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August 16 - August 22, 2023
“How important can they be? It’s fucking avocados, Cash.” “And you know what every basic bitch wants? Avocado toast, poké bowls, green smoothies, and margarita night with a giant-ass bowl of guacamole. Those fucking avocados,” he imitates me, “are worth more than their weight in gold.” I roll my eyes. Black market avocados are apparently the new cocaine.
My young brain made a game of it. If I could smile before I flinched, I won. If I won enough times, maybe it would bring her back. It didn’t bring anyone back. Now it’s just a dance with an old friend.
My lips barely graze his skin as I whisper, “I’m not paying you back for that.” He plucks my hand from his face and brings it to his mouth, lips fluttering lightly across my knuckles as he speaks quietly. “I don’t need your money, Cortez. Your daddy’s paying me plenty.”
It’s Roan’s stony-blue eyes, reflecting the violent swirls of fire now behind me. They’re wild and harried, chilling me to the bone despite the heat. I latch onto them like an anchor in an ocean storm.
“You can hate me, treat me like a dog, tell me to be a good boy, but where you go, I go. And when shit hits the fan, you’ll be glad I'm in here and not out there.”
“Try running away while I’m showering, and I’ll find you before nightfall.”
“Because when my hands are wrapped around your throat, I’m the one you’ll be praying to.” …Lord have mercy…
As I silently approach her bed, I can nearly taste her screams on my tongue, feel the way her yells will vibrate against my lips. My hands buzz in anticipation of feeling her silken skin under them as I pry her legs apart and force my way in. She’ll resist and fight, but it won’t stop me from taking what I want. The closer I get to the bed, the harder my dick gets, desperate to hear her protests muffled by my kiss, her moans of pleasure when her body finally gives in and accepts how good I make her feel, how wet and hot—
Stubborn, competitive, and unable to resist a challenge. Classic Aries.
I run through what my brothers would do, hoping for some ideas. Cash would carry her to bed—his bed. Lochlan would slide in behind her and snuggle her to his chest. Hard pass. Finn would leave her as is since she decided to fall asleep there. Maybe he’d toss a blanket over her.
I hear a flick of metal and then feel the sharp point of a pocket knife drag across my shoulder. I swallow deeply as he coasts the blade up the slope of my neck and stops below my jaw. “I can see your pulse.” He presses the flat of the knife deeper into my skin, and I feel the thump of my pulse push into it.
Roan doesn’t walk. He prowls.
His presence isn’t any easier to ignore as his inked shoulders and back cut through the steam like mountains above fog at night.
She throws the shirt to the side, and I look down as she swipes up one last drop with her finger and sucks it clean. Then she uses that same finger to tip my chin up and whispers sweetly, “Good boy.”
“If you ever make me that hard again while torturing someone, I’m fucking you next to their corpse.”
“So, no, Cortez, I don’t want to touch you—I want to fuck you, own you, ruin you.”
“I’ve thought about filling your smart mouth so many times. Imagined how you’d look on your knees just as many. But fuck, the fantasy can't even compete with the reality…I feel like I should be the one on my knees right now.”
“Stay close to me.” He sweeps up my hand and starts weaving in and out of the throng of people, leading us toward the priestess. I try to fight the feeling of instant safety and comfort his hand wrapped around mine brings, both sweet and bitter.
I grab her by the throat and force her to look up at me. “Now pull those panties aside for me.” Her eyes are big and wide as she does. I can’t look away from her face as I glide the metal up and down her slick cunt, captivated by all the tiny expressions flashing across it as she realizes what I intend to do. Continuing my thoughts out loud, I say, “And you’re gonna love it, you twisted little slut.” Her mouth hangs open like a response is dancing on her tongue, but she snaps it shut, digging her teeth into her bottom lip as she leans back and uses her hands for support. I push the barrel
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I move my hand from her throat to cup her cheek, wiping the stray tear with my thumb as I speak through gritted teeth. “Don’t think for a second that you aren’t the one in complete control. That you don’t have total power over me.”
There’s a soft pressure against my lips. Something light and wet prodding at the seam. Something clamps down on either side of my face, but I’m still in a daze, my wobbly attention on this sensation against my mouth. “You’re safe.” The pressure’s gone, replaced with feathery air. “Come back to me, Roan. It’s safe.”
Draping her arms over my shoulders, she murmurs, “Take me back to bed, Ro.” Ro. She only calls me that when we’re like this, dazed and distracted, lost in each other’s body. I think I like it.
“But, I’ve become addicted to your unique brand of madness. Three fucking days of—” He groans a sigh like he’s frustratedly searching for his next words. “Do you remember when you called me a dog—” “Roan, I didn’t mean—” “But it’s true. I feel like a stray just hoping and praying you’ll decide to keep me.”
“I’m yours now, you understand?” he says between grunts and deep thrusts. “Yes, yes,” I cry as he hits a spot inside me that makes light burst behind my eyelids and my clit throb from the inside out. “Say it,” he bites out, jaw tight and sweat sliding down his temple. “You’re mine,” I gasp. “Mine.” “Fuck, I don’t want to be anything else,”
“So fucking beautiful.” He peers down at me with a crease between his brows and adoration in his eyes. “I could watch you come all day.”
The circumstances have changed so suddenly that it almost feels like a dream. One minute I’m chasing the sunset, and the next I am surrounded by darkness and evil, chained and lined up like cattle for slaughter.
“Wake up, please, I need you. If you wake up for me I swear I’ll fucking marry you. I’ll take you skydiving. I’ll love you with every breath I breathe, every second of my life. Please, just come back to me—”
I scoop her into my arms and cradle her face with my hand. “I love you, I love you, I love you,” I chant, shock and relief wiping my mind clear of any thoughts that aren’t my love for this woman. I’m incapable of saying anything else for a few moments. But when she lets out a raspy Ro, I finally find the ability, my throat raw and twisted. “I’m fucking marrying you, Cortez.” Her eyes struggle to stay open, but her mouth twitches in something resembling a smile. “Do I have any say in this?” “Absolutely not.” I sob and laugh at the same time as I clutch her to my chest and kiss the top of her
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I tuck my gun away and pull her into me. “I’ll always be your monster, you only have to be my light.”
He’s broken but beautiful, shattered but whole. And when the nightmares come that remind him of what he’s lost, it’s my job to remind him of everything he still has.
She turns to me with a softness in her eyes, as if she can feel the shift in me. “What’s in your head?” She brushes an eyelash off my cheek with her thumb and holds it out for me. I blow it away with a silent wish. A wish for the strength to face my demons and a prayer of gratitude that I have her by my side while I do it.
“Do you, Roan Fox, take Regenia Cortez to be your wife, to love and to hold—” He cuts him off. “I do.” “And do you Regenia Cort—” “I do,” I pledge, staring into his eyes that are as blue as the sky surrounding us. “Protecting you is the greatest honor of my life,” he says, leaning down so our lips almost touch. Emotions choke my words. There’s so much I want to say, but only one thing matters. “Loving you is the greatest honor of mine.”