Page 20 of Hide Little Traitor

A soft moan falls from her swollen lips when I find a particularly sensitive spot beneath her jaw.

“So responsive, Mama,” I murmur against her impossibly soft skin.

“King, please,” she whimpers, and the sound of my name on her lips is almost enough to make me blow without her ever touching me.

Fuck.

There is a very cold shower in my future.

“What do you need, Chloe?”

She tugs at my shirt again but drags her bottom lip between her teeth rather than answering.

Lifting the hand from around her waist, I free the swollen pillow, tracing the softness with my thumb.

“God, you’re so fucking beautiful,” I rumble. “You’re worth every single second I’ve waited for you.”

Green pools flash with uncertainty, but I cut off her question before she can ask it. Maybe if I can keep her drunk on lust, I can get her to say “I do” without a fight.

Even as I think it, I know it’s not going to happen. Chloe is nothing if not headstrong, and it’s one of the things that made me fall for her.

The weeks we spent together all those years ago, while she was dealing with the loss of her parents, the man she thought she would marry, and the baby she barely had a chance to long for, she was always sassy and willing to put me in my place.

I’ve regretted not making her mine back then. As shitty as it sounds, she was vulnerable and heartbroken, and it would have been easy to convince her marrying me was the best choice she could make. But not only would that make me an asshole, it also would have led to her resenting me.

She would have spent most of her time alone, locked up in a penthouse and probably miserable.

Sending her away was the best thing I could have done for both of us at the time, but it won’t be happening again.

I graze my teeth over her bottom lip, dragging a needy moan from the woman in my arms. She feels so small against me, so right. Like this is where she was always meant to be.

Chloe steps closer until there’s no space between us, and she can certainly feel my hardness pressed against her stomach.

My cock begs to be released, but it’s safer where it is. I refuse to embarrass myself the first time I fuck her, and I’m too worked up right now.

If I let her touch me, if I let my dick anywhere near Chloe’s pretty little holes, I’m going to blow my load immediately.

“King,” she murmurs against my lips, an ounce of hesitance in her tone. “We can’t do this.”

“Can’t do what, Mama?”

She sucks in a breath at the use of the nickname, her eyes pressing closed for a beat before staring up at me with so much uncertainty it makes my chest ache.

My poor girl has been through so much, has survived things no one else would, and I long to take care of her, to take away all her worries and just let her be.

“Any of this,” she whispers. “Now or ever.”

“Because you don’t want it, or because you don’t think you should?” I ask, forcing my hold on her to remain gentle.

I always knew this was going to be a hard sell, made even harder by the reappearance of the Lombardi brothers and her newfound attachment to my best killer, but I know I can talk her around.

With time she’ll see why this is the right path for her.

Chloe’s lips part but quickly snap shut again. Either she’s not certain which it is, or she doesn’t want to admit it out loud.

I brush my thumb across her cheek, and she leans into my touch like it’s the most natural thing in the world.

“Tell me why this can’t happen, Mama. Tell me why you can’t be mine.”