Page 44 of Poisoned Pawn

Every last one of them.

I’ve only ever felt rage like this one other time in my life. The night that changed my life. Changed me.

I go to lift her, but she stops me, pushing my hands away. I’ve no fucking idea how I hold it together enough to step back and let her get to her feet on her own.

I fight against myself as I watch her wobble her way to the bath edge and climb in. Darkness slivers beneath my veins, and I thank fuck she has her eyes closed. As she sinks into the water to her chin, I sink into the mind of the killer inside. But something about the look on her face pulls me back and I school my features as I lean over her.

“Open your eyes, princess.” The slightest movement beneath her lids gives away her eye roll. Using princess had the desired effect, and she opens her eyes, a small spark of light back in them. “That thought you were thinking? Forget it. I’m going to get you some clothes, and when I come back you better still be fucking breathing. ‘Cause if you’re not, I’ll travel to Hell and fight the devil for you.”

Exiting the bathroom, I calmly make my way downstairs and out the front door, pulling it to behind me. I wait. I wait for the next roll of thunder, and as it cracks through the sky, I let out a roar. Every pent-up emotion, every ounce of rage, pours from me in a wordless promise to a God I don’t believe in and a threat to the Devil.

It’s a vow to sell the last of my soul in exchange for the lives of the men that hurt Star.

Back inside the house, I quickly shower, throwing on a pair of joggers, before grabbing some clean clothes for Star. I stop at the doorway to the bathroom and watch her fingers as they trace the inside of her thigh.

My cock hardens at the sight and the memory of her riding my face.

“Hmmm, Michelin star cuisine right fucking there,” I hum as I walk into the room, demanding she sit up and snatching the bottle of shampoo and dropping to my knees before she can see how turned on I am.

I wash her hair, struggling to not climb in there with her and fuck her again when she groans. An image of her with her legs hanging over the sides of the bath and me beneath her ploughing into her plays like a fucking movie reel as I rinse the shampoo from her hair. A better man might vow never to touch her again. But that ain’t me.

I hold the towel out in front of me, still hiding my painfully hard cock, and she climbs out, turning around so I can wrap it round her.

I grab another to dry off her hair, then she lets me steer her into the bedroom and sit her on the edge of the bed.

I walk to the bedside table and grab the small tub of cream there. She watches me, and when I stop in front of her, she looks up at me expectantly. Of what I’m not sure.

Placing the tub on the bed, I take hold of the top of the towel and peel it open. She makes no move to stop me even though she doesn’t know what it is I plan to do.

So many fucking things.

Sitting naked in front of me and nothing to hide my reaction to her, her eyes drop to my dick. It stands proud as fucking punch under my joggers.

“Ain’t fucking happening, Star.” I crouch, dropping my hands to the top of her thighs and gently open her legs. I reach over for the tub, but she beats me to it, handing it to me.

“Your mouth says one thing, but your body says the opposite,” she whispers as I pop the top off the tub and dip my fingers inside, scooping a little blob onto two fingers.

I place the tub back on the bed and place half onto the same two fingers of my other hand.

“My body doesn’t rule my head.” I massage the cream into the rash from my scruff. And while my words were true, I can’t help how my fingers tighten on the soft skin of her inner thighs, picturing my cock… I go to pull my hands away before I can’t stop myself. A liar I fucking am not.

She grasps my wrists halting me, and I raise my eyes, keeping my head low.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” I ask even though I can take a damn good guess.

She tilts her head and looks as me as if to say ‘how dense are you?’.

“What are you thanking me for, princess, huh? The thorough fucking? ‘Cause that weren’t no hardship, and I have every fucking intention of doing it again.”

“That is not what I meant and you fucking know it,” she says, her tone erring on the edge of pissed off.

I rise, forcing her back and caging her in. “Oh, I know. But you don’t need to thank me for taking care of you. Now, get some sleep,” I tell her, needing to leave before I undo everything she’s just thanked me for. She is testing the limits of my restraint.

I walk away, closing the door behind me. I’ve experimented with the whole dom/sub thing before, but it ain’t for me. I’ve never cared much about what comes after we’ve fucked. Never gave a shit about them past making sure they come a couple of times before I did. But Star is the exception to that rule.

The only fucking exception.