Chapter 95

**Hadassah POV**

We’re back at the villa and I’ve been waiting in the ocean suite for—I don’t know how long. I think he’s debriefing with his men. Orian’s appearance was distressing, but Santos’s arrival was just as unexpected. It’s a major security breach. Santos locating us was foreseeable since he was in the possession of one of the books. It’s no surprise that he would know where to look for the next one, knowing that’s exactly where we would be. I’m sure that’s how Torin and his men see it—how Santos intercepted them.
Bored, bruised and filthy. I head for the shower, noticing Torin’s guns on the bedside table. I beeline for it just in case of any more surprises. I pick up one and I head for the ensuite, locking the door behind me. I place the gun on the marble counter before I run the shower, adjusting the faucet handle for the right temperature. My eyes gloss over the blood diamond before I slip it off the ring to place it aside the gun. After a long steaming shower, the bathroom looks like a sauna. Once I close the tap, I can hear rustling beyond the door like Torin had just entered the bedroom. I step out, drying myself off before I wrap the white towel around my naked body. I snatch the gun, holding it behind my back before I crack the door open, holding it ajar. I plaster on a smile as I watch Torin stroll inside with his eyes focused on his screen with his face knotted in intense concentration, occupied by something very important by the look of it.
“You okay?”
His eyes fly up and suddenly whatever he’s doing is meaningless. He tosses the phone on the seat of an ornate armchair positioned in the corner.
“I’ve been better.”
“I never got the chance earlier, but you had the book and you lost it because of me and—”
“It was an unfair trade,” he confirms confidently. “It was I alone that ended up in possession of something far more valuable.” He slips his hands in his pockets as he wanders over idly. “However, I have no doubt that I’ll reclaim the second book as I did the first. The real concern is the security breach. Santos already knew how to find the second book. Somehow, Orian tracked us directly and we still can’t figure out how.”
With my shoulder leaning against the frame, I rest on my head against the doorcase, staring up at him, just as perplexed. He shrugs it off casually, as if it doesn’t bother him, but I know it does.
“One good thing did come of it.”
My brows reach my hairline. “Yeah, like what?”
“You got to reunite with your best friend.”
My coy smile falls from my face as my stomach plummets a thousand feet.
A devilish smirk curls his lips. “You didn’t think I knew? Who do you think led Calum there, leaving digital breadcrumbs that I knew he would find. Deserting suspicion, blinded by his hope of finding you.”
I erect and I shove the door open as I whip out the gun to press the barrel on his chest as he backs away warily. He raises his hands in mock surrender until his back smacks against the wooden post of the canopy bed.
“What the hell are you talking about?” I lower the gun to jab it against his crotch and he jolts in surprise, more thrilled than terrified. “And I would choose your next words carefully.”
He glances at the barrel settled on his dick. “That’s a ballsy move.”
I exert slight pressure, and his hands soar above his head. “The moment you sent the distress signal. Derek received a notification from his terminal. He reported it and I told him to record all your interactions.” He frees a mirthful chuckle, sounding vaguely impressed. “One thing you and I have in common is that people underestimate us. I underestimated you, but unlike others, I learnt from my mistakes. Frankly, I didn’t know you had that kind of ruthless deception in you. The way you baited Derek and the way you played me.”
I gape at him. “Me?” I say with an inflection in my voice. “What about you? You said you were going to hit Santos’s cash houses. You stole something else. One moment your operation is running on fumes, the next you're buying me a wedding ring worth seventy million.”
“I got it at a good discount,” he says nonchalantly. He drops his hands to his side as if he's grown weary of the confrontation. “I took his master key that has access to a lot more than his cash houses worth hundreds of millions.” His eyes dart to the gun pointedly. “I think I’ve earned some rapport. I’m laying all my cards down.”
I arch a dubious brow. “Torin Moon always has an ace up his sleeve.”
“That I do, baby.”
Too fast, he tugs at my towel, but in my desperate bid to secure my towel—he exploits the opportunity to disarm me and he disassembles the gun in a lightning-swift field strip. He drops them on the ground before he shifts and plops down on the edge of the bed. But not before seizing my hips and reeling him towards him.
“Don’t you think,” he begins as he reaches up, caressing my leg languidly before he sets a firm grip on my ass. “It’s time we start trusting each other?”
“You’re the one that has been monitoring me.”
“Because you’ve been doing things that implore monitoring,” he says, his hands trace the intimate contours underneath my towel. His fingertips ignite a path of fire on my flushed skin. “Our beginning is not lost on me. We had an ugly start—”
“You threatened me—”
“—but I know we can have a glorious end.”
With me standing between his legs, staring down at him with his eyes that beg and his hands that demand. I can’t deny that a part of me wants to believe him, just like I can’t hide that my body craves his and by the tell of his cocky smirk. He knows it too. He yanks me roughly so that I collide against him, my one knee planted beside his hip as my arms tangle around his neck instinctively.
“Admit, you hate it, you hate that you want me.”
“Doesn’t mean I trust you.”
His eyes spark with surprise. “Tonight, let’s pretend they mean the same thing.”
He hoists me up fully into his lap so that he can swivel us around so that he’s the one on top of me. With excruciating care, his lips traverse from my mouth to jaw, down to my neck. He withdraws to slip off his shirt and the moment it’s over his head. I shoot up so my lips lock onto his and I drink in his smile before he works fast to shed his remaining layers. Even faster, he rips my towel away, his eyes darkening as I lay bare before him. He kisses his way down my stomach, his lips searing against my skin as he makes his way to the dip of my navel.
I choke back a gasp and Torin rumbles a laugh, sending vibrations to rattle every nerve. He licks at the navel, making my back arch like a bow before continuing lower. My head tips back into the duvet at his barest touch, his lips against my inner thighs, trailing a path to the smoldering center. With my hand gripping the duvet beneath me, I use the other to slide it around his neck and pull him back to my mouth. I relish in the full musculature of his body, flush against my own, the feel of his flesh—unquenchable. His mouth on all of me and mine, muffling moans as his tongue flutters, pleasure coiling tight around me, suffocating any sense of restraint or reason.
Taking him off guard, I maneuver him so his back thuds on the mattress; the bed creaking beneath us. Before he can even remark, I seal his lips with a long and deep kiss. I draw back, still on top of him, glancing at his rigid length, ready just below my entrance. I grasp him in my hand and his head tilts back as a moan escapes his lips. I sink down, taking him to the hilt, basking in the groan of abandon that claws out of his throat. I throw my head back, the painful pleasure of feeling the fullness of him inside me. He flexes and thrusts up into me with renewed force and I roll my hips with a jagged gasp. We keep the pace with steady intensity, breaths escaping in gasps and moans as we both race after our release. He moves faster, elongating each motion until I feel the mounting ache transform into a desperate need. My hips buck as the groan of his voice sends me over the edge and I cry out his name. Barely a moment later, I feel a tremor shuddering through his body as his own orgasm peaks. I collapse into a tangle of our limbs in the afterglow as the climax settles as he gathers me in his embrace.
He rolls over and laces an arm around mine midsection and pulls me close. I nuzzle into the crook of his neck as my breathing tempers.
“What does this even mean?” I mumble into his skin, tasting the salty tang of his sweat.
“How can I whisper love, when mere words falter, too shallow to grasp the depths of my heart—a love that once conquered loathing, now bows in reverence?”
I lift my head so our faces are a breath apart before I graze my nose along the bridge of his own.
“Marry me,” he says dazedly, like he’s still relishing in the revelry. “You already have a wedding ring. We might as well make it official.”
“That’s the high talking,” I say softly.
“It’s what my heart has been screaming.” His fingers thread through my hair, and he twirls a single strand around his index finger. “Think of it. We’re at a tie. We get all five books and use what we need as a bargaining chip to secure a force of formidable allies. We end the war. We end Orian. And we enjoy our honeymoon anywhere around the world.”
“As a certified criminal,” I add disdainfully. “Part of my reunion with Calum was him telling me that I’m a priority target. The CIA—”
“The bottom of the list,” he blows off. “So long as you’re at my side. None of them will be able to touch you.”
“My endgame was not to be the wife of a crime boss.”
“My endgame was not to have a PI as a wife,” he counters.
I struggle against a smile. “You do realize any criminality on my part would jeopardize every case I have ever worked on. That could mean a lot of dangerous men, killers and rapists alike could walk.”
“And that’s why the forbidden fruit tastes even sweeter,” he comments before he holds my face and the pads of his thumbs trace my cheekbones, stroking the skin. “Who said anyone had to know? When this is over, we could disappear. We could fall right over the edge of the earth to somewhere remote… somewhere beautiful.”
“The notorious Torin Moon out of the spotlight?”
“All the renown I need is having your eternal attention.”