The Finisher (Dark Verse, #4)

by RuNyx

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind." -William Shakespeare

New sensations coursed through her body, the promise of something dark and delicious and depraved on the horizon that had everything feminine in her unfurl and open and accept his pillaging of her being.

Would he hold her down and slam her into the bed? Would he pull her hair back and devour her mouth as he plunged inside her? Would he mark her skin with his teeth?

He was her love at first meeting. And she didn’t know who he was now, but he was hers. He’d always been hers.

Her first love, the one she never recovered from. Love, the kind she could give everything and replenish yet again to give more, the kind that snuck in under the radar, and one day, it was there, mixed into the cement of her foundations. Love that went so deep into the bones it changed the course of being. He had been that love. He was back. And he remembered nothing. She was screwed.

“So, what you’re saying is”—he leaned forward—“that I can round the desk right now and spread your pussy while my men can hear you scream outside?”

“And let’s say, I strip you naked right here, right now, and press you against the window for the whole city to see while I pound you into the glass, you wouldn’t object?”

“And if I tell you to suck me off under the table like my personal little slut while I talk to one of my men, you would?”

“You’re playing with the beast, little rainbow.” His grip on her chin tightened. “I bite.”

Would she do that to him too? Change his life, make him feel new about himself, earn his loyalty to the point he would look out for her? Could she? He was intrigued, and nothing really intrigued him anymore.

“I don’t know how, rainbow,” he murmured softly, “and I don’t know what secrets of mine you have, but I want them all. You’ve sealed your fate now. Welcome to my hell.”

God, her brain was a smutwreck.

"Chemistry lies, Zephyr,"

"Heart,"

"And what does yours say?"

"Nothing. Fucker hasn't spoken in years. It's a dead, scarred piec...

'You are hope, sunshine. Hope for a better life.' The boy who'd told her that clearly lived in the tower, unreachable.

She raised her glass of water to him. “To chemistries that lie.”

He raised his. "And hearts that die."

enjoying the companionable silence as they both ate, silently falling a little more in love with the new him, enough for the both of them until he could catch up.

"And in the end, we were all humans, drunk on the idea that love, only love, could heal our brokenness." -Christopher Poindexter

Pressing soft, gentle kisses to his scar, she followed the trail of the jagged line, holding the sides of his jaw in her hands, feeling his facial hair cushion her palms. She kissed him over his cheek, down the line to the corner of his mouth, all the while aware of the way he held himself, taut and rigid, while still taking her affection. And she gave it freely, loving him as her heart desired—openly, shamelessly, abundantly.

"I want to eat your smile, sunshine," he said against her mouth. "Swallow it whole and light up my insides with it."

“I might not remember you,” he whispered, his lips almost at hers. “But you’re my wife now. Mine. And I’d bathe this whole city in blood before I let you change that.”

“I’m not letting you go, Zephyr.” His hand simply traced her hip, his words tender in the space between them. Her heartbeats escalated. “But—” “You know how a rainbow is made?” Zephyr frowned. “When sunlight passes through a raindrop.” “My life has been nothing but gray for as long as I remember,” he told her softly. “Rainstorms and thunder clouds that never went away. You filtered through that, all bright colors and exuberance and life. And the clouds are still there, but my eyes can’t leave the rainbow long enough to see them. You changed things. And I’m not letting that go, Zephyr. I’m not letting you go. Get that out of your head right now.”

"You cannot save people, you can only love them." -Anais Nin

“I didn’t realize how much I missed your touch. You gave a starved man a feast every day until he forgot what hunger felt like, and then took it away.”

“Okay. Give my love to Zephyr.” And now he was blowing raspberries. Alpha looked at her. “I’ll give her your greeting.” “I said, my love.” “Fuck off.”

"Don't leave me again, rainbow," he spoke quietly in the space between them. "I don't know if I'll ever remember anything. I don't know if what I feel is love. I don't know what the future holds. But I know I want you by my side. I know I don't want to forget you now."

"Remember when I told you my heart was a dead scar tissue?" "Hmm." "I feel it pumping again with you. My lifeblood. My little rainbow." And he was hers. With his words warming her to the bone, Zephyr slept with her husband by her side.