Page 75 of Unmasking Her Shadow

“Say you’re mine,” she demands, curling her fingers.

“I’m yours, Kioni. All f-fucking yours,” I stutter, pleasure puddling between my thighs until all I feel is warm bliss. She pulls my face to hers, swallowing my sounds for herself. Our breaths mix when our lips separate, and all I want to do is touch her.

“I’ll come with you next time,” she replies to the thought I didn’t voice. It’s like she’s always inside my head. My insides melt when she removes her fingers and inserts them into her mouth, licking them clean.

“Mmm,” she hums. “That will hold me over until later.” She winks and fixes my shirt just in time for Ryker to walk in with Nyx.

“Can I have some of your pain medicine?” Ryker groans, dropping the leash and crashing face-first onto the chair. Nyx trots over to me unfazed, and I move off Ki’s lap to pet her. I reach for the leash hanging off her collar, and Ki hurries to unclip it first, shaking her head at me as if I were a child who tried to touch a hot stove.

“Hello, Sir,” Ki speaks into her phone when she answers it. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“They found the bodies of the women Tyler told you about. When he took you, I instructed them to go to the woods where I first saw you. Even though we found you, the police officers in that county still ended up searching the area after he told them about the girls he said he killed. They found his DNA on each one. Their families will have some sort of closure now.”

My heart breaks for them, their families, the officers who had to discover their battered remains. I rest my head on her shoulder and inhale a shaky breath. It’s over. He won’t ever hurt anyone again. But his death will never erase what he did. His scar on this earth will remain forever.

We all stay home the rest of the day, watching movies, eating too many snacks, and resting. The pain medication makes me sleepy. Kioni is much less stressed when I’m lying down and not attempting to do…anything.

Her touch is so tender when she changes my bandages. The area around the hole is bruised and still swollen.

“What if I don’t have magical fingers anymore?” Dread courses through me at the thought.

One by one she kisses each finger on both hands. “Your touch will be just as magical as before.”

She looks at me as if she wants to say something but focuses on wrapping my left hand.

“What is it, babe?”

“You don’t have to go back to work at all if you don’t want to.”

I giggle at the thought. How boring would that be?

“And be a stay-at-home girlfriend?” I tease.

“More like stay-at-home wife, or dog mom, maybe even regular mom if that’s something you envision in our future. I just want you to know you don’t have to go back to work at all, and you especially don’t have to try rushing to go back before you are a million percent healed.”

I grin down at her, where she’s kneeling in front of me, double-checking her wrapping skills.

“Not too tight?”

“They’re perfect,” I assure her.

“Stay-at-home wife, huh?”

Her crooked smile is too cute to handle. “You’re mine, baby girl. I don’t need a piece of paper saying you’re my wife when all I see when I look into my future is you.”

“I still want to wear a dress and walk down the aisle, though.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’d miss out on that opportunity. I said I don’t need a piece of paper, not that we aren’t getting one. You’re going to be legally bound to me, little wolf.”

Dirty, sinful thoughts play in my mind, and I nibble my lower lip. Could I actually be bound while saying I do? Oh, that would be so hot.

“Tell me what is going through that pretty deranged head of yours.”

“I’m just picturing myself bound and gagged in a wedding dress, kneeling at your feet in front of an altar. You know…normal stuff.”

“I love your version of normal,” she purrs, capturing my lips with hers in a brutal kiss that leaves me craving so much more, but she carries me to bed instead. “I’ll tie you up tomorrow. Tonight, you will be a good girl and sleep. Tomorrow you can be my dirty little whore.”

“You’re no fun,” I pout.