Against Protocol (Protocol Series Book 1) Page 8

  “I...God, Cruz...” She was tired, could barely manage to keep her eyes open, but my work against her breast kept her with me.

  “Tell me, beautiful,” I said, licking her again, slipping back inside her, harder than I’d been seconds ago and the effect was immediate.

  “Cruz...please. I...can’t...”

  “You can. I know you.” I sucked harder, moving my hips in time with the strokes I made against her. “I need you to tell me.”

  She got wetter then, her walls tightening as I cupped her, as I fucked her sweet pussy until she cried out, until I came close to the edge myself.

  “You...oh, only with you can I be who I am.” Lia pulled me up, away from her breast to hold my face between her hands. “I’ve only ever wanted you. I...I’ve only ever loved you, Cruz.”

  I stopped, my chest getting tight, my heart thundering wild. It was more than I hoped for, more than I deserved, but Lia gave me what I wanted. She always had. I prayed to Christ she always would.

  “You love me?” I asked her, holding my breath.

  There were a dozen different emotions moving over her features—surprise, desire, and something that looked like love, but she didn’t speak. Not at first. Then Lia’s beautiful face relaxed and she dropped her voice, whispering out a sound of syllables that had my heart beating double time. “You silence the noise.”

  It was something old, something sweet we’d said to each other a hundred times before. Now, though, it meant more. Now those words were everything.

  Three slow strokes and she took me, threw me over the cliff without fanfare. It was a quiet little death made small by her admission.

  She loved me, and I was hers. This woman took possession of my soul a long damn time ago. It took me until this moment to realize she’d never relinquished her rights to it and I never wanted her to.

  Even if that meant I lived a lie.

  Even if that meant the guilt I carried broke me in two.

  I loved her, too, though I had no right to and as she snuggled next to me, curling that exhausted body tight, I thought of nothing else but the change that was coming to us.

  There was no worry about anyone finding us together. More pressing things mattered now. I didn’t care if the world cried foul and accused me of taking her from the dead man they’d never stop loving.

  Right then, one thought consumed me, made sleep impossible. Did Lia love me enough?

  Enough to face the storm headed our way. Enough to stomach the truth I’d kept hidden for nearly three months now.

  Enough to forgive me when I told her I was the reason Lincoln was dead.

  - End of Part One -

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  EDEN BUTLER IS AN EDITOR and writer of Romance, SciFi, and Fantasy novels and the nine-time great-granddaughter of an honest-to-God English pirate. This could explain her affinity for rule breaking and rum.

  When she’s not writing or wondering about her possibly Jack Sparrowesque ancestor, Eden patiently waits for her Hogwarts letter, writes, reads and spends too much time watching rugby, “Doctor Who” and New Orleans Saints football. Currently, she is imprisoned under teenage rule alongside her husband in Southeastern Louisiana.

  Please send help.

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