Borden (Borden #1) (23 page)

There was nothing rough about this at all. His light touches made my body more acutely aware of what he was doing, and my pulse quickened. I breathed harder against his mouth, my fists clenched at his shirt as his hand trailed along the waistband of my pyjamas.

“Borden,” I whimpered, just as he slipped beneath it, brushing lightly against my sex.

He pulled back and stared down at me, his eyes lust-filled and warm. He watched me carefully as his movements quickened, and I shut my eyes.

With another light kiss, he whispered against my lips, “Marcus. You can call me Marcus, okay?”

I nodded, kissing him back. Charged, we tore our clothes apart, and he settled between my legs, those kisses turning deeper and lasting minutes. Leaning on his forearms, he kept his weight off of me, gliding his erection up and down my sex. I shook, and my fingers trailed down his muscled back, stopping at his ass. I gripped him there, and pulled him down to me, kneading my fingers in his flesh, silently begging him to take me.

Gripping his length with one hand, he slowly guided himself into me, this tender euphoric look on his face. He pushed in, moving one inch at a time, and I stilled, savouring the feeling.

“You always feel so fucking good,” he murmured against my lips, brushing them softly as he looked down at me. “There’s no walking away from me after this, Emma. Yeah?”

I nodded. I knew what he wasn’t saying out loud. He was going to make love to me, and after that, my fate was sealed. I would belong to Marcus, and that didn’t bother me at all. Because he would also belong to me.

He thrust in and out, moving his hips in circular motions and the movements rubbed against my swollen clit, sending delicious sparks straight through me. He buried his face between my shoulder and neck, his hot breaths tickling my skin as he buried himself within me, moaning every time he filled me.

I gripped him hard, digging my nails into his ass just as I exploded, trembling beneath him. He raised his head and looked down at me, his face radiating with awe and pleasure. Still moving with tenderness, I watched him unravel, and I kissed him, swallowing his moans as he came inside me.

Afterwards, his head lay on my chest, and I stroked his hair. He held me like I was his anchor, this tight grip that sent tiny spikes straight into my heart.

He wanted to be cared for.

I don’t know how I realized it then, but I felt it. He wanted the love of a woman. After all, that was why he came back to this city in the first place. To love and be loved.

Sort of like me, and every person who grew up feeling like they were abandoned. I may have pretended to be impenetrable, like my independence would somehow erase the needs I’d buried deep inside my soul. But Marcus changed all that. He dug beneath my layers and made me realize it was okay to be vulnerable.

And while he was still a mystery in so many ways, and there were still so many questions lingering around us, I was willing to wait for the answers to each and every one of them. None of them even mattered to me in this moment.

Truth was, I… I think I loved him.

Borden

He waded into the waters.

It was still red and it still tasted like blood.

As usual, Kate was floating a distance away, her blonde hair swaying in all directions.

He swam to her, but his heart didn’t feel so bad this time. There was no knife-like pain, no sadness coiling itself around his heart. There was purpose in his movements. There was a liveliness he hadn’t felt in years. He was swimming quickly, as if reaching her would end this nightmare once and for all. He just knew this would be the last time he saw her.

Instead of drifting away, she was getting closer.

And, for the first time, he reached out to her and wrapped his fingers around her arm. He almost felt happy, that it was finally over, that he could move on and put Kate to rest. He smiled, taking her face into his hand and turning it to him.

But what he saw instead jolted him. He reeled back, his eyes wide open, his heart ramming harder inside his chest.

This didn’t make sense.

His brows came together, and a sick feeling swarmed his insides. The pain returned fiercer than before, tightening around his neck like a noose, until he was panting for breath.

It wasn’t blonde hair swaying in the waters.

It was black.

It wasn’t green eyes looking lifelessly up at him.

It was brown.

It wasn’t Kate dead, swaying in the bloody waters.

It was Emma.

No. No. No. No.

This wasn’t real. He told himself that over and over again, but he couldn’t look away from her. He couldn’t bring himself to believe this wasn’t reality. It felt like it. The pain was too real, too fresh.

Waking up was no longer the hardest part. It was the best.

*

Marcus opened his eyes, and immediately he looked around the dark room. He was covered in sweat and…arms. He grabbed at the arms and followed them to the tiny body curled against his side.

With a shaking hand, he pushed away the strands of hair over Emma’s face and stared at her. She was breathing. She was fine. She was…

He sat up and ran both of his hands over his hair. It had felt so real. He thought it was real. He buried his face in his palms and focused on his breathing. He took deep breaths, telling himself over and over again, that it was a fucking nightmare. Nothing more.

Yeah, there was nothing to be worried about.

All was okay.

He would protect her. He would never let his guard down.

He nodded to himself. “Yeah,” he whispered. He had this. The future was bright with her in it. It wasn’t a black and grey void. He didn’t feel only rage and pain.

He felt everything else too.

A buzzing sounded out, breaking him out of his thoughts.

His phone.

Someone was texting him at two in the morning, which meant there was a fucking emergency.

He quickly leaned over the edge of the bed and grabbed his jeans off the ground. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out his phone and swiped the screen. His eyes ran over the text and all his self-reassurances from one minute ago vanished into thin air.

I thought we made it clear never to bring another person close to you again. We’ll get her, Mr Borden, and you will never find me. You will only think you have. But I’m smoke. I scatter and disappear. You cannot find me.

End of Book One

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