The Reaper (Dark Verse #2)

by RuNyx

“I’ll try.”

“If you burned as I burn with the need to claim you. That I wasn’t alone in the fire.”

“You wanted to know if I burn with you?”

“That’s fucked up. You’re fucked up. But you’re mine.”

“Every” lick “fucked up” lick “inch of you.”

“You keep looking at me like that and I’ll come under a fucking minute.”

“I don’t just burn with you, Tristan,” she said, her voice shaking. “I burn for you. And I

don’t know what I have to do to prove it.” He groaned,

“Fuck, Mo...

“I want to be able to walk into a room and know, without an iota of doubt, that the man I have claimed is only mine. I know that’s not how things work in this world. I know that men and women play around with others, that loyalty is a luxury not everyone can afford. I know. I just don’t like it.”

“I just, I really like you Tristan Caine, as messed up as you are.”

“My loyalty is not a luxury for you, Morana. It’s a gift and it’s yours. You never have to walk into a room and question that.”

“So you mean to say that if he’s alive and missing—” “—then he’s done it deliberately,”

“Dante isn’t dead.” “I know.”

“It wasn’t my idea. Dante wanted to do it this way.”

“But I know, I know, she’s alive.”

“Then, we will find her.”

“I think about a lot of different things now but don’t mistake me for someone soft, Morana. Whispered words in the shadows aren’t who I am. I’m still a monster.”

He waited for her answer, never moving those intense blue eyes from hers. “A monster,” she whispered between their lips. “My monster. One who could keep me safe and kill the other monsters who wanted to hurt me.”

“You always fucking had him, wildcat.”

And then he ravaged her like the monster he claimed to be.

“He won’t be able to take you, not even over my dead body. You’re too smart for him.”

“It’s a fact. You’re smarter than most of these men put together, and I don’t just mean with your tech stuff. Anyone who denies that is stupid.”

“I’m the smartest of them. I claimed you long before any of them had a chance.”

“I can see why Tristan is smitten,”

“You have fire. I respect fire. But there are greater powers at play here, little girl. Bigger than you or me. I don’t think you even realize the things you set in motion for your selfish needs.”

“You were a pawn to control your father,”

“My father never loved me enough for you to control him.” “Oh, he loved you,”

“You’re living in my city, on my compound, with my soldier. I’m not threatening you, just telling you. You don’t want to make an enemy of me.”

isn’t temporary.” “Good,”

He wreaked havoc on her pussy with his mouth. She was never the same.

He had come to her – broken and messed up, he had found her.

His bruised body had never been shown affection, his bruised soul had never been told it was beautiful.

She didn’t know and she didn’t care about anything

right now except he had sought her out. He needed her acceptance. He needed her unconditional love to heal like his own was healing her. She doubted he even realized that he loved her, or that every action of his cemented that fact in her very soul.

“Have you ever been made love to, Mr. Caine?”

“No,” he answered, swallowing. “Then, allow me,” she whispered, slowly pressing her mouth against his, taking a hold of his lower lip between her teeth and tugging at it.

“I’m so in love with you, caveman.” She saw his eyes flare slightly, his hand coming to rest around her neck, gripping her firmly. “You can’t take that back,” he warned her fiercely.

“I’m not going to take it back,”

“I mean it, Morana,” he threatened her, his eyes so alive she felt buzzed. “You cannot take it back. Do you understand me?” “I won’t,” she reassured him.

“Tell me again,” he demanded, jerking her again.

“I’m in love with you, Tristan Caine. I don’t expect you to say it back. I don’t need you to. I just need you to keep on loving me.”

But she also knew he loved her. He wouldn’t have come to her last night otherwise. He wouldn’t have sought her out over and over as he had. He wouldn’t have felt the need to keep her safe with himself as he did.

He loved her, and he would probably never be able to tell her so.

And she was surprisingly okay...

“He’s talking about your graduation, Morana. He was there. That’s where he saw me.”

“You’re her father,” Tristan put into words what she wasn’t able to.

“I know I don’t have any right to be, but I was very proud when you went on to study technology,” he told her, the smile on his face a ghost of who he must have been. “You get it from me. You’re so much better than I was at your age.”

“Why steal the codes? You were never going to use them. Why frame Tristan?”

“I needed to make you and Tristan cross paths.”