42

Eros
I suck at the last of the whiskey. Exhaustion weighs me down as the sun rises outside of my office window. Birds sing in a nearby tree. I keep hearing the gunshots, the many gunshots from the night before as I went through my family and purged all of the traitors.
So many dead. So many wasted lives.
It would be easy to blame Cara, but she was only the catalyst, and a weak catalyst at that. This unrest had been simmering for some time now, and she was simply the most convenient excuse.
I’ll have to find a new captain to take over for Zale. I suspect Alonzo will be a good choice-I spared his life, and he’s intensely aware that he owes me his continued existence. I need strong men, loyal men, in positions of power.
I smell like alcohol and blood. I need to shower for an eternity to wash away the sins I’ve committed, but there’s no cleansing me.
There’s a knock at the door. “Come,” I say wearily.
It opens a crack and Cara steps inside. She’s wearing her work outfit, the diner’s uniform, with her usual vintage sneakers and a hard glare in her eyes. I note the lack of rings and rub my finger where mine should be.
“You’re up early.”
“I’m supposed to help with the breakfast shift today,” she says, expression hard. “Except none of the drivers will take me to the diner.”
“Strange,” I say with a sigh. “I wonder why.”
“You ordered them not to.” Her rage is hot and tense. Some part of me can’t blame her, but another part recoils at her speaking to me like that, without respect.
“I ordered them to keep you safe. You are not safe at that diner.”
“I would be safe if your family wasn’t filled with crazy people.” Her dig is sharp and maybe she didn’t intend for it to hurt, but it cuts me deep all the same.
I lean toward her. If she knew what I did the night before, she wouldn’t be pushing me like this right now. I stare at her, unable to muster the energy needed to fight with her.
“You will not work at the diner anymore.”
“Eros-”
“Enough, Cara.” I say her name sharply. “You were nearly kidnapped from there.”
“Send more loyal soldiers. Assign me a bodyguard to follow me around.” Some of her anger bleeds away as her tone shifts to pleading. “But don’t take the diner from me.”
I let that sink in. I planned on letting her work up until Hector nearly succeeded in sending her back to her ex. If I hadn’t been on my way to pick her up so she could get ready for the signing, I don’t know what would’ve happened.
That day plays in my mind over and over. The fear in her eyes, the wounds on her body. The bruises that still bloom on her cheeks.
It breaks me, seeing her hurt like that. And now she wants to return to that place.
I can’t handle the idea of letting her out of my sight. The thought of her there, at that place again-
Panic wells up in me. Panic at the idea of something going wrong, all because I can’t be everywhere at once.
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “I can’t let you.”
“I was waiting for this,” she says, crossing her arms. “Now that I’m your wife, you can start cracking down, right? You don’t have to wear your ring, but I do. You can stay out all night and do god knows what, but I can’t go work at a diner.”
“We are different people.”
She steps toward me, staring hard. “Is that blood on your shirt, Eros? You want to tell me that what I’m doing is dangerous but look at you.”
I lean back in my chair and sigh. “Are you worried about my safety now?”
“Does that sound so crazy? Is it really so weird that I might actually worry about you?”
I blink slowly at her. The thought hadn’t occurred to me. I can’t imagine the last time someone worried about me in that way.
My mother might’ve worried once. Helen might still. By now though, they’ve all accepted that I am the lord of the family, and that job comes with certain dangerous responsibilities. My life has always been tenuous, always existed on the edge of oblivion, and I’ve come to accept that fact.
Cara hasn’t yet.
“You don’t need to be concerned.” I stand and come around the desk. She stares at me defiantly and a spark runs down into my stomach, the spark I feel whenever she’s around. That fucking diner uniform, it’s so old school and stiff, but there’s still something obscene about it. Something too sexy.
“I’m very concerned. You’re up all night and you come home with blood on you. Are you hurt? Is someone else hurt?”
“Many people were hurt, but I’m not one of them.”
“What were you doing, Eros? Why can’t you ever come to bed?” Her tone twists with emotion.
I move closer to her. I stand, looming, looking into her eyes. “I don’t come to bed because I’m busy hurting our enemies.”
“Eros-”
“I know it isn’t fair, asking you to stay away from the diner. I understand you want to work. You have friends there. You feel productive and comfortable. But you’re too exposed, and you’re the lord’s wife now. You can’t be out waiting tables in that.” I gesture at the uniform.
Her eyes widen. “Oh, now you have a problem with what I have to wear? As if it’s my choice.”
“No, asteraki mu,” I say through my frustration. “I hate it because you look so fucking sexy I could tear that goddamn thing off your body and take you here and now. The thought of another man looking at my wife while she’s wearing that drives me fucking crazy with rage.”
Her mouth falls open. My heart’s racing and frustration boils in my stomach. I’m close to losing control, and she backs away until she bumps up against the wall.
I cross the space between us. Her breath hitches as my hands grip her hips and hold them tightly.
I keep telling myself, this isn’t real.
But it feels so fucking real when I touch her skin.
“I just want to work,” she whispers. “There has to be compromise.”
“Let me think of something,” I say as my thumb brushes against her cheek. “Give me a day to think.”
“One day.” She tilts her chin toward me, mouth opening. “But I won’t wait around forever, Eros. Eventually, I’ll just walk.”
I bury her mouth with my own, unable to help myself. She lets out the most delicious whimper I’ve ever heard in my life, and I turn her around, my body pressed against hers as my hands move up her uniform, unbuttoning the front, yanking the skirt up, pulling down the tights.
“My wife,” I whisper in her ear as I kiss her over her shoulder. She moans into my mouth as I tease her pussy and bite her lower lip. My cock’s ringing with passion, straining against my boxer briefs. After the night I’ve had, my blood’s boiling, and I need a release.
She spreads her legs for me, whimpering as she digs her fingers into the wall. My pants come down and she reaches back to stroke me, spitting into her palm, before guiding me toward her dripping pussy.
“Come on,” she whispers, breathing hard. “I want to feel you in me.”
“Your husband,” I growl and sink myself deep into her slick, warm slit.
She moans and shivers. I fuck her slow at first, teasing her, easing inside her, before stroking faster, and faster. I hit deep and hard, kissing her, tasting her, drinking her in.
“When you signed those papers, you pledged yourself to me. I don’t care if it wasn’t real. I don’t care how long until it’s official. You are mine, asteraki mu, every inch of you is mine, and I will have you. I will feast on you until I’ve had enough, and I am never satisfied.”
She gasps as I go deeper, stroking in a rough rhythm, until her head tilts back and I kiss her throat. She comes, shivering and shaking against me, and I keep going. She’s so beautiful, vulnerable, my wife, my woman, and I fill her to the brim as my orgasm rips into my mind. I stiffen and growl, pumping her full.
We part, breathing hard. She turns, back to the wall, half-dressed and breathing fast. I dip my fingers down between her legs, get them soaked, and shove them into her mouth. Her eyes widen, but she licks me clean.
“Good girl,” I whisper and kiss her hard.