If Colin hadn’t cut their captor, she might have heard me coming.
I could be dead right now.
And I wasn’t.
Because Marj had succumbed to her weakness and hadn’t destroyed that blade like Mel and I had asked.
I could hardly be angry with her. That razor might have saved her life. And mine and Colin’s, though according to Dominic, their lives hadn’t been in danger.
What to believe?
I walked to the kitchen and put the tea kettle on the stove. My mother swore by chamomile tea for relaxation. Maybe it would help Marj.
A few minutes later, armed with a cup of steaming herb tea, I walked back through the bedroom to the bathroom to check on Marjorie.
I knocked lightly.
“Come in,” she said softly.
She sat in the tub, frothy lather bubbling around her. Her dark hair was wet and plastered to her shoulders and breasts. She looked like a shining angel.
“I thought you might like some tea.”
“That was sweet of you. Thanks.”
“I’ll set it here on the counter.”
She nodded and stood. Water dripped in rivulets off her wet body.
My groin responded.
She was so beautiful, so tempting…but the last thing she needed was me all over her.
Or perhaps I was wrong.
Her gaze dropped to my crotch.
“Please,” she whispered.
“Anything, my love. Anything.”
“Make love to me. Now, Bryce. I’m not asking for the earth to move. Just something soft and wonderful. Help me remember what’s beautiful in the world.”
She stepped out of the tub, and I handed her a towel. She squeezed the wetness from her long hair and then wrapped it into a turban while I encased her in another warm towel. Then I pulled her into my arms and held her close. Her body was warm from the bath, and it permeated into me, infusing me, saturating me.
Thank God.
Thank God.
Thank God.
My Marjorie was home.
I kissed the top of her head and held her tightly.
“Please,” she said again, her whisper more of a hum against my neck.
I didn’t reply, simply helped her dry the last of the water from her body and left the two towels in a heap on the floor. Then I led her into the bedroom and set her gently on the bed that I’d already turned down.
My cock was already pulsing, ready for me to thrust into her.
But she’d asked for soft.
No matter how much I wanted to get rough—to fuck her thoroughly and mark her, never let anyone take her from me again—I couldn’t. I needed to be there for her now, see to her needs, not my own.
I undressed slowly, easing each garment from my body in what seemed like slow motion, even though I wanted to tear the clothes into shreds and get inside Marjorie.
Her gaze never left me, those warm brown eyes searing into me and making me even hotter.
My cock was hard and ready, but I was determined to go slowly.
I lay down on the bed and gathered her into my arms. “I love you so much,” I whispered.
“I love you too.”
Her words warmed me, made me want to protect her and keep her from all harm.
I’d already failed at that quest.
I would not fail again.
I tilted her chin upward and pressed my lips to hers in the softest of kisses. Her sweet lips were parted, and I longed to force my tongue between them, take her in a firm and drugging kiss that would lead us to everything I desired.
Instead, I gave her another light kiss on her full pink lips.
This time, though, she took the lead. She trailed her tongue over my lower lip and then swept it inside my mouth.
I responded with all my pent-up passion.
This was the kiss I wanted. The marking kiss. The kiss that would imprint on her psyche and make her mine forever.
Our lips slid together.
And then hands. Hers on my cheek and then my shoulder. Over my hip and clasped onto my ass. Mine in her silky wet hair, pulling and tugging, sliding over the top of her breast and then to the fleshy indent of her waist, all the way to that jewel between her legs.
She was wet. She was so wet.
She broke away from me, panting. “Fuck what I said, Bryce. I don’t want soft. I want hard. Fuck me. Fuck me now.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Marjorie
Bryce flattened me on my back and hovered above me, sweat dripping from his brow. “You sure?” he panted.
I bit my lip. “God, yes. Get inside me.”
And then I was full, so complete, his cock so deep that he touched the edge of my soul.
No more emptiness. No more fear. No more need.
Everything was full. My body, my heart, my spirit.
Everything.
He touched a part of me so fathomless that I knew I’d never be lost again as long as this man was in my life. Perhaps I’d never need that blade again.
I lifted my hips to meet every precious thrust. And I rose, slowly, each tug on my clit emanating out to the farthest reaches of my body…until it all snapped into one ferocious climax that burst inside me like a thousand twinkling diamonds.
That feeling, that feeling of being one with the man I loved and one with the universe at the exact same time…
“Bryce!” I cried out. “I love you so much, Bryce.”
He plunged into me again and again, panting, gasping. “I”—thrust—“love”—thrust—“you”—thrust—“too!”
And he tunneled so far into me that my climax began again as he released.
We soared together for timeless moments until we both lay panting in each other’s arms, recovering from our orgasms.
He rolled off me and sighed heavily. “I can’t lose you, Marjorie. I can’t ever lose you.”
I snuggled into his chest. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I’ve never been so scared in my life. When you disappeared…”
“Shh. I’m okay. They didn’t hurt me.”
He tensed beneath me. “I’ll kill anyone who hurts you. I swear it.”
His words both warmed me and sent a chill through me.
“You’ll never have to,” I said, hoping the words were true.
Then I breathed in his spicy warm scent—the scent that gave me comfort above all else—and closed my eyes.
I awoke to the sun’s rays streaming into the bedroom.
“Bryce?”
He was gone.
I reached for the clock on the nightstand. “Noon!”
I scrambled out of bed and grabbed the closest thing I could find. Bryce’s shirt he’d been wearing the night before.
“Bryce?” I walked out of the bedroom to the kitchen. “Bryce!”
“In the office,” came his voice.
I hurried toward the extra bedroom he’d put into use for a home office. He sat at the makeshift desk, his laptop open.
“It’s noon,” I said.
“Yeah, it is.”
“You were supposed to wake me. We were going to the hospital.”
“I talked to Tal, Ryan, and Joe. They all agreed—”
“My brothers don’t dictate my life!” I clenched my hands into fists.
“Calm down, honey. We all just thought—”