Chapter 24

Once we're done,I can't stop staring at her. Can't believe I did that. Here of all places. But it was either that or Konstantin would kill us. There was no choice.

I slip out of her, hating that I can't stay inside her warmth. I reach over and toss the condom into the trash can they left us, then zip up before lowering her see-through dress.

Her arms are curled around her body as she sits there while I pull off my jacket.

"Put your arms through it. We don't have time to get your dress now."

She nods, her face tight like it's all just hit her. She nervously slides in one arm after another and tugs the lapels around herself. This jacket should be long enough to cover her entire body.

"Well, that was quite the show," Konstantin says, and she recoils instantly.

Of course Konstantin's voice ruins everything.

"May I say, that performance was even worth the death of my good friend."

He looks bloody pleased with himself. Now I have to pay this arsehole three million. Sure, I have the money, but I don't wanna give it to him. Don't have a choice, though, unless I want to wage war with the Marinovs.

I give Konstantin a hard stare.

His smile widens as he rises, glancing around to the audience before he begins to clap, and the people all hesitantly follow suit.

"Can we go now?" I grab Eriu's hand, and it trembles.

I hate that she's scared. That I couldn't protect her from this. Failed her again.

"Sure. You're more than welcome to go, but I expect the payment in full tomorrow." Konstantin says that so calmly, you'd almost think he doesn't care. "And you will get your portion, Ms. Quinn." He inclines his head toward her.

"Uh, yeah, okay," she whispers.

"Well, thank you for a fine evening," he tells us, then addresses the audience, glancing around the wide space. "The auction will continue. Everyone is welcome to stay and enjoy. I promise, my friend will not be shooting anyone else."

He chuckles, and some of the guests start nervously doing the same. Probably for the best. I think I once heard he stabbed a man in the eye when he didn't laugh at his joke.

He starts for the exit, and I pull Eriu to a stand.

"Come on, let's get the hell out of here. And you're never to come back. Do you understand me?"

She nods, her eyes glassy, face still flushed. My God, I wanna feck her all over again. Instead, I pull her down the steps and through the doors, leading us out of here. After pushing through closely sandwiched people, dancing and feckin', we're finally outside.

Welcome relief.

Hurrying off to my car, parked in the garage, I let her in first, strapping her seat belt.

A finger accidentally brushes over her breast, and her eyes snap to mine.

As soon as they do, she bites that bottom lip.

I groan. "Do you know how crazy you make me when you do that?"

Running my fingertips over her mouth, I release it with my thumb.

She doesn't stop staring, all innocent and beautiful. My maddening temptation. This is how sinners fall. And I've taken the highest leap down.

My heart thuds faster as I recall in vivid detail the way her body felt beneath mine, the way she sounded and cried my name as she came.

I drag in a long, shallow breath and close her door before rushing to my side and gunning the engine. I need to get her as far away from here as possible.

Minutes pass, and she still hasn't said a word except for the stolen glances and her trembling lips. I can tell she wants to talk. There is a lot to discuss.

"What is it, Eriu? What do you want to say?"

She presses two fingers into her temple, exhaling with frustration. "How could you not tell me you were the man in the mask?!"

Her brows tug and her eyes shimmer. I think the events of tonight are finally hitting her.

My palm clasps her upper thigh and I squeeze, just wanting my hands on her any way I can get it.

"How could you not tell me you let another man touch you, hmm?" My fingers climb up, and she bites on the corner of her mouth.

Lord have mercy on me.

"It was you anyway! You can't be mad."

"You overestimate my ability to be rational, baby girl."

She groans when my fingers slide up under her dress, pushing between her thighs, where she's still wet and warm.

"You had no idea it was me. So you did, in fact, let someone else touch you that way." I push my thumb in deeper, and she whimpers. "Bad girl."

"I…" She growls in frustration. "I just wanted to feel something for once in my life, and you were too damn stubborn to give it to me."

I flick her clit, and she cries out, dropping her head back.

"Feel that?" I smirk. "Don't appear to be stubborn right now, do I?"

"Keep doing that," she whispers, her fingers digging into the leather of her seat.

But instead, I drag my hand away, inhaling her scent on my fingertips.

"I think I'm good now." I curl that hand around the steering wheel.

"Not fair." She pouts, squeezing her thighs together.

I let out a chuckle. "You're lucky that's your only punishment."

"You're back to punishing me, huh?"

"Aye." I give her a hooded once-over, eyes back on the road. "You never seem to learn, though. Maybe I need to be harder on ya."

Her face flushes, and my grin widens. She's so damn adorable.

"You shoulda told me what you were planning. At the club."

If she'd confided in me, all of this could've been avoided. But now it's too late. I took her virginity. I have to make it right with her father.

"Like you should've told me you were the man in the mask!"

"You mean the man you let grope you like that!"

"We already established that was you!"

"Hell, woman, you didn't know that!"

She huffs and looks out the window.

"My God, Eriu, don't you fecking realize what you are to me?" My hand is back on her thigh, shoving the dress away so I can feel her soft skin. "You've always been mine, in my heart and in my mind, so you letting some stranger touch you like that…it makes me insane!" I tighten my grasp on her leg. "If you told me what you were planning, I would've?—"

"You would've what?" She snickers. "Fucked me? Please, Devlin." Her laugh is cold. "You know you wouldn't have. You would've tried to convince me there was another way. You'd never want my dad to know what you did. Fucked his precious little daughter."

"Well, he's gonna know now, won't he?"

Her gaze narrows. "He doesn't have to know."

She's right. He doesn't, but it wouldn't be honorable to keep it from him.

"When your father comes back from his business trip…" I tell her. "I'm gonna talk to him about Mason, make him understand."

"He won't just take your word for it, and you know it. You'll need something more."

"I'm trying. Got one of Gio's friends looking into Mason for me."

She's back to staring out the window, like she's losing hope. I don't blame her. I can't imagine what she's going through.

"I promise…" I grab her jaw and force her to look at me, her eyes welling with bits of her broken soul. "You will not marry him."

Her lips thin into a barely there smile. "And how will that work? Will you marry me instead? Or should I wait for the next Mason?"

My exhale is heavy, the weight of it all crushing my damn heart.

"Don't you think I want to?!" I snap, pulling the car to a stop on the side of the road, the tires screeching in the darkness.

I grab the side of her throat, shifting myself closer. "Don't you think I've imagined being your husband? Imagined the way it'd feel to hear you tell me you love me?"

Her lips quiver, those broken eyes staring back at me.

"Since the moment I started to have feelings for you, everything changed for me…"

I release her seatbelt and grab her hips, throwing her on top of me. Both hands cup her face, our gazes boring, and I need her to feel it. Feel what she is to me and how hard it is to let her go.

A hand slides up her spine and sinks into her luscious hair, a hiss stemming from between my teeth when she moves her hips on top of me, trying to fix her position. But it only causes my cock to rub into her bare center.

Her mouth parts, and I pull her face closer, our lips stroking, heat rising from our breaths.

"I've wanted you more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. I don't know how to stop wanting you. But being with me is dangerous. I can't let anything happen to you."

"Don't think about that…" she whispers. "Just think about this."

Then she's kissing the corner of my mouth, unscrewing my head from all logic.

"Feck," I growl, arching my hips, needing inside her again, needing to make it all right somehow.

She shouldn't have lost her virginity that way. Her first time should've been special. She deserves special.

I pin her forehead to mine and let my lips kiss her slow, needing this woman again and again…

"Let's get you home."

She wrenches back. "Please stay with me. Don't leave me tonight."

My heart beats faster. "I won't leave you. I swear it. I'm taking you back to my place."