In The Darkness (Project Artemis #1)(39)

He couldn’t hide his surprise at what she said. He’d intentionally tried to stay away from anything he’d done before, and now she lay there smiling and telling him she loved such a simple but violent action from that horrible time.

“I thought that would…I thought it would remind you of…”

His words trailed off into nothingness when she kissed him, cutting off his train of thought. Pulling away, she smiled up at him.

“The feel of your hand on me and not just you thrusting into me made that bearable then. It’s not that I like being choked or anything like that. It’s just that feeling your hand touching me helped me push away everything else. I can’t explain it any better than that, but I knew the moment you kissed me tonight that all I wanted to feel was your hand touching me there.”

Persephone snuggled up against his side and lay her head on his shoulder. Never before with any woman had he felt so at home. No one had ever made him want more until her.

Now that she was in his bed, he never wanted to let her go. He didn’t know what that meant to either of them, but whatever he had to do to keep her with him, he’d do it.

He’d gone long enough in this life without feeling what she offered. He didn’t want to go another minute without her or how she made him feel like he’d finally come home.

Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he remembered she’d said she wanted his help with something. “You mentioned you wanted my help with some plan. What is it?”

Whatever it was, he wanted to be a part of it because he’d be with her.

She looked up at him and propped her head up on her hand. “I want to start up a group to help women. I want to find men like you and get them to help women who need it like I did. And I want you by my side when I do this.”

Nick loved that out of the horrible experience she’d had, what she wanted to do was help others in similar experiences. He’d never met anyone like Persephone before, and her kindness made him want to be a part of this new project.

With a smile, he joked, “I’m not sure there are many men like me, but we can give it a shot.”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “I didn’t mean just like you. You’re one of a kind, for sure. But men who are skilled in things you are. I want to set up an organization that can help women wherever they need it. I have more money than I could ever spend, so cost isn’t an issue. I’m planning on buying an estate I found out about yesterday. I want that to be the organization’s headquarters.”

She stopped for a moment and then said, “And I want you to be by my side there. You’d be in charge of the men who work for us, and I’ll be the money and contacts part. I might as well use my father’s connections for good. Maybe I’ll be able to prove people wrong and show them money doesn’t have to corrupt.”

In all that, the word us stuck out to Nick. Us. The two of them working together to make this plan of hers to help women like he’d helped her come true.

He’d never thought of himself as a particularly honorable man, at least not since what happened that made him leave the bureau. The thought occurred to him that maybe he wasn’t the best man for this job.

“I don’t know if I’m good enough for this, Persephone. I’m a hired gun. I have been for years. It sounds like you need someone more for what you have in mind.”

Cradling his face, she looked up into his eyes. “You’re exactly the man I need for this, Nick. I don’t need a saint in my life or in my bed. I need you.”

He definitely wasn’t a saint.

“Then I guess you came to the right man.”

She smiled and kissed him on the cheek. “Do you want to hear what I want to do?”

Enjoying the sight of her so eager and happy about this project, he leaned back on the pillows and folded his arms behind his head. “I can’t wait,” he said with a smile. “But maybe after another round?”

“I really want to tell you about this, Nick. Sex isn’t anything as important as what we’re going to do,” she said before she kissed him on the lips.

“I’m getting the feeling we need to have a meeting of the minds on this sex thing,” he joked.

“You’ll have a chance to have me in bed every night for the rest of our lives, but this means a lot to me. I want it to mean a lot to you too.”

He knew it was probably the craziest thing he’d ever thought, but something in his gut told him to trust Persephone’s vision for this group she wanted to assemble. It had been a long time since he worked with a team. Maybe it was time to stop being a loner once and for all.

Pulling her on top of him, he kissed her long and deep like he’d wanted to every minute since falling for her. She brought out a passion in him for more than he’d had in his life for years, so it felt right to go along with her on this idea of hers.

“Okay. Tell me what you want to do. I’m in.”

Her dark eyes opened wide, and she smiled so sweetly he couldn’t have stopped himself from loving her if he wanted to. “I can’t tell you how much that means to me. It’s because of you that I can do this at all. You’re the inspiration behind this, Nick. I hope you know that.”

Never one to inspire anything, he didn’t know what to say to that. “I just did my job, Persephone. I’m not sure I’m any kind of inspiration.”