A scar.
Her entire back is covered in raised white scars, each a finger’s width and about as long.
Horrified, I whisper, “Reyna.”
Her voice low but steady, she says, “He liked to use a whip.”
I can’t catch my breath. I’m so stunned and sick at the realization of what she must have gone through, what she suffered at his hands, that I can barely see straight.
“Jesus Christ. Jesus fucking bloody Christ!”
“That’s not helping me feel any better.”
I roll her over and pull her up, sitting back on my heels on the bed so we’re facing each other. Taking her face in my shaking hands, I say, “I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”
She looks at me askance. “Thank you for that, but it’s not like you could’ve done anything. I didn’t know you then.”
“No. Fuck.” I groan, kissing her. “I’m sorry for every stupid, arrogant thing I’ve said and done since we met. For every time I was rude. For how I’ve acted. For—fuck!—I don’t even know what! For being a man! But most of all for forcing you to marry me. Jesus Christ. What have I done. What have I fucking done?”
I leap from the bed, holding my head in my hands.
She sits on the bed and silently watches me pace back and forth for a moment. Then she stands, pulls the veil out of her hair, tosses it to the floor, and steps out of the dress. It slithers down her legs and pools at her feet, sighing softly as it settles against the carpet.
She stands in front of me naked except for a simple pair of white cotton panties.
And more fucking scars.
On her stomach. Across her ribs. Under both breasts. Her arms and legs are smooth and so are her chest and neck, but the rest of her body is marked with the ghosts of her past, a hundred mementos of suffering.
It’s like looking at tombstones in a graveyard.
I’ve never cried in my adult life, but I think I’m about to break that record.
Watching my face with shining eyes, she says softly, “Don’t you dare look at me with pity. I’m not a victim. I’m a survivor. I’m alive. There are millions of other women just like me who weren’t so lucky.”
I exhale a disbelieving breath. “Lucky.”
“Yes,” she says vehemently. “And grateful. And determined I’ll never waste another second of this life I won. So get your Irish ass over here and fuck me, or I’ll divorce you so fast, it’ll make your head spin.”
Later on, I’ll look back and realize this is the exact moment I fell in love with her.
But for now, I simply obey my viper’s command and take her back down to the bed.
23
Rey
Lying on top of me with the length of his big, heavy body pressed against mine, Quinn kisses me with a strange sort of desperation, as if he’s trying to fit everything I never had into one kiss.
I don’t bother telling him he doesn’t have to try so hard, because I’m loving the attention.
“My sweet viper,” he murmurs against my mouth. Gazing down at me, he says something in Gaelic that I don’t understand.
“English, please.”
“English doesn’t have the right words.”
“For what?”
“How beautiful you are.”
Part of me wants to tell him he’s a cheeseball, but his eyes are shining with emotion and there’s a swelling pressure inside my chest. So I simply smile at him and dig my fingers into all his soft golden hair.
He lowers his head to my breasts and sucks a nipple into his mouth.
A lightning bolt of pleasure shoots straight down between my legs. I gasp, arching into him.
“So responsive,” he growls, sounding pleased.
He moves to my other breast and sucks that nipple, too, swirling his tongue around and around until it’s taut and aching. I close my eyes and slide my hands over his shoulders, learning their shape as my body comes alive under his mouth.
“Your stitches need to come out,” I whisper, shivering.
“Aye. Right after I fuck every part of you.”
His voice is so guttural with desire, it makes goose bumps form on my skin. He kisses his way down my chest to my stomach, nuzzling and nipping me gently with his teeth. His beard is soft but also scratchy, making a wonderful tickle everywhere it drags.
I want to feel that tickle between my thighs.
“Quinn?”
“Hush,” he says firmly. “You’re not in charge.”
I don’t know why the command in his voice makes me sigh with pleasure. I don’t know why his words of praise feel as good as a hand stroked over my skin. The only thing I know is that the bulge in his trousers is big and hard, and I want it inside me desperately.
But I bite my tongue and keep quiet, letting him go at his own pace.
Thumbing over my rigid nipples, he kisses his way down my belly, pausing to bite my hip. It’s not hard, but it’s very dominant, as if he’s saying This is mine. Moving lower, he bites my inner thighs, too, one after the other, licking and sucking the flesh where his teeth pressed.
It feels so good, I groan.
He whispers, “You like that?”
“Yes.”
“What about this?”
He gently bites me between the legs.
I suck in a breath, stiffening. It doesn’t hurt, I’m just shocked to feel teeth in such a tender spot. He quickly pulls off my panties, then gets right back between my legs, lapping at my folds with his tongue. I groan louder, pulling his hair.
I hear a soft, self-satisfied chuckle. “Aye, she likes it,” he whispers. “Good girl.”
I’d be a liar if I told him I didn’t like him calling me his good girl, though I really fucking hate that I like it.
My brain hates it, anyway. The rest of my body goes wild.
A violent shiver of pleasure runs all the way through me. My legs open wider. My hips flex, and it feels like all that happens from someplace beyond my control. My body is on autopilot, singing along to every note he’s playing with his mouth and hands.
“Look at this pretty pink cunt,” he growls. “God, I need to sink my cock in this.”
I make a garbled sound of pleasure as he runs his tongue up and down my center. Then, when he pulls back the hood on my clit and flicks his tongue back and forth over it, I moan, long and loud.
He slides his thick finger inside me, and I see stars.
His voice dark and hard, he says, “I want you to come on my face. Then I’m gonna fuck your pussy and make you come again. Then I’m gonna fuck your gorgeous arse and—”
“Too much talking!” I cry, bucking my hips. “Just do it!”
His lips fasten onto my clit. He sucks, shoving his finger deep inside me. I groan, arching against the mattress, my fingers dug into his hair and my bottom clenched as I grind helplessly against his mouth.
Crying out and scratching his scalp with my nails, I climax.
It rips through me. I thrash and buck through the convulsions, delirious at the feel of his hot lips and tongue licking and sucking me and his finger plunging deep. My nipples are so hard, they’re painful. A bloom of heat flashes over me. Sweat mists my skin.
The moment the convulsions have slowed and I’m begging him to stop because it’s too sensitive, Quinn rises to his knees, rips open the zipper on his trousers, and fists his cock in his hand.
I stare at it with wide eyes. My hammering heart skips a beat, then starts up again, beating even faster.
Thick and veined, the shaft juts out proudly from his fist. The crown is fat and red. The slit on top glistens with a drop of wetness.
His cock is fucking huge. Porn star sized. He’d make a killing in erotic movies.
“That look on your face is a bloody nice compliment,” he growls. Then he positions himself between my spread thighs and slides the head up and down through my pussy lips, wetting it.
I gasp, managing a breathy, “Condom?”
“Wasn’t planning on having sex today,” he says through gritted teeth, staring down into my wide eyes. “Still time to say no, viper.”
I’m so turned on, I can barely think. “You said you were clean?”
“Aye. I promise.”
“Then fuck me, Quinn. And don’t you dare hold anything back. I want everything you have to give me.”
His grin looks feral. With a single, powerful thrust, he shoves that thick beast deep inside me.
My mouth opens, but no sound comes out. I’m stretched wide, impaled on his cock, taking every inch of it as I sink my fingernails into his back and clamp my shaking thighs around his waist.
He leans down, resting his forearms on either side of my head and fisting his hands into my hair. Into my ear, he snarls, “I knew you’d feel like heaven.”
Then he snaps his hips again, thrusting hard.
My breasts bounce against his chest, my nipples dragging against the small metal piercings in his. I cry out in pleasure.
Chuckling, he pulls on my hair. His voice dark, he commands, “Ask me to fuck you again, wife.”
It comes out in one long, breathless rush. “Please fuck me oh God Quinn fuck me if you stop now I’ll kill you as soon as I can!”