Assassin's Heart

by Ella Sheridan

  Oh no, you’re not going anywhere.

  Forcing myself closer, I ate at her pussy, sucking and biting and laving and rubbing. Cream filled my mouth; the wild, spicy scent of her filled my nose. I wanted her climax, wanted to feel her clenching around my tongue and strangling on her own breath, and I chased that goal with everything I had in me. Her hips tilted, letting me thrust inside her, letting my tongue slide along her clit with every withdrawal before pushing forward again. I trailed my fingers along the crease of her ass, heard her strangled gasp when I circled the tightly closed bud that hid there. When I pressed against it, Leah cried out my name, shock and heat filling her voice.

  She didn’t stop me; instead she rolled her hips against my face, widened her legs, opened herself to me completely. And I took everything she gave, pushing hard to give her more. When her legs began to tremble and her cream flooded my mouth, I pushed a finger just barely into the opening I knew, without doubt, was virgin, and felt her fly apart on my tongue.

  I was pushing back, tearing at my fly the very next second.

  “Come here, lev sheli.” Propping my back against the wall, I dug a condom out of my pocket. “Come to me, love.”

  Leah shrugged out of her shirt as I watched, still struggling to catch her breath. Spasms rippled along her belly, and my cock jerked, wept, needing to feel them along my skin. Fuck, I needed her riding my dick now, not ten seconds from now. “Leah!”

  A secretive smile crossed her lips. One slow step at a time, she crossed to me, unhooking her bra along the way. “What does lev sheli mean, Remi?” Her breasts swayed as she sucked in a breath. “Tell me.”

  God, I wasn’t sure I could. I wasn’t sure I could do anything but beg for her to get down on my lap and shove me deep inside her body. “Leah.” I swallowed hard. “Fuckin’ A, hurry up.”

  “Hurry? There’s no hurry, is there?” She dropped slowly to her knees, crawled up my legs. “No one needs the elevator. Brooke is taken care of. There’s no reason to hurry.”

  I cupped her breasts where they fell from her body. They were the perfect fit for my big hands, her nipples the perfect fit for my mouth. “Come up here and let me fuck you.”

  “Not yet,” she whispered, then dipped her head to my cock. A shout left me as her lips surrounded my erection. When she sucked, the first spurt of my orgasm escaped into her mouth.

  I hissed, reaching down to squeeze the base of my cock. “Damn it, woman, get up here.”

  Leah licked me from top to bottom, then up again. “Did you need something?”

  I needed to pound us both into oblivion was what I needed. Except I couldn’t catch my breath enough to say it. Instead I growled my displeasure while arching to get my cock closer to her mouth.

  She opened over me and sucked me to the back of her throat—and I lost it. Every filthy curse I’d ever known left me along with my come and my self-control. Never had I climaxed before I was ready to. Never had I given a woman my sperm until I decided it was time. But this wasn’t any woman—it was Leah, and she wrung every drop from me without my permission or my regret. I gave her every last drop I had.

  And then dragged her onto my lap and impaled her on my still-hard, aching cock.

  “Fuck!” Lifting her body, I forced the condom over my skin, then pushed back inside her. Only then could I hold myself still, come to some semblance of control, with her body gripping mine like a steel vise.

  “We’ve got to stop doing that,” Leah said softly, breathlessly in my ear. Opening her legs a fraction more allowed me in deeper, and we both groaned as my cock head pushed as far as it could go and her body gripped me all the way to the root.

  “Maybe we should consider the pill,” I whispered.

  Yeah, right. Why would this woman, the one my family had kidnapped, the one I’d stalked, who’d had her daughter taken and her brother murdered, ever consider fucking someone like me skin to skin on purpose? But God, I wanted it. I wanted her body gripping me with no barrier between us. I wanted to take her without a condom or even the pill. I wanted my come inside her, taking root, giving me something I’d never thought I’d have—acceptance. A permanent place in this world, the only place I’d ever wanted: by her side.

  I buried my face in her neck and waited for her to reject me.

  Leah circled her hips, the pleasure so great my fingers dug into her hips in response.

  “Maybe we should,” she whispered.

  “Leah.” I lifted her up, dropped her down on my cock. She let gravity do its work, slamming her onto me, smashing her clit against my pubic bone. “Don’t.”

  “Don’t what?” she asked as I did it again. “Don’t what, Remi?”

  I worked her over me, desperate to bring us both to another peak. “Don’t give me hope when you don’t mean it.”

  She laughed, the sound rough, raspy, as she labored along with me. “I don’t know what I have to give anymore,” she told me, “except this.” She squeezed down hard on the ride up, forcing my breath out of my body. “Me.” Flooding my cock on the ride down. “Now.” Circling her hips when I hilted.

  “Fuck, fuck, fuck.” The curse became a chant as I let go of logic and thought and chased the pleasure drowning my every cell. I opened my eyes to see Leah’s breasts right there, waiting for me, the tight strawberry-red tips begging me for attention. And I gave it. Catching her nipple between my teeth, I closed my lips and sucked hard—once, twice. Ground her body down on my cock.

  And felt her climax rock through her pelvis. Seconds later, the spasms took me with her.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Leah —

  We drove to Atlanta Regional after dark. Turned out Hacr Technology had their own private jet, which the owners—the Agozis—had access to. Remi parked the Expedition next to a large hangar, the bright lights lining the outside illuminating a plane on the tarmac. The steps were already down, and five people stood at the base, waiting.

  “Mommy?”

  Brooke’s voice had that strained tone I knew all too well, the one that said she’d moved from I’m accepting all of this okay no matter how many new things come at me to one more thing and I’m going to lose it big-time, Mommy. Every mother knew that tone. Honestly I was surprised she’d made it this far. We’d lain down for a nap after lunch, trying to get a little bit of a break, but Brooke hadn’t slept for more than a few minutes at a time before waking from bad dreams.

  I reached for her hand. “Yeah, baby?”

  Her gaze was on the jet a hundred yards away. “Are we going on that?”

  We’d never flown before. I was a little nervous myself. What was it everyone said when you were flying, that it was safer than driving? My mind understood the statistics, but my emotions screamed that at least when I was driving, I had control of the wheel. Still, wasting hours driving to DC was a ludicrous idea.

  I knew that. Didn’t stop me from feeling a bit queasy at the thought of walking up those steps and strapping myself into a metal tube.

  Remi opened my door. “We are, little one,” he said, answering for me.

  I cleared my throat. “We haven’t gotten to ride in an airplane before.”

  The words were scratchy despite my efforts to smooth them. Remi had to realize I was scared—of this, of what came next, of the chaos my life had become. It was all jumbled up together, and like Brooke, what I really wanted to do was lose it big-time. Probably the only reason I hadn’t was those few minutes in the elevator this morning. And just like then, I reached for the man who’d become my lifeline.

  A strong, solid hand closed around mine. When I looked up at Remi, understanding stared back at me. I hoped my strained smile conveyed how grateful I was before I turned to click open the seat belt strapping Brooke into her booster seat. Remi had produced the thing from thin air when we left the mansion, just another small touch in a sea of touches to be thankful for.

  Brooke slid out of the booster, then crowded back against the driver’s seat. “I don’t wanna go, Mommy.”r />
  Behind us, Eli and Abby exited the back seat, while Levi got out of the front. Abby had insisted on accompanying us, pointing out that we might have to be gone for extended periods of time, and Brooke would be more comfortable during those times with a familiar face. Another thing I was grateful for. This family had come with more surprises—and more blessings—than I’d thought possible.

  I held out a hand to Brooke. “I know it’s something new, Brooke. It may seem scary.” God knows I understood that. “But it’s perfectly safe, baby. Mommy wouldn’t take you on an airplane if it wasn’t.”

  Brooke glanced from the plane to me and back again, and to my horror, tears gathered in her eyes and began to run down her cheeks. “No, Mommy! I don’t wanna go. I don’t wanna fly!”

  Sympathetic tears burned at the back of my eyes. “Baby—”

  “No!”

  The sobs came then. Brooke crumpled onto the floorboard of the truck, huddled in the corner, the sight tearing at my mama heart until my own tears fell. “Brooke, love...” Instinctively I turned to Remi—me, who’d never relied on anyone, even Lydia, in handling my child. The knowledge added to my own overwhelm. “Remi...”

  He glanced from me to Brooke, no impatience, not even a hint of disapproval visible. Remi didn’t seem to care if a jet and eight people waited for us. He laid his warm hand on my back and rubbed the length of my spine. “It’s been a helluva long day for all of us, but especially you two. How about giving us a minute?”

  “But—” No. This was my job; I was the mom. I glanced at Brooke, lost in her tears, then Remi, and back. What did he know about soothing a crying child? “I have to—”

  I turned back to Remi...and stopped. The gleam of his amber eyes in the dark, the sympathy in his expression, the relaxed stance of his body. Remi had been raised on the streets with no mother and no father. He’d had a younger brother who’d probably needed a lot of patience and care. Levi’d had the job of providing for them; what had Remi done?

  I’d trusted him to rescue my child. Why couldn’t I trust him to take care of her?

  Would Brooke hate me for walking away?

  I swear I almost rolled my eyes at myself. “Okay.”

  Stepping out of the Expedition, I forced my feet to take me across the tarmac toward the plane. My head kept tugging me back, but my heart said this was the right thing. I didn’t allow myself to look back until I was approaching the crowd at the stairs. Remi sat in the open door of the truck, one leg casually drawn up, facing forward, his lips moving—talking to Brooke but not touching her. Waiting for her to come to him.

  Emotion detonated in my chest as I watched him, so strong I stopped in my tracks. I hadn’t wanted love since Angelo, hadn’t dared risk someone knowing who I really was, opening myself up to someone. But now, with Remi... I knew this feeling. What I didn’t know was what to do about it. I was in love with a man who could take a life without blinking. A man who was voracious in his need of me and, at the same time, took care of me in a way no one had in years. He was playful and sweet, and yet incredibly patient and tender with an overwhelmed six-year-old. I didn’t understand the dichotomy in him, but I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to. I wanted Remi in our lives.

  Was that what he wanted when this was all over? And how would that work?

  “Leah.”

  I turned to Levi, leaving the questions behind for now. The group waiting at the stairs greeted me as I joined them. King took the lead, pointing out our pilot, who retreated inside the plane, and then turning to his team. “JCL was kind enough to take me off desk duty a week early to accompany you. Don’t worry; I don’t need to kick ass with Elliot around.”

  A young blonde woman punched him in the arm, hard. I had to laugh; King Moncrief was the ultimate GQ model standing there in his crisp button-down and sport coat, and this woman was throwing punches at him. The size difference didn’t help—Elliot was tiny compared to her teammates. Dressed in fatigues and a fitted leather jacket, she looked like she could hold her own—and handle the weapon strapped to her thigh—but against men the size of Remi and his brothers, or her own teammates? The three men were as different as night and day, but all of them rivaled the Agozis in size.

  “He’s not wrong,” Elliot said as if she could read my mind. “Don’t let my size fool you; I’ve taken all of these guys down on the mat.” She jerked a thumb at her teammates.

  “We don’t typically start off a professional relationship comparing dick sizes, ma’am,” an older man said, extending his hand to me. “Dain Brannan. I’m the head of this motley crew.”

  His handshake was firm, his gaze steady, instilling confidence. “Thank you for coming.”

  “Of course.” He pointed to the members of his team. “You know King, I gather. This is Elliot Smith, and the quiet one over there actually behaving himself—very unusual—is Saint Solorio.”

  I shook hands with each of them, staring directly into their eyes. These were the people I was trusting with my daughter’s life. Were they worthy of that trust? Would they protect her with their lives?

  “You’ll be with my daughter most of the time,” I began. Dain raised a hand to stop me.

  “She comes first, ma’am. Always. We have personal experience with a variety of situations, including”—he glanced at Elliot—“protecting a young child against immediate violent threats. Your daughter will be safe, I promise you.”

  I appreciated the assurances, but I didn’t know them. I’d feel better if she was with Remi or his brothers, but that was impossible. Still, I nodded. “Thank you.”

  The team filed into the plane, Eli going with them. I turned to see Remi crossing the tarmac with Brooke in his arms. My daughter had her head on his shoulder, her little hands clutching his shoulders like a lifeline. I watched them approach, love surging so hard and fast it made my heart hurt.

  “We just needed to catch our breath, Mommy,” Remi said when he got close. “Right, little one?” He turned so I could see Brooke’s face.

  I reached up to brush the hair back from her eyes. “Okay?”

  “I’m scared, Mommy. But Remi says it’s okay to be scared.”

  “It is.” She’d had so many scary things coming at her the past few days. I couldn’t ask her to be brave again. I leaned close so only Brooke and Remi could hear me. “Wanna hear a secret? I’m a little scared too. Being on an airplane is a brand-new thing, and brand-new things can be scary. But we’ll get through it together, okay?”

  A lingering tear trailed down her cheek to wet Remi’s shoulder. My mommy instinct had me reaching up to wipe my baby’s nose for her. Brooke jerked back, just like every child in the history of parenthood has done.

  “Mommy!”

  I laughed, a little watery. “Okay?”

  She gripped Remi tighter as if he could give her courage. “Okay.”

  “Ready?” Remi asked.

  “Ready.” We walked toward the stairs, and Remi took my hand. I glanced down at our entwined fingers and wondered how I would ever go back to doing things on my own, without this man at my side. Because with him there, I felt like we could conquer anything that came our way.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Remi —

  Eli had booked us into a hotel off the beaten path on the Virginia side of DC. My brothers and I were waiting when Leah exited the bedroom into the living area of one of the suites we’d commandeered.

  “She’s asleep?” I asked, noting the dark circles under Leah’s eyes, the strain she couldn’t hide. Brooke’s pain was taking a toll. Dealing with the rest of this bullshit while being the best damn mother I’d ever known was sure as hell hard to handle. My arms ached to gather her up just like I’d gathered Brooke into them at the airport, to become the guard standing between her and the rest of the world. Some things, though, Leah needed to do herself, and tonight was one of those things.

  “Yeah.” She pushed the heavy fall of her hair back from her face. “Elliot sat with us while we read a book so Br
ooke could get used to her. She has a stepdaughter close to that age.” Her gaze darted to Abby where she stood talking to Levi. “I still want Abby with her in case she wakes.”

  “She’ll take good care of her, Leah. You know she will.”

  Frustration roughened her voice. “Of course she will. The point is, she’s not me. I should be with my daughter, but I’m stuck cleaning up Ross and Angelo’s fucking mess.”

  I did take her in my arms then, because I couldn’t stand not to. Her smaller frame against mine made that protective instinct surge even stronger, and I curled myself around her, blocking out the rest of the world to give her a moment, however short, where it couldn’t crowd in and tear her in any more directions than it already had.

  “I’m just tired,” she mumbled against my chest.

  “So that’s no to sex when we get back, right?” I asked, hoping for a smile.

  Instead she nipped my pec, drawing a totally embarrassing yelp from me.

  “Definitely a no,” I confirmed, laughing.

  “What the hell was that?” Eli asked behind me.

  I groaned against the top of Leah’s head. “See what you started? You’ve made me look like a pussy in front of my brothers. I’m gonna have to get my revenge later.”

  She raised her head, her gaze lighter, an almost smile on her lips. “I regret nothing.”

  I wanted to make her smile forever. Unfortunately, if things went south tonight, I might end up killing her dad—and that wasn’t a metaphorical killing. She’d never smile at me again.

  Levi had offered to do it earlier. He knew what it might cost me to take out a family member, what it might do to any relationship I hoped to have with Leah in the future. But this was my responsibility. If it came to that, I’d put him down easy. I was fucking praying like I’d never prayed before that Ross Windon, Sr had nothing to do with the Fiori family and Leah wouldn’t lose another man to this nightmare. She deserved that.

  “We need to go.”

  I acknowledged Levi’s statement with a nod. “Let me check in with the team; then we can head out.” Leaning down, I gave Leah a hard and fast kiss. “Go with Levi. I’ll be a minute.”