Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(104)

She didn’t want that. “You’ll protect me."

He picked her up, hugging her tight. “I will. When we’re done here, we’ll leave and figure out what to do.”

She stilled in his arms. “Ian, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’ll go with you.”

Now she started to push him away. “You can’t. You can’t leave your family.”

“You’re my family now. I tried to fight it, but I can’t."

It was everything she wanted and so bittersweet it nearly broke her heart. “I never meant to do this to you. I thought I could hide with you. I thought that maybe my uncle had moved on to bigger things. It was stupid, but I honestly thought I could make this work. It had been over a year since my uncle had sent someone after me.”

“Yet he found you so quickly after you came to me. Nelson had me watched. He’ll always have me watched if I’m out in the open. I think the people he’s working with will do the same as long as they need your uncle’s cooperation. They’ll watch us.”

Maybe she should consider working with the Agency. How could she ask Ian to give everyone up?

He reached down, drawing her chin up so she had to look at him. “I wouldn’t like what’s going through your head, would I?”

Very likely not since she was thinking of running. “You can’t leave your home.”

His arms tightened around her. “My home is with you now. Trust me. Choose me this time.”

She searched his face.

Choose him. Choose to rise or fall with him. Choose to run with him, to make a home with him wherever they could. Choose to face everything that was coming with him by her side.

She’d promised him. She’d taken vows. He knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t the type of man who would walk into this situation without thinking everything through. It was what he’d been doing on the plane, while he was driving, while he sat up all night watching over her. He’d been making his decision.

He was offering himself to her. If she tried to play the martyr, she would be rejecting him.

“I love you. I know I should walk away.”

His head shook. “Then put a bullet in me when you go. Charlie, my decision is made. Honor it. Choose me even over your need to sacrifice yourself. God, you’ve been f*cking doing that all your life. You could have gotten out, but you stayed in because of your sister. You sacrificed for her. You were ready to die so the rest of my team could live. Don’t you see that this is your pattern? Break it for me. Choose me. Choose to fight to be with me. Even if it means we go down. Because if we go down, we’re going down together. Make me the one thing you don’t ever sacrifice.”

He wanted to be the one thing she was selfish about. It might not be right, but she could give him that. And she knew what was at the heart of it all. Trust. If she stayed, she was trusting him to know his heart, to protect them, to put her first, to never leave her. God, he was practically begging her to not leave him.

“Never, Master.” She laid her head over his heart. Though his face might be blank, his heart was thundering in his chest. “I’ll never sacrifice us. I love you, Ian.”

“I love you, too, Charlie.” His head rested against hers. “I love you, wife. No matter what happens, I love you.” He kissed her again, his tongue plunging deep. “God, I love the way you taste.”

“And I love the way you kiss me. I love the way I feel when I’m with you. I love the me I am when I’m with you.”

His lips played on hers. “I think I would be like Ten if you hadn’t saved me.”

“I didn’t save you.” It was the opposite.

“Yes, you did. I might never admit it again, wife, so drink it in now, but I think I would have sunk into my job. I would have become nothing more than a weapon for them to use. I knew I couldn’t be that after I married you. You were the reason I got out, the reason I have any family at all.”

His hands pulled at the shirt, leaving her naked in an instant. The windows were slightly open, letting in the early morning breeze. It played on her skin, puckering her nipples.

Long, trailing kisses made their way down her throat, stopping at her shoulders, his tongue tasting her skin. She stayed still for him, knowing what he wanted. He wanted to relearn her, this time with kindness and love. He dropped to his knees in front of her, drawing her back to his mouth.

She let her head fall back, giving over to him as he tongued her nipples, one after another. His hands clasped the cheeks of her ass, molding and massaging them.

“Tell me you’re mine.” He bit gently down on one nipple.

“I’m yours.” She’d been his from the moment she’d met him, maybe longer. Maybe she’d been his since the moment she’d been born. Maybe he was the gift the universe had given her for everything she’d suffered. Maybe he was a happy coincidence. It didn’t matter because she’d found him and her soul had settled into place. Finally. Completely.

“Always, Charlie. You’re always mine. And I’m always your Master. Your husband.” He latched onto the nipple and sucked hard, the sensation going straight to her *. “Get wet for me. Get ready for me.”

She already was. She didn’t need him to do anything but walk into a room for her to be ready for him. Her body was tuned to his. “Yes, Master.”