The Vanity of Roses - Lily White Page 0,146

ton of sexy about to come your way. You’ll be walking funny for a week.”

Biting my cheek to keep from laughing, I stepped out of the shadows and into the lights that were bright above the ring.

I stopped in place, my white dress tight over the chest, but flowing like water around my legs.

Women weren’t slaves to be used and taken. Not in my house. We were as fierce as the men who fought. As dangerous as the most lethal of predators.

And as Callan approached me, I remembered to keep my head up, my eyes open and locked to his, my shoulders pulled back with the same pride as him.

It was difficult to remain in place, to watch someone so fucking beautiful approach, to keep from running out to throw my arms around him and check for any injuries. I needed to know he was okay. But I held my place and allowed him to come to me.

As soon as he reached me, his lips pulled into that arrogant smirk that drove my pulse harder and tightened my thighs, but then he dropped down to one knee, lowering his head as if to bow.

Reaching down, I tipped a finger beneath his chin, directed him to stand again, and met a set of whiskey colored eyes that still had the power to freeze me in place, just like they’d always done the entire time I’d known him.

“I never want you on your knees again.”

His smirk stretched, adrenaline pumping through his veins as his eyes tracked down my body with wicked intent.

There was nothing in his expression except for the promise of sex, and I damn near died at the power of it.

Yes, these men still deserved the prize at the end of their fights. They still deserved to have a place to drain all that energy inside them.

But rather than being the poor slave girls who didn’t have a choice, we were now goddesses in their world, we were queens, we were a prize fit for a warrior.

Leaning into me, Callan nipped my ear with his teeth, his breath hot against my skin.

“You have no idea what I’m about to do to you right now.”

I laughed, my heart pounding harder.

“Does it involve torture?”

He smiled against my cheek, his voice a deep purr when he answered. “You better fucking believe it.”

My mouth flew open on a scream as he picked me up and carried me over his shoulder.

And despite the secrets and lies that led us to this place, when all was said and done, I could forgive those crimes.

We were happy in our roles in life.

I wouldn’t have wanted it to end any other way.

THE END

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THE DANGER YOU KNOW

You’ll judge me

Hate me and tell me I’m wrong.

Refuse to see how my darkness is what she needs.

While I don’t particularly care about your feelings in the matter, and while I pursue her despite the wedding bells that rang for another, only I know she is drowning beneath mediocrity.

How many times must I remind her?

It can’t matter that I am the person who ruined her life.

The man who killed her father.

The constant shadow that watches her sleep.

The lover who prefers dirty alleyways to freshly laundered sheets

She’s mine.

Always has been.

Always will be.

I am the worst thing for her, yet I’m the only salvation she knows.

He had his chance to make her happy.

He failed.

It’s my job to bring her back to life.

CHAPTER ONE

Ari

When I remember that night - the first, the last - the beginning and end of it all, I don’t recall the details of the hit. The reason for Liam Kane’s death mattered little to me.

I was born for one task, my temperament honed in the flames of apathy, my morality in such things entirely absent.

The only details that mattered to me were that Liam had to die, and if it happened by my hand, my life would all the better for it.

I didn’t know if he was a demon who sold drugs that killed hundreds

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