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Every muscle clenched tight, and I screamed.

“Beautiful,” he growled.

I clung to him, helplessly lost to the blinding pleasure throbbing through my veins.

Jaxon snapped his hips, and with a low, guttural sound that bordered on pained, he poured himself into me. A spasm wracked his frame. He moved slowly, emptying himself deep inside me.

This was it—this was everything. It was too late to be careful, so I threw caution to the wind and embraced the next chapters of our saga with arms and heart wide open.

Chapter 43 – Jaxon

Sitting in the veiled room, I watched over my woman as the morning ticked by, one long minute after the other. All my purpose, my very existence, boiled down to this singular point in my life.

Isabella Moretti poisoned my life with a sweet venom that compelled me to do right by her.

While it went against every fiber of my being, she was right. The idea of keeping her here was a battle I lost on that porch this morning. I would take her back to Chicago. She was right to worry. Too much time had passed due to my failure to eliminate the threat against her. She needed to go back to fight for her throne before it was lost.

Pressing down on the particularly deep gash in my thigh, the wound that bothered me the most, I embraced the pain. That was my punishment for failing her. Rocco Bonetti was not an easy target to assassinate. A slippery fucker, he hunkered down in a secure location and kept a heavy guard posted around him.

At least I killed enough of his men to make sure the mission wasn’t a total waste of time.

Shifting in my seat, I let my anger spike. There was one problem with taking Isabella back. If I had only taken care of it….

But I hadn’t.

Now, I risked everything. She would hate me if she found out the truth.

Maybe she won’t.

I should have told her the rest of the story. That first day, while the storm raged outside, when the confession was on my lips, I let the fear of losing her silence my tongue. Now I didn’t know how to admit the darkest truth that stained my soul.

Fuck, the way she looked at me, the complete and utter trust she offered willingly to a monster, it was beautiful.

It was priceless.

I would be walking on thin ice taking her back. But it was time to go.

Rising, I went to the bed and knelt. I brushed my fingers over her long, dark hair.

“Time to wake up, bella.”

She stirred.

Slowly, her eyes peeled open. That rich, chocolate gaze found mine. And then she fucking smiled.

“Is it noon already?” she whispered.

I nodded. “It will be by the time you shower and dress.”

She yawned. “Okay, I’ll get up.”

“There’s one more thing.” The confession hung heavy on my soul. It was mistake, another intrusion on her privacy, but she needed to know the full extent. “I placed a tracker in your shoulder. I should have told you the other day, when you were upset about me making decisions on your behalf. But I forgot, and it’s been weighing on me since.”

Isabella’s eyes widened. “That’s how you found me.”

I nodded. “It was a protection measure. But I can take it out if you wish.”

Air filled my lungs, waiting for her to decide.