Final Debt (Indebted #6)(115)

“I promise that no matter what happens in the future, we will work it out. I vow that no matter how life goes, I’ll be by your side. I’ll always love you because I’ve seen the worst of you and I’ve seen the best, and I know just how lucky I am to have met my perfect match.”

The room seemed to solidify and melt as he surrendered. “I f*cking adore you. I’d lay down my life—”

My good hand shot up, my fingers pressing against his lips. “No more talk of dying. Not now.” My eyes drifted to his mouth; my fingertips warming as the pinkness of his tongue licked me gently.

The air between us changed.

Rapturous ecstasy replaced my blood as Jethro gathered me closer. My hand fell from his lips as his head tilted toward mine. His body heated, scalding me, drugging me with unspoken words and fleeting fondles.

I needed him.

He needed me.

We needed each other to wipe away a lifetime of conditioning and destinies. This was our new destiny. Right here. And no one—not debts, family, or contracts—could take that away from us.

His eyes flashed gold-bronze with brutal intention as his head bowed the final distance. His lips caressed mine before his tongue fluttered over my bottom lip. “Nila…”

My muscles turned limp, reacting to the desire in his voice.

I kissed him back.

Our lips danced, turning primal, taking, giving, wet, consuming. He sucked on my tongue, gruff sounds of lust and possession vibrating in his chest.

He tugged my hair, forcing my head back. With my neck exposed, he kissed his way down my chin and throat, over my collar, to my breasts. He never let go of my hair as his mouth settled over my nipple.

I cried out as he pulled hard and deep, tugging on the invisible cord between breast and core. My womb clenched, wetness wept, and I opened my legs with blatant invitation.

Rolling me onto my back, he slipped his hard body over mine. His hips fit perfectly between my open thighs, and he sighed heavily as his cock nudged erotically against my delicate flesh.

Securing my head with fistfuls of my hair, he kissed me deeply, his flavour making me drunk. Satisfaction, relief, desperation—they all had a flavour. Musky, smoky, sweet. He gave me everything. His fear. His happiness. His regret. His hope.

The kiss was a kaleidoscope of tastes, weaving us closer together.

“Thank you,” he murmured, kissing my cheekbones and eyelashes. “Thank you so much.”

I struggled to understand as his hands trailed down my belly. “For what?”

His mouth never left my skin. “For trusting me, even when I gave you no reason to do so. For giving me everything, even while I took more than I deserved.”

My eyes remained closed, my body hovering in his masterful spell. My voice was the softest melody. “You can feel that?”

He nodded, his hair tickling my ribcage. “I feel everything when I’m with you, Nila.”

I gasped as he captured my nipple again. His teeth threatened, slicing deliciously around the sensitive skin.

I turned rigid in his arms. More. Bite me. Mark me.

My fingertip tattoos burned with his initials. I wanted more. I’d paid the debts and survived the final one. I wanted the marks to prove it was him who saved me. He who decimated the contracts and war.

“I’m so f*cking grateful for you.” His slow smile was pure truth. “So awed you’ve fallen for me.” He worshipped me, submitting to me in the most endearing male way. “You kill me every day because I can’t believe how lucky I am.”

“Stop. You don’t need to—”

He kissed me again. “But I do. I need to make you see it isn’t empty words or shallow promises. It’s the honest to God truth.”

My heart skipped. He’d given me so much, and he didn’t even know.

The mattress cushioned me as his bulk pressed me deeper into the covers. His sculpted arms trembled as he stroked me. His fever still glowed in his skin, and injury slowed his movements, but he never stopped. Never gave any reason not to take me.

For once, I’d like to make love without fear or regret. I wanted to surround ourselves in happiness and pleasure and shut out the world.

I ran my hands over his chest.

He quivered, his muscles hot and tight beneath my touch.

“I need you, Kite.” I pressed my lips into the hollow of his throat. “I need you so much.”

“And you have me. Now and forever.” His voice slipped from gruff to husky. He slid higher over me, dropping his head, his teeth biting my shoulder. Gathering me closer, he aligned our hips, pressing his full length against me.

Being in his arms was divine. A timeless world within a broken one. Untangling my arms from around his, I swept back salt and pepper hair, staring into his eyes. “You’re beautiful.”

He sucked in a breath.

“Beautiful inside and out.”

“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to feel worthy of that. To like myself. To be able to live with what I am.”

“You don’t have to live with yourself anymore. You live with me. Let me love you enough for both of us.”

His arms flexed, squeezing me so damn hard. “Fuck, Nila.” Rolling me onto his front with a fluid show of masculine power, he hugged me as if he wanted to shatter every bone in my body. Then, as if the glued contact of our skin and overwhelming tenderness of the moment was too much, he rolled me again, pressing my shoulders onto the mattress.