Raphael (Deadly Virtues #1)(65)

Sela clapped Raphael on the back. “You getting close?”

Raphael tensed, his eyes still locked on the coffin. It had arrived. He had fucked Maria. Everything was falling into place. He should be close. But when he thought of the past week, having Maria in his bed every night, sinking inside her whenever he wanted, her moaning his name and crying out as she came, he felt a strange kind of hollowness in his stomach.

“Close,” he replied, and Sela smiled wide.

“You’re a lucky son of a bitch, brother.”

Raphael walked out of the room and climbed the stairs. He stopped on the threshold of his room. Maria sat at the window, staring outside. Her hair cascaded down her back. Today’s rose was pink. His chest tightened when he looked at her, and he cocked his head in confusion. The tightness came more and more these days. When he looked at her. When he came inside her . . . when she stood before him naked.

Something had changed in Maria since they’d fucked. She was different with him somehow. Her fear of him seemed to have waned. She touched him more. She smiled at him. She touched his face.

She kissed him.

Kissing . . . Raphael could still feel her mouth on his from that morning. He kissed Maria often. His cock stirred when he thought of her mouth on his. She had never been kissed before him. But what his little rose hadn’t known was that neither had he. Raphael fucked. He killed and he strangled. He never kissed. It was a mundane and useless exercise.

But he liked kissing Maria.

He’d become addicted to kissing Maria. He liked the way she moaned against his mouth. Liked the way she tasted. Liked the way her body went weak at his touch. Liked the way she looked afterward, her eyes dazed and pupils blown . . . worshipping him like he was her god.

He wanted to be her god. He needed to be her everything.

Raphael cut across the room, his feet silent on the carpet. When he reached the window where Maria sat, he pushed his hand into her hair and pulled her head back. Maria’s eyes clashed with Raphael’s. The hunger and need he saw there made him groan and crush his mouth to hers. He sank his tongue in deep. His little rose was addictive. He couldn’t get enough. He fucked her any chance he got and she loved it. Welcomed his every move. He wanted to spend a lifetime eating her pussy, fucking her hole, and making her come. But more than that, he wanted her hands on his scarred back, brushing over the brand on his chest. He wanted her arm over his waist while she slept, her head tucked into his neck.

“What are you looking at?” Hand still in her hair, he looked out of his window. It overlooked the front of the estate: the manicured grounds, fountains, and hedge maze. Even though it was cold outside, it was sunny and bright.

“It’s been so long since I’ve been outside. Since I’ve breathed in fresh air. Since I’ve felt the sun on my face.” Maria sighed. “I understand why I’m to stay in your rooms, my lord. I just . . . I just miss outside. I was always outside; I took a walk every day before I came here.” Maria smiled sadly. “After all those months in the coffin . . . I’m not so good at always being inside.”

Something pulled in Raphael’s gut. He dropped down opposite her on the window seat and watched her eyes drink in the vast gardens. When Maria turned to face him, she smiled. He released a quick breath at the sight. Her smile was debilitating to him of late.

Raphael got to his feet. “Get up.” Maria frowned but did as he said. She no longer looked at the ground when she was around him. None of his kills or lovers had ever had the audacity to look him in the eyes, not without severe punishment. She was breaking one of his main rules.

But he allowed it. He didn’t know why. He reasoned it was because if she trusted him, she would give herself to him more easily.

That must have been it.

Raphael walked to the closet, pulling Maria behind him by the hand. He took out a hoodie and sweatpants and handed them to her. “Dress in these.”

“Yes, my lord.” Maria, the perfect submissive, took them from his hand and dropped her dress to the floor. It took all his self-restraint not to fuck her right there against the window. But when Maria looked up at him through her long lashes, Raphael pushed her against the wall and devoured her mouth. He held her hands above her head with one hand and ran his fingers along her pussy with the other. He plunged his finger inside, swallowing her moans as she rolled her hips at his touch. His rose was a needy little woman, desperate for the pleasure only he could bring her. Raphael ripped his mouth from Maria’s, leaving her lips swollen and red. Making sure she kept his gaze, he brought his finger to his mouth and sucked on the digit. Maria exhaled through parted lips.

Raphael released her. “Dress,” he said tightly. Maria did, although her legs shook. Pride filled Raphael’s veins at knowing it was his touch that did it. He kissed her again, tasting her on his tongue.

When Maria was dressed, he glanced to her feet. “I’ll be right back.” Raphael went to Lynn in the kitchen and asked to borrow her sneakers. She had an unopened box that she gave him. When he returned to Maria, he handed her the sneakers. “Hopefully they’ll fit.”

Maria put on the shoes and smiled. Raphael felt that smile down to his bones. “They’re perfect.”

Raphael took her hand and led her to the door. Her feet faltered when he opened it and pulled her into the hallway. He saw the shock on her face, but it was the following expression of excitement that made his heart beat faster. He led her along the hallways and down the stairs until they arrived at the back door. The second the door was open, the cold wind wrapped around Maria’s long hair. Raphael was a statue, captured in stillness at the sight of Maria smiling, tipping her head up toward the sun, her long hair blowing across her face . . . wrapping around her neck.