SWNOVELS Brutal Vows: Chapter 28
When I open my eyes in the early morning, I have no idea where I am.
I lie on my side in the unfamiliar bed, staring out a wall of glass to an unfamiliar view of a city. There’s an unfamiliar soreness in my body—especially between my legs.
There’s also an unfamiliar but very comfortable warmth snuggled behind me. Like a heated blanket, only with muscles.
A ray of morning light catches the ring on my finger, blinding me with a sudden flash of scarlet. It all comes back to me like a full-body slap.
I’m married.
To Quinn.
My archenemy.
But that doesn’t feel right, calling him my archenemy. I’ve never had an enemy who killed for me or focused all his attention on my pleasure or gave me choices over how to live my life.
Now that I think about it, I’ve never had a friend like that, either.
Is that what we are now? Friends?
Don’t be ridiculous. Married people aren’t friends.
Are they?
I don’t know. I’ve never seen a marriage like that, but I suppose it’s not impossible they exist. In the “real” world, people marry all the time for love. Those people must like each other, too, I suppose.
Why else would you vow to spend the rest of your life with someone who’s going to annoy you half the time you’re together?
Or maybe normal couples don’t annoy each other.
Maybe normal couples don’t threaten to murder each other, either.
Though the murder threats are only coming from my side. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but if Quinn keeps acting so sweet, I’ll have to rethink how often I warn I’m going to put a bullet in him.
Stirring behind me, he says in a thick voice, “I can hear the gears turning, lass. You’re thinking again.”
“I know it’s hard for you to understand, but some people like to engage in that activity from time to time.”
“The only thing that’s hard for me to understand is how such a good-looking woman can sound like a broken lawnmower when she sleeps.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“It means you have sleep apnea.”
I sigh and roll my eyes. “I don’t have sleep apnea.”
He wraps a heavy arm around my waist and kisses my nape. “You do. All the wild boars and elephants within a thousand miles heard your scary mating call,” he whispers, a smile in his voice.
“Spent much time with wild animals, have you?”
He snorts. “Only my whole life.”
Nuzzling his nose into my hair, he inhales deeply, then exhales with a satisfied sigh. He murmurs, “Good morning, Mrs. Quinn. You smell like an enchanted forest.”
With a feeling of wonder, it hits me: the man is a romantic.
He’s a hardened criminal who lives outside the laws of society, kills people without breaking a sweat, and probably robs banks and enjoys a little arson in his free time, but he’s also a romantic.
Dazed by that realization, I murmur, “Good morning to you, Mr. Quinn.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“For the most part. There was this big, hard object that kept poking into me at every turn, waking me up, but I managed to get a few hours in.”
Quinn flexes his hips, pressing his erection into my bottom. “Whatever could it have been, do you think?”
“There’s a broken spring in the mattress.”
“Hilarious.”
Caressing my breasts, he kisses my neck and hooks a leg over both of mine, pulling me closer. He whispers, “I’d like to put in a request with the home office that my wife always sleep in the nude.”
“Hmm. We’ll take it under consideration.”
Pulling on a nipple, he gently bites my shoulder. His voice grows husky. “I need to fuck you, woman.”
That makes me smile. “I think you take too many vitamins.”
His hand drifts down my belly, dipping between my legs. “It’s not vitamins. It’s you. You make my dick so hard, it hurts.”
“Sounds like you should seek medical attention for that.”
Making small, lazy circles, he rubs his fingers over my clit. He trails his lips up my neck, tickling me with his beard.
He whispers, “You have no idea what it does to me when you shiver like that.”
“I can’t help it.”
“I know. That’s why it’s so bloody hot. How do you want me to make you come first? Fingers, mouth, or cock?”
Arching my back and grasping his forearm, I eagerly wriggle my butt into his pelvis. “Fingers and cock at the same time, please.”
Pleased by that, he growls. “That’s my greedy girl. And so polite.”
As he delves a thick finger inside my pussy, I breathe, “I was brought up to have good manners.”
He sucks hard on the side of my throat, biting down with his teeth. It’s dominant and possessive, and sends a thrill of excitement through my whole body. My nipples harden to two rigid, aching points.
“You want me to fuck you, don’t you?”
Breathless, I nod.
“Say it.”
I whisper, “I want you to fuck me.”
“Good girl.”
Hoisting up to an elbow, he takes his hand from between my legs and uses it to guide the head of his cock to my pussy as I tilt my hips back and spread my legs. He slides the crown between my folds, hissing in pleasure.
I moan softly when he flexes his hips, sliding the head of his fat cock inside me.
“You like that?”
“Yes. You feel so good.”
He curls his hand around my hip and sinks in another inch, lowering his head to say into my ear, “And that?”
“Yes. More. Deeper.”
“Say please, viper.”
Starting to pant, I whisper, “Please. Pretty please. I need it.”
“You need it,” he breathes, sounding elated as he slides deeper inside me.
I cry out, closing my eyes and shuddering at the feel of him sinking into me, filling me up. When he thrusts to bury himself in, I cry out again, louder.
Quinn slides his hand back between my legs and strokes my clit until it’s throbbing and I’m begging him to move his hips.
Hovering over me on his elbow, his mouth on my neck and his hard chest pressed to my back, he demands, “Who do you belong to?”
“You!”
He rewards me by withdrawing and thrusting into me again.
Then he stills, playing patiently with my pussy as he waits.
“Quinn, please!”
His voice dark and soft, he says, “Give me what I want, wife. You know what it is. Give it to me.”
I turn my head and gaze up into his burning eyes. Without pausing to think what I’m going to say, I blurt, “I belong to you. Only to you. I love how you make me feel, and I don’t ever want you to stop. Please fuck me. Fuck me and come with me.”
He closes his eyes briefly, clenching his jaw. When he opens his eyes again, they burn with a dark, dangerous fire.
He snaps his hips, shoving his cock deep inside me. At the same time, he pinches my clit.
I moan long and loudly. It only stops when he crushes his mouth to mine.
Then he fucks me hard and fast from behind, pumping into me as he slides his fingers back and forth over my aching clit. He swallows my cries of pleasure, taking everything from me as he gives me exactly what I need and I crumble.
When my orgasm hits, I stiffen, sucking in a breath through my nose.
Quinn shudders and groans into my mouth, and I know he’s right there with me.
He rolls me to my belly and fucks me straight through his own orgasm, pumping hard and groaning as I bury my face in the pillow and scream.
He says something in Gaelic. It’s broken and breathless, like a plea.
When the motion of his hips has slowed, he lowers himself on top of me and pushes my hair off my face so he can kiss my jaw and cheek.
We lie like that for a long time, both of us speechless and stunned, watching the room grow brighter with the rising sun, until finally, he exhales a heavy breath.
I whisper, “You okay?”
“Aye.”
“Why are you lying?”
He lifts my hand and stares at the ring on my finger. Then he turns his face to my neck and breathes me in.
“Just thinking of something someone once told me.”
“What?”
“That a man who’d marry a woman for any reason other than love has the soul of a monster.”
“Ah. Yes, well, that person was rather annoyed with you at the time.”
He pushes the ring up with his thumb, exposing the slanting black line of cursive below. His voice lower, he says, “Aye. But you were right.”
Something in his tone sounds an alarm bell in my mind. I don’t know the cause, but suddenly, without warning, he’s upset. I say gently, “I don’t think you’re a monster.”
There’s a brief pause. His voice comes even lower this time. “But you don’t know me, do you, lass? You don’t really know me at all.”
He doesn’t speak to me for two hours after that.
We rise from bed. He orders from room service and makes phone calls. He takes me into the shower and washes my whole body, including my hair. He washes himself, rinses us both, then lifts me up against the shower wall and fucks me.
His silence is especially unnerving then. Even when he climaxes, it’s with nothing more than a grunt.
After the shower and breakfast, he makes more phone calls from the other room and continues to ignore me. I sit on the edge of the bed in the hotel robe, disoriented by this abrupt change.
Maybe I was right about the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde thing.
Maybe he’s only wonderful at night.
In bed.
While he’s fucking me.
A nocturnal sex vampire who rises at sundown and turns into an irritating, baffling Irishman during the day.
Since he’s still pacing around in the other room growling in Gaelic into his cell, I pick up the hotel phone and dial the Four Seasons. The operator puts me through to Gianni’s room.
“Hi, Mamma. It’s Reyna.”
“Reyna who?”
I sigh heavily. “Glad to see you haven’t lost your special spark since your only daughter married a stranger and your grandchild ran off to Mexico with the pool boy.”
“I’m on my third mimosa. Things are a little fuzzy over here.”
“What happened after we left? Have you spoken to Lili? What’s Gianni doing?”
“I’m fine, thanks for asking.”
“Mamma, please. Not today.”
She pauses. “How are you doing? The Irishman still breathing?”
I throw an irritated glance toward the other room. “He’s still breathing.”
She chuckles. “Sounds like he won’t be for long.”
“Tell me about Lili. Did you see her leave?”
“Sí. She and her pretty boy left with about ninety-seven bodyguards in a convoy of limos. Looked like a presidential motorcade. Then Gianni left. I don’t know where, because he didn’t go to the reception, and he never came back to the hotel.”
I’m relieved to hear Lili left the church with Juan Pablo and was under protection when she went. That must mean they were headed to the airport as Quinn ordered. But then I hear a loud popping sound in the background and frown.
“Did you just open another bottle of champagne?”
“Don’t judge me. I’m on vacation.”
Feeling a headache coming on, I rub my temple. “I’m going to arrange for someone to come to the hotel to get my things.”
“Don’t bother.”
“Why not?”
“They were already here.”
“Who was?”
“The Irish army, that’s who. Knocked on the door twenty minutes ago, rushed in like a tsunami, packed up your suitcase, rushed back out again. That barrel-chested one’s cute. Kellen?”
“Kieran.”
“Mmm. I think I scared him when I told him I’ve always liked a nice big man.”
“Jesus, Mamma.”
“What, a girl can’t dream?”
“Since when do you flirt with men?”
She cackles. “Since never, but it was fun. He ran out of here so fast, he left skid marks on the carpet.”
I say faintly, “I don’t understand what’s happened to my life.”
“You’ll land on your feet, stellina. In the meantime, have a mimosa. You sound like you could use one. Or five.”
“Thanks for that stirring pep talk.”
“You’re welcome. When Gianni comes back, should I give him a message?”
“I’ll try his cell. I can’t believe he left you there alone. How did you get back from the reception?”
“Your cousin Carmine.”
“Oh God. Does he still have a driver’s license? He’s about a hundred years old!”
“You’re thinking of your granduncle Carmine. Speaking of which, he was molto borracho at the reception. Got cozy with a bunch of young Irish bucks and went shot for shot with them. Then they all started to sing. It was hilarious.”
I’m glad I missed it.
When Quinn walks into the bedroom, I say, “I have to go. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“Certo. And Reyna?”
“Yes?”
Her voice softens. “Give this one a chance. I have a good feeling about him.”
“You had a good feeling about Lili going to college, too.”
“Maybe she’ll go to college in Mexico.”
“And maybe I’ll become an astronaut and fly to the moon. Talk to you later.”
I hang up and distract myself from Quinn standing in the doorway glowering at me by examining my manicure.
I always keep my nails short and painted black. It confuses people. They’re not sure if I’m chic and trendy or a dominatrix.
He says, “That was your mother?”
I say archly, “It speaks! I was beginning to think I’d have to take sign language classes.”
A grumble indicates my new husband isn’t pleased by my sass. He stands in the doorway wearing only a white towel wrapped around his hips. His hair is mussed, his eyes are burning, and he’s so damn handsome, it pisses me off.
“I’ve got clothes coming for you.”
He says it like a threat. That pisses me off even more.
“How thrilling. Would you like to tell me what your problem is now, or are we just going to start throwing things?”
We glare at each other across the room until a sharp knock on the door interrupts us.
His jaw clenched, he says, “That’ll be Kieran.”
I rise from the bed and brush past him on my way to the bathroom. “Good. I hope he brought one of your better personalities with him.”
Fuming, I slam the door behind me.