Chapter Nine

Lisa

I’m finally able to take that bath I’ve been craving. I sink into the warm water, alone at last after the chaos. The soothing embrace of the water washes away the remnants of fear. With each gentle touch, I feel the tension slowly fading away. It wasn’t easy to get a moment alone when I arrived back at the clubhouse.

Rhea was visibly distressed, and I can’t help but wonder if she actually had it worse watching someone get kidnapped right in front of her eyes and being helpless to do nothing about it. I was relieved to find her okay, but she clearly looked like she’d been through the wringer with her swollen eyes that told me she’d been crying. Sasha looked no better when she’d come bursting into the clubhouse and nearly tackled me with the force of her relief. She only calmed down when I swore on my life that I was unharmed.

I rest my head on the tub basin, and in the moment of solitude, I think back on my captors.

When we left the cabin, there were no cops or anyone from the law enforcement. No one to arrest the men that had taken me. I wonder what Shadow and the others did with them. Something tells me I don’t want to know.

Shadow. My savior. He’d come bursting in, quite literally, and it was the hottest thing I’ve seen in my life.

Speaking of which, I have no idea where he’s disappeared to. He left right after making sure I was okay and settled back at the clubhouse, and I haven’t seen him since. Did he perhaps go to talk to my captors?

No, don’t think about it, Lisa.

I guess it’s okay for the man to have his secrets when he’s sure the truth will be too much for me to bear. With that thought, I close my eyes and enjoy the bath in the quiet, forcing myself to relax and not think about anything else.

I’m safe here, rescued by the man I have fallen in love with.

The thought doesn’t send my heart hammering in panic like it typically would, but instead, a smile grazes my lips.

“Mind sharing the joke?”

The words are spoken so close, I nearly jump out of my skin. My eyes shoot open to lock on familiar back ones. I didn’t hear him walk in or even approach me, he moves so quietly. I run my eyes over his shirtless body, and I swallow hard at the sight of his chiseled chest and rippling muscles. Christ, I have seen the man naked before, heck, I spent last night sleeping on top of this body, but it never fails to awe me. And the reaction he brings out in me just from being so close . . .

“You’re here,” I breathe, running my eyes over his perfect physique. “W-why are you shirtless?”

Shadow runs his eyes over my body, causing me it heat over despite the cooling water. The spot between my legs grows pulses just from the intense caress of his eyes.

“I had to take it off; I got it stained with . . . something.”

I have an idea of what his shirt was stained with, but I don’t want to ask. I mean, despite his best effort to clean up his pants, I can still see the red spots on his jeans.

It should scare me, that this man is capable of going so far, but then I remember the way the men had grabbed Rhea, pulling her by the hair and her arm as if she was a rag doll, or the way they’d joked about shooting me if I tried to run. A part of me believes the men belong in prison, but Shadow doesn’t seem like the kind of guy to let someone else deal with what he’s decided is his problem. Not even the law.

“Pink,” he says, forcing my attention back to his eyes. “There is something I need to talk to you about.”

“Okay.”

“The men who grabbed you, I know them. They belong to the same Russian Bratva I was a part of six years ago. I got out by faking my death, but they found me. After . . . talking with one of them, a man named Ivan, we learned how they found out I was still alive.”

I stare blankly at the man, completely shaken. He belonged to the Bratva? “H-how did they find you?”

“One of the club members, Dagger, somehow learned who I used to be and contacted my brother and told him where to find me . . . He also told them about you. I’m so sorry, baby.”

This is the stuff I read about in the books, and I would think Shadow was joking around if the man wasn’t watching me so intensely for my reaction. I read the fear and pain in his eyes, almost as if he believes that he has somehow betrayed me and this new information is going to change my feelings for him.

Not a chance.

“Do you think they’ll come back?” I ask him, reaching for his hand just to feel the connection between us.

“Possibly,” he says. “My brother is the leader of the New York Bratva, and he might try to send more people after me, but I promise you that I will never let anyone touch you ever again. I swear it.”

“I believe you,” I whisper, and God, what he must be feeling. Not only was he betrayed by a club brother, but his biological brother was behind my kidnapping. Now that I have his assurance, I need to feel connected to him once more. It’s my turn to reassure him that I’m not going anywhere, to comfort him.

I reach for him to pull him close, but he stops before I can wrap my arms around him. “Not yet, Pink, you’re hurt.”

“It’s just my hand, and it’s a small scrape,” I say, biting into my lip in a way I know drives him insane. “Besides, I promise to let you do most of the work.”

I watch with amusement as he tries to battle his own needs before finally giving in. “Fuck, the things you do to me, little girl.”

“Don’t you want to see how wet you make me?” I ask, blinking up innocently at him as I guide his hand into the water and between my thighs. My lips part with a whimper when his fingers delve between my folds, and he curses out when he finds me slippery, and it has nothing to do with soap. His eyes flare up with heat as all reservations fall away, and he slips his finger into my pulsing channel. I gasp, then moan loudly as pleasure shoots up my abdomen. There is nothing teasing in the way he slides his thick digit in and out of me, and soon, I am panting as I ride his finger in the water.

“S-Shadow!”

“So beautiful,” he says huskily, his eyes drinking up my expression as his fingers tease my most intimate spots. I gasp when he uses his other hand to trace my nipples, causing them to spike into pebbles. “The way you respond to my touch is the most beautiful thing I ever seen in my life. You’re the most beautiful thing I have ever seen, and now, you’re mine.”

“Yes, yours,” I whimper as I ride his finger, the water splashing everywhere from the movement.

“I need to have you.”

Shadow withdraws his finger, but doesn’t give me a moment to whine about the loss as he slides his hands under my body and lifts me from the bathtub, soaking the floor and himself in the process, but that doesn’t seem to bother him. He takes my mouth in a hungry kiss, and I wrap my arms around his neck, moaning needily at the slick friction. It feels like forever since I have felt that firm mouth on mine, when in actuality, it has been less than a day.

He lowers me onto the bed and follows me down, dropping a knee between my thighs as he kisses me like a man starved for affection, but I am no better. I feel his erection press against my inner thigh as our tongues duel in the most erotic of dances before he breaks it to trace his lips down my neck. I cry out when his mouth drops to my breast and licks at my beaded nipples, shifting his attention from one to another. “You have no idea the things I would do for you, baby,” he growls as he kisses a path between my tits.

“You saved me.”

“I would do way more than that if someone dared steal you from me, Lisa. You’re my life.” His words send my heart aching painfully, but he doesn’t give me time to revel in his words as he grips my knees and nudges them apart, leaving me exposed. He makes a rough guttural noise at the sight of my naked sex that sends me shivering a second before he leans down and buries his wet tongue at the center of my sex. I arch off the bed with a scream when he goes at it like a starved man, licking and sucking at my aching bud with such hunger, it has me sobbing as pleasure builds up in my body.

“Shadow,” I cry when he adds the pad of his thumb to the mix, rubbing circles over my clit as he laps eagerly at my arousal, bringing me closer and closer to the edge faster than he’s ever done before. I cry out when he reaches up and palms my breasts, squeezing my nipples between his fingers. “Oh God!”

He’s like a possessed man as he brings me to the brink of an orgasm, and when his mouth closes hotly over my clit, sucking the aching bud hungrily, I lose it. My hips buck off the bed, and a scream tears from my lungs as pleasure floods out of me in overwhelming waves. Black spots dance behind my eyelids as his tongue draws out my climax.

I am panting when Shadow finally pushes up from my body, and I watch under heavy eyelids as he tugs down his zipper to release his monstrous cock. I tremble when he kisses a trail up my body before finally taking my lips with his. “You’re a fucking temptation, little girl,” he says against my lips as he grabs my knee and lifts it to his hip. With his eyes locked on mine, he fills me with his thickness with a single rough thrust. I whimper at the feeling, taking all of his inches into my slick sex, pulsing hotly around his manhood.

“You're mine. This tight little pussy is mine, and so is the rest of you.”

“Yes,” I cry out when he starts thrusting so hard the bed creaks with every drive into me, but I am not complaining. Far from it. I drink up the man’s expression as he slides his swollen cock in and out of me. His head is thrown back with veins popping in his neck and muscles strained, and I can’t resist the urge to touch him. He hisses when I scrape my nails over his nipples and down to the ridges on his stomach.

“You do that intentionally,” he accuses, a wicked glint in his eyes.

“Maybe . . . Oh!” I moan when he rocks harder into me, rolling his hips faster, and as he works his rigid shaft in and out of me, all I can do is hold on as he brings us both to the brink of an earth-shattering orgasm. “Oh, Shadow . . . Yes!”

“So close, baby,” he breathes, moving faster and harder a second before his muscles seize above me, and he curses, his cock swelling even harder inside me as he fills me with his seed. His hips grind roughly on top of me and bring me to the edge of my orgasm. I sob as pleasure rolls through my body in waves with my sex pulsing hotly around him, milking him to last drop. “Fuck!” he curses again, his body shuddering when he leans down to press his lips on my shoulder. I run my hand soothingly over his arm. “I love you so much, Pink. You’re my entire world.”

His words cause my breath to catch in my throat. “Y-you love me?”

“From the moment I saw you,” he says, his dark eyes locking on mine so I can read the truth in them. “You’ve held my heart from the second you showed up here threatening me to save your cousin.”

I sniff back tears, leaning up to kiss his jaw and cheek before pressing my lips to his. “I love you too, Shadow,” I whisper. “You’re mine.”

“And it’ll stay that way forever,” he says. I nod, sliding my arms around his neck, hungry for the warmth only this man has ever offered me and thankful that my crazy plan brought me to this man.

Brought me to my soulmate, and now, I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life loving and building a family with him, a home where no one ever has to feel lonely as long as we’re together.