Brutally Beautiful (31 page)

“I have scars on my heart from you, Kade Grayson.”

My gaze lingered on her skin and on how the soft lights cast themselves over the fullness of her breasts in the dress she wore.  I trailed my fingertips along the ridge of her collarbone and spread them out across the swells of flesh, gently rubbing the hollow of her neck with the tip of one finger.

She was breathless when I wrapped my hands around her waist, pulled her across the dance floor and into one of the smaller back rooms.  I lifted her up and sat her on the edge of a table, staring down at her.  My hands slid up the skin of her thighs.

“Didn’t your parents ever teach you not to go anywhere with strangers?”

“Mmmm,” she moaned softly when my hands reached the heat of her inner thighs.  “No, why, Mr. Grayson?  What’s wrong with strangers?”

The blush that crept slowly over her cheeks had my cock instantly twitching and throbbing to be inside her.  “Strangers are bad.  Bad things could happen,” I whispered in her ear.  “They could take advantage of you, tie you up, use you for…”

Her dress was pulled up and she wrapped her legs around my waist, pulling me closer with her legs, “That sounds promising…”

“Fuck, Sam.  You don’t have anything on under this dress?”

Her lips smiled wickedly against mine.

“Mmmm.  You’re such a dirty girl,” I whispered.

“Oh, Kade, you have absolutely no idea how dirty I can get.”

I brushed my lips against the soft skin of her neck. My God, the smell of cinnamon and apples made my dick harder than it ever was.  I wanted to sink my teeth into her. 

“What’s with the strange last name?” I asked, unzipping my pants and throwing my jacket onto the table behind her.

Warm hands, hands I had only dreamt about touching me for the last two months, wrapped around my neck and pulled me in.  “It’s my safe word,” she breathed against my mouth, gliding the heat of her body under mine.

Fuuuucck
.

I slid inside her with a deliberately slow thrust, wanting to feel every inch of her that had been hidden from me for two long months.  “God, Sam.  You feel like heaven around my cock,” I whispered.

“God, I’ve missed you.  Thank you for killing me, Kade,” she whispered, moving her hips in circles.

“Thank you for letting me, Sam,” I whispered back, feeling the first tremors of her muscles flutter around me.

I knew she would feel like she would never be free of him.  She would tell me again and again how she felt safe with the temporary witness protection the sheriff’s office offered, but I knew deep inside, she still feared he would show up behind her one day, and try to finish the job he started.  She would always be looking over her shoulder. 

If the case went federal, and the U.S. Marshalls got involved, she would be uprooted and hidden away from me forever, and I couldn’t chance it. That was why I had gone straight to George and Bobby with what I knew.  We needed to build a case while she was here, a case that was tight, so he could go to prison for a long time.  I hated it.  I hated that he was still breathing, and that he had somehow hurt her.  I hoped that one day she would trust and love me enough to tell me everything.

 There were still two brands of his name on her body. I planned on taking her to get tattoos over them, and I knew she would agree… I hated thinking his name was permanently etched onto her.  It made me want to end his life every time I saw her naked. 

But, could I actually take another’s life?

How?

What would I become after?

Did it matter?  I needed to protect what was
mine
.

And if he found her again…

I
would
end his life, because I knew there was so much more to the story than she was telling me, so much more he had done to her.  And I would kill him for it.  It was only a matter of time; only a matter of time until my
Hyd
e came out and the part of me that was Thomas would come out and play.  Doctor David Stanton has until then to breathe, and until then, she was mine, every brutally beautiful inch of her.

Epilogue-The Love Notes

Letters written between Kade and Samantha in their two months apart.