“I was trying to kill him.” Not her parents. Not the cops who took her parents’ word and that of a weeping child that day in the pool. Kill Rex. For me. “Let’s get out of here. Fuck the old plan. Let’s finish him. Tonight. No one will ever find out. You have the money to cover it up. Please, I—”

“You what?” I release her hair and bend to pick up the knife. Her hand is already open when I shove the handle into it.

Her gray eyes become unfocused. When she’s back looking at me and not into the void, she groans, “I’ll die if we don’t do it. It hurts. The guilt, it hurts.”

“You’ll die when I tell you to.” With her hand in mine, I raise the blade to her eye level. “Which is fucking never.”

“Damien.”

She could ask me anything, and I’d do it. Anything at all, other than go over to Rex unprepared and risk having one of us go to prison. I can’t be separated from her. I can’t rob Laurel and Jagger from this revenge, either. I have to be as miserable as humanly possible until it’s time.

“Tell me you understand.”

“I understand.”

“Good girl.” That flush on her cheeks will never get old. “You want to help me, Quinlan?”

This is the most honest I’ve ever been with anyone. I’m at my rawest, my walls all but gone for her. My heart is as exposed as my scarred abdomen.

“Want to patch me up?”

“I want to kill—”

My thumb brushes her jawline, preparing her for what’s next. “Cut me.”

It feels like silence detonates in the room.

Minutes tick by, and then, “I think I misheard you, Damien.”

“No, you heard me right.” My lungs expand. My eyes move to the knife and back to her. “Cut me. Wound me. Slice through every scar. Every inch. Do it for me. Put me back together.”

“No. No. Fuck you. Fuck you for asking me this.” She’s fighting my grip, trying to get rid of the knife. The anger tumbles out of her, too fast for me to stop. “What the—is this a test? One last trial to see if I’m on your side? You don’t trust that I want to kill him, right? That’s what this is. You think I’m lying, that I ran away for good. Well, fuck you. The answer is no. The answer is—”

“ Fuck you , yes. You were clear the first few times, darling.” Even with Rome’s intense training, I’m still stronger than her. The tip of the knife is pointed to the top edge of one of my scars, pressed to it. There are five in total. The rest have faded, thank fuck. “No, this isn’t a test. I have other creative ways to test your loyalty. Don’t need them. You saved me by being born. You could never hurt me, even when you hated me. I believe you just as much as you believe every word that comes out of my mouth.”

Her eyes narrow.

“You had my cock in your mouth, for one.” The corner of my mouth ticks up, though I don’t find anything amusing about this situation. “You could’ve bitten it off.”

She sinks her fingers into my thigh, groaning. “You didn’t fuck my mouth to test me.”

“True. I’m not testing you now.” The sting of the knife on my skin intensifies. I’m the one pushing it closer.

Until she gives in. Until she sees how much I need it.

“You’re going to cut me because I can’t bear having him on me a second longer.” The past isn’t there before my eyes. Quinlan’s here. Angry, beautiful Quinlan. Mine to protect. Mine to have. “You’re going to replace his scars because I need to have you there. I’ve never asked this from anyone. I’m asking this from you, and you’re not going to deny me this. You can’t.”

Any trace of hesitation is wiped off her face. Quinlan pulls her lips in.

“Okay.” The knife goes in. “Okay.”

Pleasure, pain, and righteousness burst inside me. My hand moves to cup the back of her neck, my eyes fixated on hers.

She’s determined, hellbent on fixing me like I asked her to. With confident movements, she peels away the past off me. Blood begins to trickle from that first cut, dripping to the waistline of my pants.

“I love you.” Her tongue is warm on my abdomen. She laps at the trail of blood, bottom to top, gazing at me.

Red paints Quinlan’s lips, her tongue. I swear I can see some of it in her eyes.

“I love you.” I pin her face to my broken skin. “Suck, Quinlan. Do better. Suck it.”

Her mouth purses and she does as I said. My cock jerks and it’s a heady feeling, how much I want to fuck her. How I want to love her for the rest of my life.

“Good girl.”

Pulling her off me hurts on a visceral level. I mask it by hardening my expression. By talking to her while she repeats the motions of cutting me. She’s so focused, so mesmerizing, as she gets rid of Rex and replaces his memory with hers.

“Be a good girl for me. Don’t stop. All five of them.” She nods at my orders, cutting me open. Licking me. “You’re doing so well. So goddamn well. You’re not hurting me. You could never. Fuck. It makes me hard, how fierce you are. How ruthless. Good girl.”

“I love you.” She licks me. Sucks me.

Slices another line on my abdomen.

“I love you.” Her lips kiss the gash, her tongue laves at it.

The more I bleed for her, the more I love her. That shouldn’t be possible. No one can claim they love a person more than they love themselves, only to realize there’s more love to give to them. Only to find out that they’re falling into a bottomless pit.

“I love you, Damien.”

“I love you, Quinlan.”

The drop is endless. I wasn’t imagining it. The longest leap anyone’s ever taken.

“I love you,” she says for the fifth and last cut.

I’m an impatient bastard, shoving her mouth to my open wound. I’m high on the moment. I’m cured. Fixed. I’ll kill Rex, no doubt about that. But this…

My God. Fuck.

“Look at you.” With my hand tight around her, I slide her mouth up and down the length of the wound, my cock straining for her. “I should’ve done this earlier. Fuck, so much earlier.”

Quinlan quivers in my firm grip. Tears brim in her eyes, and when she blinks, they break free. Fat, clear droplets cascade down her cheeks.

And her mouth. It gapes, taking more of me. But this isn’t about sucking my blood. I can see it before she completely breaks down. Then I hear it.

The most tortured sound I’ve ever heard in my life.

My heart splits. Splinters. There’s nothing left of it, it’s all broken.

Because she hurts worse than I ever have. Worse than I ever will.

This has been too much for her. Too much that she’s screaming and crying, throwing the knife away to cling onto my thighs for dear life.

Liam’s scars are different. They weren’t put there by Quinlan’s half-brother. She doesn’t blame herself for them.

She blames herself for mine. Even though none of this is her fault, the guilt is there. She feels responsible because he’s her family. Because she could’ve gone to the cops, and she didn’t.

Of course she fucking didn’t. She couldn’t have known. It wouldn’t have helped anyway.

I’ll die before I let her suffer for a crime she never committed. I’ll work hard to erase this guilt from her already burdened conscience. For as long as I live, I’ll be that person for her.

“You’re brave.” I pull her off me by her arms, moving us carefully to the pillows.

She keeps screaming, curling into a little ball in my arms. Wailing and crying. Gazing up at me. Her eyes scream the words she can’t say.

I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

“The bravest person I’ve ever met.”

My hand doesn’t tremble as I brush a lock of hair behind her ear. As I wipe the tears that won’t stop coming. As I thumb the heart tattoo on her cheek. The fresh wounds on my stomach don’t even register. She doesn’t notice my blood soaking into her clothes, either.

“You did this. You fixed me. Look at me, bleeding for you, darling.” I kiss her forehead, run my hands through her hair like she likes. Nothing helps. She’s a trembling mess. My trembling mess. “Rex is gone. He’s not a part of my body anymore. Of my soul. You’ve done that, beautiful girl. I had no doubt you could do it. I’m so proud of you. So proud.”

Blood runs down my stomach, and I’m the one comforting her. I’m the one whispering to her just how much I love her. How much I need her to come back to me.

But for all the love I shower her with, she doesn’t stop crying. I made Quinlan go through what Rex did to me when he ripped me open and I’m not sorry. I am aware of the toll it’s taken on her.

It was important for her to go through it, though. Just as important. She needed her guilt brought to the surface so I could take it away. Me.

And that’s exactly what I do.

Gentle love and sweet reassurances fail me and her. She understood why I asked her to do it ten minutes ago. She’s past logic now. Past explanations. She’s stuck in her head, and I need her back here.

I shove her to the side, softly, gently. She pins herself to my body, burying her face in my chest. Her shoulders don’t stop shaking. Her screams burn through my skin.

They’re a distraction. The sound of my belt buckle doesn’t register. Nor does that of my zipper. I take my cock out, and with my hand in Quinlan’s hair, I pull her toward my lap by the roots.

If my words fail to reach her, stuffing her mouth with me will have to do that.

“Come here.” I hold the base to her lips.

Tears and sobs and screams continue to rip from her when I hold my hard length inches from her mouth. The tip is wet and I’m throbbing for her.

And she’s lost. So lost.

“I said come here.” Her screaming turns into deep breaths. She lets me move her. “That’s a good girl. Open up.”

Her lips part, and I push her down on me.

“That’s it. That’s it. Stay there.”

Quinlan’s mouth is full of my cock. Her lips stretch around me. Her tears leak on my groin, on my balls, my thighs in a steady rhythm.

I stroke her hair without letting up on the pressure on her head.

“You’re safe, darling. I’m safe. Calm down.” My order affects her. Her throat relaxes around me. “You’re doing so well. Breathe, Quinlan. You have my blood inside you. You have Rome and Liam and me on every inch of your skin. You’re strong enough. Ruthless enough to carry through this. You’ve been that woman for years. Always growing. Always evolving. This is all you. We’re here for when things get too hard. Use me, darling. Use my cock. Take it. Take everything until you’re back here with me.”

Her tears dry while I talk. Her tongue is hot, resting on my throbbing length.

We spend minutes like that. Together. Bonding.

I don’t know how many of those have passed when the gray in her eyes darkens.

“There she is.” I rearrange Quinlan so she’s not lying on the bed, but on her hands and knees between my legs. My hand reaches lower, fingers slipping into her pussy. Curling inside her. “Good girl. You did so well. You’ll do this one more thing for me, won’t you? Come with your pretty lips wrapped around my cock.”

Her shuddered breaths vibrate on my dick.

I curse. “Yes, you will.”

My fingers explore and stroke, rubbing and pinching her clit. Stroking fast then slow. Quinlan’s moans and the sight of her ass up in the air carry me toward the edge. Closer and closer to emptying myself in her mouth.

“Come for me.” I touch her the way she loves. The way that turns her into a whimpering, trembling girl. Our girl. “Come on my fingers. Fuck, you’re there, aren’t you? You feel so good on my cock. You feel even better when you make a mess of my fingers.”

Her muscles tense at my words, her moans nothing but gasps of pleasure. She’s panting on my cock, her body rippling as she orgasms. As she pushes me off the cliff to keep falling with her. For her.

“Ah, fuck.” I finish in her mouth and it’s so good.

I don’t force her to swallow. I don’t care that some drips back on my thighs. Down her chin.

She’s better now. Nothing else matters.

We did this , her smile says.

You did this , I tell her through my touch. By folding her naked body in my arms, settling her in my lap.

Her head rests on my shoulder. My blood is all over her.

I’m shackled to her, Rome and Liam for life, and here’s the fucking irony.

This is the freest I’ve ever felt.