I can’t let go of Riona. I’m holding her, probably too tight, but I can’t relax my grip.

I should never have left her alone at the house. How the FUCK did the Djinn find her!?

It could have been the emails—he might have tracked the IP address. Or maybe it was the phone calls.

Either way, I wasn’t careful enough. That won’t happen again.

I kiss Riona, tasting the last remnants of adrenaline on her lips. I can feel her shaking from her sprint across the yard.

“What are we going to do with him?” she asks, looking down at the body of the assassin.

“I’ll bury him somewhere out on our land,” I tell her. “Don’t go right now,” Riona says.

“I won’t,” I promise her.

I’m not letting go of her, even for a second. Instead, I scoop her up in my arms and I carry her into the house. I carry her all the way up the stairs to her room, and I lay her down on the bed, on top of the covers.

Then I kiss her, pinning her down against the pillows. Running my hands over every inch of her body, making sure that no part of her is injured.

We’re both still keyed up full throttle. We’re full of nervous energy that has to go somewhere.

Riona strips off her clothes and climbs on top of me. Her pale skin gleams in the moonlight streaming through the window. Her hair looks dark auburn, and her eyes are green as moss. She looks like a creature you might find deep in the woods. Something that would lure you off the path, that you would gladly follow to your doom.

She straddles my hips, stroking my cock with her pussy lips. It feels so good that I think I’m already inside of her, even though I can see that I haven’t even penetrated her yet. She’s just slowly grinding her clit against the shaft of my cock.

I could watch her slim body writhe on top of me for hours. She looks inhumanly beautiful. Almost too beautiful for me to reach up and touch.

But of course I can’t resist doing exactly that. I caress her breasts. She leans forward to let them fall into my hands. She rolls her hips, letting her nipples brush against my palms in time with her grinding. Her breasts are soft and her nipples are stiff.

I slide my hands down her sides to the curve of her waist.

Her body reminds me of a violin—perfectly shaped, perfectly balanced. I want to play her like an instrument. I want to tease the most outrageous sounds out of her.

Riona reaches down and grips my cock, finally sliding it inside of her.

Oh my fucking god, that sensation . . . warm and painfully tight. But so smooth and slippery. She rolls her hips harder, riding me steadily.

Now I slide my hands down to her ass. Riona is slim, but she has a round, full ass. Firm from running and swimming. It fills my hands. I can feel the muscle squeezing with each roll of her hips.

She leans forward so her breasts hang down right in my face. I take one in my mouth, sucking her tits while she rides me. I’m half propped up on the pillows, and I press my hand against the small of her back to pull her closer, so I can take more of her breast in my mouth.

Riona moans. She hooks her arm around my neck, keeping my face pressed against her breast. She’s riding harder and faster, her hips moving in short, frantic arcs as she increases the pressure against her clit.

I grab her waist again, helping to press her down hard on my body. Thrusting my cock deeper inside of her.

Her warm, wavy hair has fallen all around my face. I love the scent of it, and the way it tickles my skin.

I can’t get enough of her. Every time we get close like this, I want more of it. I never want it to end.

I grab her face and I kiss her as she starts to cum. She moans directly into my mouth as the climax washes over her, as her pussy clenches rhythmically around my cock, and her whole body becomes as tense as a bowstring.

Then she collapses on top of me, and I have to roll her over so I can climb on top of her and finish myself.

I roll her onto her stomach and I mount her from behind. I pin her down flat on the bed, and I slide my cock inside of her again. I fuck her hard, each thrust of my cock shaking the entire bed on its frame.

All I can think of while I do this is, You’re mine. I kept you safe . . . and now you belong to me.

That thought makes me explode inside of her. I feel like I produce ten times the cum as normal when I’m with Riona. I can feel it pulsing out of me, spurt after spurt. The volume of it gives me an intense sense of relief. The wet warmth is erotic and primal. I feel like I’m marking her. Claiming her as mine.

We fall asleep like that, face down on the bed, me still inside of her.

It seems impossible to sleep, after the night we had.

But that’s how powerful our release is together . . . it washes away even the most intense stress. Leaving nothing but peaceful warmth in its place.

 

 

AS SOON AS the first gray light of dawn comes through the window, I get up again.

I can’t leave the body of the Djinn laying in the yard. “Where are you going?” Riona says, sleepily.

“I’ve got to move . . . you know,” I say.

Riona sits up. She looks outrageously sexy in the morning light—her hair wild and tangled, her skin flushed pink with sleep. Her eyes are surprisingly alert.

“I’ll come with you,” she says. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

We dress quickly, going downstairs and out through the back door.

For a minute I have the sick sensation that the Djinn might have vanished. That he might be unkillable. But his body is laying right where we left it— dusty, bloody, and strangely pathetic.

Riona looks at it, then turns away, her face pale and nauseated.

“Don’t bother with him,” I say to her. “Just get a couple of shovels out of the shed.”

I point to the outbuilding where we keep most of the tools.

While Riona’s getting the shovels, I take Brutus, Penny, and Horatio out of the stables. I saddle the first two horses, then heft the Djinn’s body onto

Horatio’s back. Horatio snorts, taking a few nervous sideways steps. He seems to know there’s something wrong with his rider.

I help Riona climb up on Penny’s back, while I carry the shovels with me on Brutus. We head out across the fields. The sun is just coming up, bright and cold and sparkling on the frost-dusted grass.

We ride out to the most distant and least-used corner of the ranch. I deliberately pick an unattractive spot. I don’t want to mar any scenic place with the memory of the Djinn.

We start digging.

I’m surprised how doggedly Riona applies herself to the task. I shouldn’t be

—I know her work ethic. But it’s another thing to see her lifting shovelful after shovelful of heavy, rock earth, until the sweat drips down her face and her palms are blistered.

“Let me finish,” I say to her, trying to get her to stop.

“No,” Riona says, shaking her head stubbornly. “I can help.”

At last we have a hole deep enough. I kick the Djinn’s body into it. Then, unceremoniously, we being the task of covering him up again.

When I told Riona what happened to Ellis, little did I know that she and I would likewise bury a body twelve hours later. One of those little jokes the universe plays on us.

Riona seems to be thinking the same thing. She looks at me with solemn eyes and says, “Now we have our own little secret.”

When we’re almost finished filling in the grave, my phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out, seeing Callum’s number. I pass the phone over to Riona.

“Hello?” she says.

I can hear the buzz of Callum’s voice, but not actually make out the words. I watch Riona’s face as she listens, her dark brows drawing together in a frown.

“Alright,” she says. “Thanks for telling me.”

She ends the call and hands the phone back to me. “What did he say?”

“They found Josh.”

I help Riona mount Penny once more. I climb up on Brutus, leading Horatio behind me. He trots along cheerfully, now that he has no load to carry.

“They found his car in airport long-term parking,” Riona says. “He was in the front seat, dead. It looks like he shot himself in the head.”

“It looks like it?” I ask.

Riona shrugs. “So they say.”

I frown. “They think he was trying to get a flight out of town . . . and what? He lost his nerve? Figured your family would catch up with him one way or another, so he might as well just end it?”

“I guess,” Riona says.

I let out a long breath, thinking. “So what now?” I say, at last.

“I guess . . . I go home,” Riona replies.

It’s what I was expecting. But her words hit me hard anyway.

I don’t want Riona to leave. And I don’t think that’s what she wants, either. Not really.

“You could stay,” I say to her.

Riona makes an impatient, dismissive sound. “And do what?” she says. “Become a rancher? I love my job.”

“Do you?” I say.

She looks defensive. “Of course I do.” “I don’t know if that’s true.”

She tosses her hair back, narrowing her eyes at me. “What are you talking about?”

“I think you’re good at your job. And I think it keeps you busy. But I don’t think that you’re actually that attached to building up the Griffin empire.”

I see that green fire flaring up in her eyes again. I know I’m pissing her off, but I don’t care.

“You spend a few weeks with me, and you think you know what’s best for my life?” Riona demands. “You think you know better than I do?”

“I do know you, Riona,” I say, calmly. “You think you’re independent and invulnerable. You think you want power in your family. I think you need something much more personal than that.”

“What?” Riona demands.

“You need to be loved,” I tell her. “You’re not above it, any more than I am. You’ve been happy here with me. Happier than you are at home.”

Riona stares at me, lips pressed together. I can tell she’s angry, but she didn’t throw back an answer as quickly as I expected.

She swallows hard, and then replies, “I do like it here. But I’m not going to abandon everything I’ve worked for in Chicago. I want that partnership. I earned it. I’m grateful for everything you did for me . . . everything your family did. But I don’t belong here. This is your home, not mine.”

Disappointment washes over me, heavy and dark.

I hadn’t realized how much I’d been hoping that Riona would stay. After everything we’ve been through together. Everything we’ve learned about each other . . . I thought she had bonded to me, like I bonded to her.

But I was wrong.

She’s anxious to get back home. The Djinn is gone, and Josh Hale as well. Nobody is out to get her anymore. So she doesn’t need me. I did my job a little too well.

“I’m sorry,” Riona says, softly.

She doesn’t ask me to come back to Chicago with her again. She understands what I owe my family, after leaving all that time.

Still, neither of us seems very happy in this moment. We’re determined, but not content in our choice.

We ride back the rest of the way to the house in silence.