Page 35 of Descent
Expression subdued, Alex traced the split in my lip and the discoloring on my cheekbone. “Does it hurt?”
“Not too bad.” I grabbed a bar of soap and worked up a lather in my hands before running my soapy palms over her body. She sighed as I turned her around and massaged her shoulders.
“Jax said it was a death match.”
“It was.”
The next few seconds stabbed at my conscience.
“So the other guy is…?”
“Dead.” The admission was a choked finality on my breath, void of absolution. “So is Shelton.”
“Rafe…” She whirled around and took my abused face between her hands. “You survived. Isn’t that what you told me?”
I blinked the spray of the shower from my lashes. “I did what I had to so Will could go home. Doesn’t mean I’m okay with taking another life, especially someone who didn’t deserve it.”
“But Shelton deserved it.”
“The guy I choked tonight in the cage didn’t.”
“You didn’t have a choice.”
“We all have choices, just like I made the choice to leave you here less than twenty-four-hours after I promised to love you forever.”
“Does that promise still hold true?”
“Of course it does, baby. But that doesn’t mean you should forgive—”
Her lips on mine shut me up, and her temptress fingers wrapping around my cock obliterated thought. Thrusting my tongue into her mouth, I groaned into the kiss as we stumbled across the stall to the opposite wall.
I gripped her by the ass and pushed into her as her legs tightened around me. Her cunt gloved me to madness, igniting a frenzy that rivaled our desperation in the SUV. I pumped into her violently, shoving her up the slick tile as the shower spray cocooned us in steam.
“I’m gonna come,” she gasped, severing our lips.
“Damn right you are.”
There was no guilt, no hesitation holding her hostage this time—she contracted around me, eyes squeezed shut as her lips parted in a breathless cry. I was pretty sure those sexy lips formed my name, and her surrender spawned my own release, pulling it from me with the strength of a wrench. My fingers dug into her skin, jerking her tight against me as I spilled inside her.
Afterward, we clung to each other, breathing hard, still joined as we came down from the intensity of the moment. Eventually, her legs slid from around my waist, and she planted her feet on the ground. I pushed her wet, tangled locks off of her forehead.
Words weren’t needed.
Not with the way she looked at me, eyes red from the tears she’d spilled, lids heavy from exhaustion. We finished washing up, then I wrapped her in a towel and carried her to the sofa. The hour was late, past three in the morning. She settled on one end and curled into a ball, falling asleep almost immediately. I grabbed a quilt from the linen closet, and she didn’t stir as I spread the blanket over her resting body.
Leaning down, I pressed a kiss to her temple, and that’s when I remembered the gold chain around her neck. Gently lifting her, I worked the key over her head and pulled it over mine, where it belonged.
A trip upstairs revealed the disaster of our bedroom, and the rumpled sheets on our bed drew my eye, stirring my anger. The restraint system straps hung to the floor, a vision of mockery because I knew what they’d been used for.
Thank God I hadn’t forced her up here.
I grabbed the first pair of sleep pants I found and dressed before heading back downstairs. The kitchen held additional horrors. During the trip home, Alex told me what to expect near the breakfast nook, so I’d known there was a bloody mess to deal with, but knowing about it and seeing it were two very different things. I mopped up Zach’s downfall then made the bastard a sandwich, since he’d gone without food for two days, and I wouldn’t stoop to his level.
Not yet.
Not until I decided what to do with him.
Flipping the light on in the cellar, I found him sprawled on the cot inside the prison I’d designed for Alex. When I’d had that space built, I sure as fuck hadn’t intended for Zach to end up in it, wearing the shock collar I’d purchased as a last-resort idea to keep her safe, should she ever get fancy ideas in her head that would put her in danger.
Instead, I’d been the asshole to put her in danger, and I’d do everything in my power to make up for it for the rest of my life.
Zach stirred with a groan, and when he rolled over and faced me, I did a double-take. His date with Alex’s skillet, not to mention Jax’s fists, had done a real number on him. Matted blood covered the left side of his head, and his right eye was swollen shut.
