Kidnapped by the Billionaire(65)

His face was set, iron in every line. He was a man constructed entirely  from hard materials, iron and granite and jet. A man of stone and metal.  "Why?" A metallic, cold sound.

Violet didn't blink. Not once. "Because I'm in love you, that's why."



No one had said that to him for a very long time. Not since Marie, the  night before she'd disappeared, whispered with tenderness in his ear  after they'd made love and before she'd gone to sleep. And he'd said it  back, carelessly, holding her in the night. Never dreaming that would be  the last time he'd do any of those things. Make love. Hold a woman.  Tell a woman he loved her.

Now another woman was saying those words, looking up at him, turquoise  eyes vivid in her small, pale face. Telling him she needed him. Telling  him she loved him.

And he could feel that somehow those words were changing him, reaching  inside him and rearranging him, creating a different kind of landscape  from anything that had gone before.

He didn't know what to do or how to respond. He wanted to tell her she  was wrong, that she couldn't love him because he wasn't any longer the  kind of man a woman fell in love with. But he couldn't seem to get the  words out. He didn't have the language, not anymore.         

     



 

She loved him. How did that work? After everything he'd done? After all the pain he'd put her through. He didn't understand.

But you want it.

No, he didn't.

Yes, you do.

She didn't touch him, only looked at him, not pushing. Waiting. The next move was his and he knew it.

He'd left Woolf's office and spent the afternoon visiting various  contacts, letting them know, some subtly and others not so subtly, that  he was now in charge. Letting them know who the big boss now was.  Getting them to spread the word.

It would take time and no doubt there would come some protests, but he'd  started the process of taking over Fitzgerald's empire. Soon it would  be his. And once it was, he could destroy it.

He'd taken what satisfaction he could from that as he'd come back to his  apartment, as he'd walked up the steps and seen the small shape of a  woman curled up beside his front door. And for the first time in years  he'd been genuinely shocked.

And then he'd gotten angry. So fucking angry.

How dare she come back here. How dare she wait for him. After he'd come  to terms with the fact that he would never see her again, how dare she  come here and screw everything up.

He should have left her there or put her in a taxi and sent her away.  But he'd found himself bending to pick her up, everything in him wanting  to hold her again, feel her warm body next to his for the last time.  She'd been so cold he couldn't leave her there.

A mistake. Because now she was here, telling him what he'd done for her.  Telling him she loved him. Making him want everything she said to be  true so badly he could barely breathe.

A tear slid slowly from the corner of her eye, down over the sweet, soft  curve of her cheek. "Say something," she said in a hoarse voice. "Don't  keep me in suspense, Eli. If you want me to go, I'll go, but please  …   just say something."

But it had been too long since he'd felt anything at all for him to be  able to talk about it, and he'd lost the hang of it anyway.

He didn't know what to say but his heart knew what it wanted.

Elijah lifted his hands and took her face between them. And covered her mouth with his own.

He could feel her gasp, taste it on his tongue, along with the flavor  that was all Violet. Sweetness like honey with a faint tart edge. It  made him dizzy and at the same time soothed something deep in his soul.

He kissed her deeper, harder, letting his hands stroke down the side of  her neck, to her shoulders. Then further down over the elegant bow of  her spine to the curves of her ass, sliding his palms over her and  easing her against him.

She was shaking, her hands pushing against his chest.

He should say something. He really needed to.

He let his mouth trace the line of her jaw, kissing down her neck to the  soft hollow of her throat. And he lifted his lips a fraction, inhaling  her soft, musky feminine scent. "You're my peace, princess." His voice  was raw and ragged, and he should probably have said more than that, but  he couldn't. Those were the only words left to him. "You're my peace."

She went still in his arms. "Oh, Eli … " His name on a long breath.

And the tension went out of him suddenly, as if a weight that had been  pulling him down had been cut. And he put his arms tightly around her,  holding her as a weird feeling of lightness swept through him. It was  strange, alien, and he had to turn his face into her throat, opening his  mouth and nipping at her, desperate for something to ground him.

Violet shuddered as his teeth closed on the delicate tendons of her neck, and he felt her palms press flat to his chest.

Hunger filled him at the pressure of her hands and the taste of her skin  on his tongue. A biting, clawing need that he accepted without  question. And there were more words he wanted to say after all.

"You're right, I do need you," he whispered, like a vow. "And that's why I'm never letting you go. Never ever."

Then he picked her up in his arms and carried her through the doorway  into the hall and down to his bedroom. Setting her onto the bed he'd  once shared with the woman he'd loved most in the world.

She was gone now, nothing was going to bring her back. And he'd thought  that once Jericho was dead he'd finally be able to let her go. But it  wasn't revenge that'd helped him do that.

It was Violet.

Carefully he took off her clothes, a slow unveiling of her perfect  golden skin and soft curves, and he wanted to let her do the same to  him, but by then he was too desperate. Instead he tore off his own  clothes and pushed her back onto the bed, pausing only to find the  condom box he'd stashed in the nightstand and grabbing one for  protection. Then he was easing into her, sheathing himself in her tight,  wet heat, feeling her legs close around his waist and her arms around  his neck. Surrounding him.         

     



 

And he closed his eyes, resting for a moment.

Because he was home.





EPILOGUE

Elijah got the call just as Violet arrived back at the apartment. She'd  been out helping the latest batch of women rescued from an underground  brothel down in the south, near New Orleans. Another link in  Fitzgerald's filthy chain broken.

Turned out Violet was good with the victims, gaining their trust and  helping them adjust to freedom again. But then, as he'd found out in the  past month or so, she was good at a lot of different things. Helping  take down bad guys was just one of her skills.

She raised a brow at him as Zac Rutherford's voice spoke down the other end of the line. Only a few, cryptic words.

"We're going to send someone to get him, Hunt. A contact of mine who's managed to infiltrate his organization."

Elijah smiled at her then turned away, so she wouldn't see the darkness  he knew had entered into his eyes. Because he understood exactly who  Rutherford was talking about. "I didn't agree to this," he said curtly.

"Your agreement was not required. This is a courtesy call only."

"And if I want to stop you?"

"You're welcome to try, but I don't advise it."

The line abruptly went dead as Rutherford cut the call.

Elijah cursed silently.

So, they were going to move against Jericho. He'd been kind of expecting  it for weeks, but he hadn't been sure when it was going to happen or  how they were going to do it. And a large part of him had been debating  whether or not he'd actually try to stop them.

Weird that he should want to save the man he'd been so desperate to kill.

But then that's what love does to a man, isn't it?

He stared at the blank screen of his phone for a moment. Love. Holy Christ.

"Hey." Warm arms slid around his waist, soft, feminine heat at his back. "Who was that?"

He turned, his heart beating faster, his cock ready and willing as it always was when Violet was around.

The smile turning her beautiful mouth started to fade, her brow creasing. "Something's up, isn't it?"

"Yeah, something's up." He couldn't tell her about the Nine Circles and  their plans for her brother, not yet. But he could tell her something  else. Something that had been building for the past month that he hadn't  the words for. At least not until now.

He slid his hands into the short strands of her golden hair, holding her  there, keeping her still. "There's something I forgot to tell you."

She blinked. "What? If you forgot to tell me we're out of coffee, I may be forced to kill you."

"No." He smiled. It still felt strange to do that. "I forgot to tell you I love you."

Her mouth opened, the color deepening in her cheeks, something  glittering in her eyes. A diamond. A tear. And maybe she was going to  say something of great importance, but he didn't let her.

He kissed her instead.

Love. It didn't destroy. It saved. It had saved them both.

And now it was going to save her brother.