Inside of her.
Find the focal point and tie yourself to it.
I’d always thought of Landon’s words as meaning something inside of myself, and maybe at one point it had been, but that had shifted. Like everything else in my life, it all changed when Raine became a part of it. She made me a person who could be loved and forgiven. She made me the kind of man I might have been if I hadn’t been so fucked up early on in life. She took me for who I was—flaws and all—and made me better with nothing more than her acceptance of me.
She was life.
There was nothing –absolutely nothing—I wouldn’t do to keep her safe. I’d kill anyone, destroy any organization, and fight a fucking mountain if that’s what it would take to keep her with me, safe and happy. I’d never touch another drink again. I’d be nice to her friends, and I’d give her the fucking world if that’s what she wanted.
Her body encompassed my cock, and her very being encompassed my soul. I cried out, not in pain or even in orgasm, but from an epiphany. It was an ecstasy beyond any true comprehension, but it was more real to me than any feeling I had ever experienced.
Beyond love, beyond life.
I moved slowly in the beginning with a gentle rocking as her hands found my back and gripped my skin. She looked up at me, and inside her eyes, I found everything I would ever need. She ran her hand up to the back of my head and pulled me to her, capturing my mouth and kissing me deeply.
Sliding in and out of her, faster and faster, the bed shifted under the motion and the headboard slammed into the wall. The rhythmic thumping only caused me to thrust harder, reveling in the sound as it mixed with her cries.
“Oh…God…Bastian!” Raine brought her legs up around my ass, clenching me to her and pulling me further in. Her head was pressed back against the pillow, and she squeezed her eyes shut as incomprehensible sounds flowed from her mouth.
She was the most beautiful sight I had ever seen, and the vision spurred me on.
The headboard slammed into the wall over and over again, drowning out Raine’s cries. I didn’t let up even as I felt her release, and she dropped against the mattress. I kept at it, and sweat started running between my shoulder blades.
My back arched as I shoved into her and held there, unloading inside of her and crying out at the ceiling. I felt her legs tighten around my hips as she held our bodies together for a final few second before I collapsed on top of her.
Best workout all week.
My body gave one last shudder as I lay on top of her, breathing heavily and trying to keep my heart from bursting through my chest. Raine was shaking, and for a moment I thought it was because of another orgasm, but then I realized she was crying.
“Raine?” I pushed up with my arms until I could look down at her. Tears ran down her face, and she brought up her hand to wipe them away before she reached up and pulled me against her, tucking her forehead against my body.
“I don’t know how to deal with this!” Raine sobbed against my chest. “What are we going to do?”
I wrapped my arms around her and rolled so I wasn’t crushing her. I got her up on top of me and stroked her hair away from her face.
“Shhh,” I said. “It’s all right, baby. I’m going to make it all right. I swear I will.”
“You don’t know that!” she cried. “You can’t know that! You could die…oh my God, Bastian, they could kill you!”
I closed my eyes and squeezed her tighter.
“Not gonna happen,” I said. “I don’t want to do it. You know I don’t, but I can, and I will. I’ll win this tournament. No one’s going to take me down.”
I hoped I sounded convincing.
“You don’t know that,” she said again. “Bastian, you can’t promise that!”
I untwisted my arms from around her and took her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me.
“I can,” I told her as I stared into her deep, brown eyes. “I can fucking promise you that! I’m going to do this, and I’m going to fucking win. I never lose, Raine—never. I did it for the fucking money before. Do you really think I won’t win when it’s you and my kid on the line? No one will fucking touch me. No one. I’ll wipe them out in the first day, you hear me?”
Tears fell to her cheeks again, but she nodded.
“You understand me?” I asked.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Bastian…”
“Shhh.” I released her face and embraced her again. I kissed the top of her head as I held her, and she clung to my shoulders. Her audible cries stopped, but I could still feel her tears on my skin.
“If anything happens to you,” she said, “if you get hurt, or…or…”
“I’m going to be fine,” I repeated.
“Not if something happens to you,” she argued. “I’d die.”
“Nothing will happen to me,” I said. “Not you, either.”
She let out a long breath, and the air tickled my skin. I felt her relax against me, and I tilted my head to kiss her gently on the side of her face.
“I’ve got you,” I whispered against her cheek.
Eventually her breathing evened out, and I knew she had fallen asleep on me, emotionally exhausted. I closed my eyes and tried to figure out how I was going to make good on my promise to her. I had meant every word of it, but I also knew this would be like no other tournament I had fought before. It wasn’t money or my reputation on the line—it was Raine and my son. She was my world, and now, so was my son. I wanted him to be a part of it, too.
Alex.
I had to win. There was no question about it. I couldn’t even entertain the possibility of another outcome. To win, I was going to have to know exactly what I was up against. I had to know each and every one of my opponents, what they were capable of, their weaknesses, and exactly what I needed to do to defeat every last one of them.
I needed to do some research.
The decision was made. At least for now, I had to prepare myself to fight.
Chapter Eight
I woke early in my usual position: my arms wrapped tightly around Raine with my body partially on top of hers. I had one leg tossed over both of hers as well, and her head was tucked securely against my shoulder. There were fading thoughts of dreams in my head, but I couldn’t remember their nature.
Looking down on Raine’s face, the anger, fear, and passion from the night before had transformed to an unusual sense of peace.
Pushing a little strand of hair off her forehead, I stared at her closed eyes and thought about her list of reasons she loved me. She always listed my strength first. I planned to keep her safe through my physical strength and my skills as a fighter, but I knew I needed more. I needed the strength of mind to overcome what was happening.
I needed to plan, which wasn’t exactly my strong point. I usually acted more impulsively, responding to the situation as it unfolded as opposed to setting the stage to ensure the outcome I chose. Offing a major crime lord wasn’t going to be something that happened without a precise plan, and I knew that. I was going to have to devise a way to give me access to Franks long enough to kill him and get myself back out alive.
Raine would have to be kept in the dark about all of it. There was no way I was going to let her in on my plan to kill Franks. I didn’t want her to be even more worried than she already was, and I was afraid of giving her too much information about what was going to happen. She already knew enough, and she hated what the inescapable future held. My Raine valued people’s lives in a way I wasn’t accustomed to, and she wouldn’t like the idea of me taking any additional lives to ensure the continued safety of her and my son.