Red. (Den of Mercenaries #1)(61)

“If that’s what I want, then yeah.”

He was shaking his head before she could even finish. “That’s not how this works.”

“Niklaus, you can’t just—”

“You want him gone, no? I can make that happen far quicker than you can. I’ll make it where he never sees another day if that’s what you wanted. Just say the word.”

“He’d kill Jimmy,” she said softly, her fear and trust rolled into one simple statement.

“Jimmy?”

“My brother.”

“Where is he?” Niklaus asked.

“I don’t know. He took off—which he tends to do on occasion, the reason why you never met him before. Liam is looking for him too.”

“I’ll find him first.”

She shook her head. “You can’t know that for sure. Liam has been looking since before you know about Jimmy at all.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“Nik—”

He shut her up with a bruising kiss, one that took her breath away and grounded her at the same time.

His fingers slipped through the damp strands of her hair at the nape of her neck, his hold possessive and firm, keeping her exactly as he wanted. She shouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as she did, but she had always been weak when it came to him.

Where was her fight?

How long had she thought about the next time they would cross paths, and what she would say once they were face-to-face? Years had passed, and she had moved on, not with Liam, but emotionally. She had gotten over her feelings for Niklaus…or at least that was what she thought until he walked back into her life.

Now she wasn’t so sure.

“It’s almost midnight, it can wait until the morning. I’ve been tracking Liam and have bugs in place, if there’s any mention of him trying to make a move I’d know it.” But he wasn’t finished. “I want you,” he said when her gaze lifted to his, making sure she could see the sincerity there.

Coming from anyone else, the words might not have had the same effect, but from him, in that rough, angry voice of his, it sent a shiver through her, reminding her that was still in nothing more than a towel.

Despite what he made her feel, she still resisted. “I’m not yours, Niklaus. You can’t just say that.”

“No?”

“No.”

The hand he had at the small of her back drifted around and dipped, his too hot touch suddenly on her thighs, slipping even higher, and now beneath her towel. She moved too slow to stop his ascent, and by the time she had ahold of his wrist, his hand was between her legs, his fingers stroking over her, delving between her folds.

Digging her nails into his flesh, holding tight, she didn’t even know whether it was to pull him away or keep him in place.

His lips fell to her ear as he said, “Your * is mine, or do you want to deny that too?”

She couldn’t, not when he could feel the evidence of the affect his words had on her.

Another protest was on the tip of her tongue, and the only thing she had to do was say it, but her through scattered when he stroked her.

With just a brush of his fingers, she was putty in his hands, already bending to his will.

And in that next second, she gave in.

Grabbing hold of him, she pushed into his body, reveling in the feel of his hands as they closed around her, but before she could lose herself in him, she pulled back, gazing up at him.

That old fire had returned, the same one she had longed to see for years.

“Make it worth it,” she said.

Worth the pain.

Worth the hurt.

Worth her starting this back up again when she couldn’t be sure how it would end.





Chapter Twenty-Four





“I wondered if I had dreamed it,” Reagan said softly, almost as though the words weren’t meant for him, but were a soft musing.

But even still, Niklaus answered her as though she had addressed him. “I’m really here.”

“Yeah,” she said, sounding wry, “I was afraid of that.”

For the last hour he had lain beside her, listening to her even breaths as she slept. With her beside him, he had finally had a good night’s sleep for what felt like the first time in years.

Reagan was able to calm his anger in a way he couldn’t do for himself. With her, he found peace.

“Nah, don’t say it like that.”

“Or what?”

Her voice had dropped when she asked that, making him glance in her direction and take in the flushness of her face, and how even without words, she was begging for the very thing he would happily give her.

“I need a shower,” he said, following the curve of her hip outlined by the sheet. “Will you actually get in with me this time?”

She didn’t hesitate, not for a second.

One minute she was glancing back at him as she walked to the bathroom in the hallway, and the next she was kneeling at his feet, his cock in her mouth.

He wrapped a fist in her hair, guiding her movements as she took him deep. Reagan had never been shy again with him after their night together, always giving as good as she got.

Even now as kept him exactly as she wanted him, his body going tense with the need to come, she looked like she was getting off on sucking his cock just as much as he was from her doing it.