Dangerous Beauty: Part Three: This is War (17 page)

Nathan walked over to their bed, with her still in his arms, and sat down. Carter clung to him, refusing to let go, fearing that if she did he’d vanish. Even when her weeping turned to soft sniffles, she held on to him. He held her just as tight while a peaceful silence surrounded them.

After a moment, Carter rested her head on his shoulder and looked at his handsome face. Bringing her hand up, she traced the line of his jaw with her fingers. “I was so scared, bubby,” she whispered.

She hadn’t even been able to admit that until now. The entire time in Silas’s castle she was terrified. She didn’t know what Silas was capable of—she still didn’t—but she had put on a brave face for her brother because she didn’t want him to worry. On the outside she looked fearless, but on the inside she felt powerless, naked, and unprotected. It was something she never wanted to experience again.

“Look at me, honey,” Nathan murmured.

Carter nodded and sat up in his lap until they were face-to-face. She gazed deeply into his tired, loving, stormy gray eyes.

Nathan gently touched her face. “I promise. This will never happen to you again.”

“Promise me again,” she whispered.

She needed to hear it. Being taken had been the worst experience of her life. Silas was still out there. She needed to know that Nathan was going to do everything in his power to protect her and their unborn child. She didn’t like not feeling safe. She needed her husband to make her feel safe again.

Nathan closed the small distance between them and pressed his lips against hers. “I promise you, Carterina. Trust me.”

Carter rested her forehead against his and nodded her head even as the tears continued to fall from her eyes. “I trust you,” she said truthfully. She trusted Nathan more than she had ever trusted anyone else in her entire life. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too.” He entwined his fingers in her hair and pressed his forehead against hers. “I was so worried about you and …”

His words died off, but she knew what he was going to say. He didn’t know she’d already confirmed it.

Carter caressed his cheek as a soft smile spread across her lips. “And the baby,” she finished for him. “Rashid took me to a safe hospital before we left Germany. We’re fine, bubby. I couldn’t hear our baby’s heartbeat, but I saw it. We have a little fighter growing in here.” She took his hand in hers and pressed it against her belly. “Already just like his father.”

A million different emotions flashed through Nathan’s eyes before he closed them and inhaled a deep breath. He brought both hands up to Carter’s face, and kissed her breathless.

Carter melted into him, immediately surrendering to his kiss. Slipping her arms over his, she placed them around his neck. Nathan ran his fingers through her hair then wrapped his arms around her, pressing her against him. Her body responded to him immediately.

Completely lost in the feeling, Carter kissed him with more urgency. She needed to feel closer to him. As close as humanly possible. A kiss just didn’t seem like enough. She felt it, the moment Nathan’s body responded to her body’s proximity. His hold grew tighter, his breathing became ragged, and his erection pressed against the zipper of his pants. His strong hands roamed her body possessively, caressing, squeezing, and sending her body into overdrive.

Overwhelmed with emotion and intense need, Carter broke away from him with a desperate moan. She reached for the hem of her dress and threw the material over her head, discarding it to the floor.

“Make love to me, Nathan.”

She practically begged for it. She shot past the point of need and went straight to wanton. She needed the closeness that she felt when he made love to her. She needed to feel his embrace, his love, and his promises. She needed to feel … him.

She grabbed his face and slammed her mouth against his, kissing him hungrily. “Make love to me, Nathan,” she sighed in a breathless whisper, “please.”

Nathan didn’t hesitate. In one smooth move she was under him. He swiftly, yet gently, removed her panty hose, slipping her panties off with them. After tossing the clothing on the floor he made quick work of removing his own clothing. Carter was only able to catch a glimpse of the bandage covering his side before he descended upon her.

Nathan captured her lips in a searing kiss and Carter immediately clung to him. She arched her body toward him, desperately needing the connection. Nathan groaned into her mouth before moving downward to kiss her neck. Carter started to move her hips against him in desperation.

“Mmm,” she moaned. “Please, Nathan. I need you …”

His slow kisses continued to move down her body. One of his hands reached around her back and Carter arched her body, allowing him to release the hooks of her bra. She slipped off the lacey material and Nathan’s attention immediately went to her breasts.

“Oh!” she cried out, as soon as Nathan took a hardened nipple into his mouth.

Her fingers entered his hair and her moans grew in volume. Carter completely shut out the world … shut out everything but him. She let herself become completely lost in the moment; felt every touch, kiss, every single sensation that moved so beautifully throughout her entire body. Nathan’s mouth continued its journey down her body so masterfully, so perfectly, until finally it came in contact with her heated core.

“Oh God,” she moaned breathlessly.

When he ran his tongue up and down her slit, parting the lips of her sex, her arm went above her head and she gripped the sheet tight. Nathan kissed her vigorously and Carter entered a state of complete ecstasy. Tears fell from her eyes as her back arched off the bed, and she ground her hips against his
masterful
mouth. Her fingers entered his hair and she cried out his name repeatedly as if she were reciting a prayer. Nothing else mattered. Nathan had become the center of her entire universe, the sole person that existed in her world.

Abruptly he lifted his head and moved up her body. Carter immediately pressed herself against him and kissed him fiercely. Nathan kissed her back with equal ferocity even as he positioned himself at her opening and slowly pushed inside of her.

Carter broke the kiss with a cry as a million different sensations rushed through her body at once. She tried to thrust her hips upward, but Nathan held her still. He leaned forward and pressed his forehead against hers.

“I love you,” he whispered. “I love you so much, Carterina …”

The raw emotion in his eyes made her heart swell. Tears burned a path down her cheeks as she cupped his face. “I love you, too, Nathan. I love you,” she said softly, and then moaned when their bodies began to move.

They found their rhythm immediately, their bodies moving in a perfect fluid motion. Nathan murmured breathy words in Russian, while Carter slipped into a state of pure, sweet, indescribable pleasure. Her breathing picked up and came out in heavy breaths, her uninhibited moans and cries filled the bedroom, and every single nerve in her body sprang to life, sending shockwaves of pleasure rippling throughout her body. Nathan found her hands and laced their fingers together. Carter gripped on to his hands tight as her legs opened wider for him and she begged him for more. Never had anything felt so perfect, so amazing, and so incredibly intense.

Heat flooded her body as powerful sensations began to build within her, and Nathan’s movements picked up pace. Carter’s mouth dropped open in a silent cry as her back arched off of the bed, and her eyes shut tight. Unable to prevent it, a piercing cry broke free from her lips as an intense orgasm tore through her body, leaving her breathless. She had no time to recover before another began to build.

Nathan released her hands and brought her leg higher around his waist. Carter wrapped her arms around his neck, holding on to him and begging,
“Please, please, please,”
over and over again. It didn’t take long before a second orgasm crashed into her body. She cried, “Yes!” repeatedly, even as she continued to meet his frantic thrusts. One of her arms left his neck and she clutch the bed sheet tight as the never-ending orgasm continued to rock her body.

Soon she felt Nathan’s body tense above her. The muscles in his back and arms flexed as he buried his face in her neck and came, releasing a series a deep moans.

For a moment he took a second to breathe before he hooked his arm around her waist—pulling her flush against him—and turned to lay on his back. Carter rested her head on his chest, closed her eyes, and focused on catching her breath.

That was perfect
, she thought to herself. That was what she had needed. Time with Nathan, time to feel close to him. She really couldn’t wait until they got back to the States. She was ready to go back home.

Nathan ran his fingertips over her shoulder, bringing her from her thoughts. “Who did … this?” he asked.

As soon as he asked, Carter remembered the bruises. It’d been days since she was slammed into those cell bars, and the pain had dulled, so she had pretty much forgotten they even existed. When she lifted her head to look into his eyes, she saw that they had emptied. Whatever he was feeling at the moment, he was hiding it.

Carter swallowed. “It doesn’t hurt anymore,” she whispered.

Nathan didn’t make eye contact with her; he just ran his finger down the long bruise that started at her shoulder and traveled all the way to the swell of her breasts.

“Lie on your back, Carter,” he commanded softly.

Carter looked away from him and self-consciously tried to cover her body and her side where another large bruise was visible. If she showed him, then she would have to relive a moment in which she felt weak and powerless. She didn’t like feeling weak.

“Nathan,” she whispered.

Frowning at her, he shook his head. “Carter, don’t. Do as I said.” He grasped her chin between his thumb and forefinger. “Shutting down is not an option this time. Now, get on the bed and lie on your back.”

Carter clenched her jaw and did as he’d said. The moment she laid on her back, Nathan sat up and examined her body. The longer he gazed at her wounds the more anger darkened his features.

“It’s just a few bruises, Nathan.” She winced when he touched the larger one on her side. That one was still a little sore. “I’ve endured worse.”

“Who did this to you?”

His tone was warning in itself. She’d better not even hesitate to answer the question. Carter could practically feel the rage radiating off his skin.

“Two prisoners of Silas’s,” she answered softly. “They slammed me against some metal cell bars pretty hard.”

“Where are they now?”

“Dead, Nathan.”

“Then every Steele will pay until I’m satisfied with my revenge.”

Carter reached forward and captured his hand in hers. “No, Nathan,” she said firmly. “No revenge. That’s not what I want, nor is it what I need.”

Nathan’s eyes had shot up to meet hers when she’d said the words. “What do you mean no?”

“I’m sick of it, Nathan.” She sat up next to him. “That’s what I mean. We can’t afford to go through the whole mafia war, back and forth—we hit them, and they hit us—bullshit. You know how to win a war. Just end it so we can be done with this.”

“And let them get away with what they did?” Nathan yelled angrily. “Fuck that, Carterina! The Steele family deserves to be obliterated, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

“The Steele family as a whole is not our problem. Silas is!” Carter sat up on her knees and tried her best to make Nathan understand what she was saying. “They don’t eat, sleep, move, or breathe without his say so. They don’t want this war, Nathan. They already know they’re losing. Our strength is in our strategy and numbers. We’ve surprised and overwhelmed them, and delivered a crushing blow to their power source. Going after their associates harmed their business. That’s why Aziz was trying to reason with Silas the day I escaped.”

“Reason with him?”

“Yes. Aziz wanted Silas to give this up. So did Naveed, and Scott, but those two don’t matter anymore because they’re dead.”

Nathan frowned “How—”

“I killed them,” Carter interrupted, answering his unasked question. “Scott was over-emotional and Naveed was a bitch. Both of them deserved to die.”

“And where is Silas now?” he questioned.

Carter shrugged. “I don’t know. I frightened Aziz, and Silas let the man lead him from the castle.”

“He let him?”

“Yes, Nathan, let him. Silas didn’t give a shit about me. He chalked my behavior up to me being too much like him. He’s a fucking nut job, claimed I’d feel better after he trained me.” Sitting back on the bed, she pulled her knees to her chest. “I don’t know what to do, Nathan. I’m out of ideas. I don’t know how to fix this …”

For a long moment all Nathan could do was stare at her. Honestly, he had no idea what to do either. Carter didn’t want a war, but Nathan still wanted to destroy everyone connected to Silas. He opened his mouth, but no words came out. Unable to think of anything to say, Nathan’s eyes just squinted a bit and he cocked his head to the side in confusion.

Carter let out a loud, frustrated groan and fell sideways on the bed. Lifting the comforter, she crawled under the blanket until she was immersed in it.

She heard Nathan chuckle softly, then he lightly slapped her behind. “Carter. Come from under the covers. Let’s talk.”