Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

THOMAS

M y heart pounded in my ears as I looked at the damage done to my angel.

My angel. She was mine to torment, no one else’s.

The room was filled with other people milling about, a few for confession and other priests. I needed to talk to her, but I couldn’t do it here.

“Come with me, do not say a word,” I said, putting my hand on the small of her back and leading her through the back of the church to the rectory.

I couldn’t see anything around me, just what was directly in front of me. All I could feel was the small of her back under my hand, and my pulse racing.

I directed her down the long hallway to my private library, or at least what I had claimed to be my private library, pushed her in, and locked the door behind us.

“What are you doing?” she asked as I turned on the lights.

I said nothing, too angry to speak.

Instead, I swept her off her feet, brought her over to the large mahogany desk, sat her down on the desktop, and kissed her lips. Not claiming them, not demanding anything, just needing to feel that she was all right.

“Stay there,” I said before going into the bathroom to grab the first aid kit with the hydrogen peroxide and the antibiotic cream. I didn’t want her to feel any pain, any panic. This wasn’t a time to play with her emotions while pretending to care for her.

This time I cared.

She was permitted to feel pain only when it was by my hand and part of my plan. This time was due to neither and therefore her pain was unacceptable.

I set the first aid things down by her side, then pulled her off the desk to her feet to remove her pink trench coat. The grayish blue dress she wore underneath reminded me of the ocean raging before a storm. It was appropriate because that was exactly how I felt.

Setting her back on the desk, I wiped away the makeup covering her bruises and her cuts to get an idea of how bad the damage was.

“Does it hurt?” I asked.

“A little,” she said.

“Who?” I cleaned the wounds as carefully as possible, grateful when I saw they weren’t too deep and probably wouldn’t scar. Still, I applied the ointment liberally to help her heal and bandaged them properly.

“Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters,” I bit out, a little harsher than I intended.

She responded with a cold, cruel half laugh, half snort. “This is what happens when I disobey my mother. Actually, I didn’t even disobey her. This happened when I told her I didn’t want to do something that she demanded.”

“Mary Quinn did this to you?” I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I didn’t think she would leave such obvious marks on her daughter’s face where anyone could see them. She was getting too bold, too brash, and she desperately needed to be taken down a few pegs.

My timeline was going to have to be moved up.

“She’s done worse. This is nothing. What do you think she’s going to do to me when she finds out about you?” Rose’s eyes looked blank, like it was just a foregone conclusion that I was going to tell her mother everything.

Wasn’t it?

Wasn’t part of my plan to expose our little dalliance, destroy Rose’s reputation, and take Mary Quinn down with her?

“Fuck, angel…I—” For the first time since I had put this collar around my throat, I was at a loss for words.

“Where is she now?” I asked, rage simmering in my body and needing a way out.

“At home, I think.”

“You think?”

She took a deep breath, blinked back the tears that were building in her eyes and then looked at me directly again. "It doesn’t matter. There’s nothing you can do.”

“I didn’t ask you what I could do. I asked you where she was.”

“When I left, she was at home choosing her dress for the gala. I know that she’s planning to go to the bank to put something in her safe deposit box before heading here for the charity board meeting in a few hours. I’m assuming she’s going to be home until it’s time to head to the bank.”

“She has a safe deposit box? Why?”

“I really have no idea. She’s never told me what’s in it. I don’t know why she doesn’t just use the safe at home, but she makes weekly visits.”

That was it. That had to be it. Why the maids could find nothing, because nothing was at the house. She kept all of her dirty little secrets in a safe deposit box so her husband would never find them.

Gently, I grabbed each side of Rose’s face and pulled her lips toward mine, kissing her. She had given me exactly what I needed, and she didn’t even know it.

When she opened those perfectly plump lips for me, I took every advantage. Pushing her upper body down to lie on the desk, I kissed my way to her neck, sucking the little spot between the delicate column of her throat and her clavicle.

“If your mother ever tries to raise her hand to you again, I want you to run. Come straight to me. I will be your sanctuary and keep you safe from her.”

Rose tilted her head and laughed.

“You can’t protect me from her. There is no saving me from her.”

“Promise me you’ll come here and let me protect you,” I repeated, a little firmer this time, my hands moving her knees apart, allowing me to stand between them.

“You can’t?—”

“I think that I have more than proven that I can do whatever I wish,” I interrupted. Just to prove my point, I pushed her skirt up to her waist and then ripped off her white cotton panties.

She gasped, but before she could ask what I was doing, I pressed her feet to the desktop, dove between her thighs, and started licking.

“Oh, fuck,” she whispered, and her hands went to the edge of the desk and held on so tight her knuckles whitened.

“Promise me or I am going to spank you until your ass is as pretty of a pink as your cheeks,” I growled, before sucking her clit into my mouth.

She muffled her pleas, trying to keep her voice down.

“Say you will come to me for protection, or I am going to shove my cock down your throat so hard you are going to taste it for a week,” I said before licking into her dripping channel.

She was panting but said nothing.

“Say it, or I will make you live in this room, chain you naked to my bed and have you warm my cock every night.” I slid two fingers inside her and pressed my thumb against her ass while I flicked her clit with my tongue.

She came for me, hard, her back arching up, her lips opening in a silent scream of pleasure.

I kept fucking her with my fingers, pressing against her G-spot and pushing against her ass.

“I will not stop until you say it,” I warned before going back to her clit.

She came again, her thighs shaking against the desktop. I fucked her with my fingers even harder, growling at her to say it between licks of her clit.

“Fine,” she panted after her third orgasm, her pussy dripping so much honey she was leaving a puddle on the polished wood. “When my mother raises a hand to me, I will tell you and I will let you protect me.”

I gave her one more orgasm, pressing my fingers into her G-spot hard enough she squirted just a little as she came.

Fuck, that was hot.

Any other time, I would stay and see if I could make her do that on my cock. But right then, I had things to deal with.

I stood, wiping my mouth on the back of my hand and looking down at my angel. She was battered and bruised, but still had the most amazing, satisfied look on her beautiful face.

“Stay here. I’ll be back for you,” I said before kissing her hard, ignoring the possessive way my heart lurched at our kiss.

I would deal with all of that later.

First, I had to deal with Mary Quinn.