When he came up for air, he laid his forehead against hers. “I can’t fight you anymore, Charlie. I want you too badly. I don’t care what you’ve done in the past, but you’re mine now and you’re going to behave. Do you understand what I mean?”

He was keeping her? “Ian, I want to be good. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. I want to be your wife. I want you to be proud of me.”

“Do you understand what I’ll do if I catch you on a computer doing anything but playing solitaire or spending too much money on clothes?”

A little hope lit through her. Oh, she wanted a life where he bitched at her for how much she spent on clothes and shoes and then made her make up for it in his arms. “I suspect my ass will be red.”

“You have to trust me, Charlie.” His words were a passionate plea. “I want that above everything else. If you can’t trust me then you should think about Ten’s offer. The Agency could protect you.”

She didn’t want that. “You’ll protect me."

He picked her up, hugging her tight. “I will. When we’re done here, we’ll leave and figure out what to do.”

She stilled in his arms. “Ian, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I’ll go with you.”

Now she started to push him away. “You can’t. You can’t leave your family.”

“You’re my family now. I tried to fight it, but I can’t."

It was everything she wanted and so bittersweet it nearly broke her heart. “I never meant to do this to you. I thought I could hide with you. I thought that maybe my uncle had moved on to bigger things. It was stupid, but I honestly thought I could make this work. It had been over a year since my uncle had sent someone after me.”

“Yet he found you so quickly after you came to me. Nelson had me watched. He’ll always have me watched if I’m out in the open. I think the people he’s working with will do the same as long as they need your uncle’s cooperation. They’ll watch us.”

Maybe she should consider working with the Agency. How could she ask Ian to give everyone up?

He reached down, drawing her chin up so she had to look at him. “I wouldn’t like what’s going through your head, would I?”

Very likely not since she was thinking of running. “You can’t leave your home.”

His arms tightened around her. “My home is with you now. Trust me. Choose me this time.”

She searched his face.

Choose him. Choose to rise or fall with him. Choose to run with him, to make a home with him wherever they could. Choose to face everything that was coming with him by her side.

She’d promised him. She’d taken vows. He knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn’t the type of man who would walk into this situation without thinking everything through. It was what he’d been doing on the plane, while he was driving, while he sat up all night watching over her. He’d been making his decision.

He was offering himself to her. If she tried to play the martyr, she would be rejecting him.

“I love you. I know I should walk away.”

His head shook. “Then put a bullet in me when you go. Charlie, my decision is made. Honor it. Choose me even over your need to sacrifice yourself. God, you’ve been fucking doing that all your life. You could have gotten out, but you stayed in because of your sister. You sacrificed for her. You were ready to die so the rest of my team could live. Don’t you see that this is your pattern? Break it for me. Choose me. Choose to fight to be with me. Even if it means we go down. Because if we go down, we’re going down together. Make me the one thing you don’t ever sacrifice.”

He wanted to be the one thing she was selfish about. It might not be right, but she could give him that. And she knew what was at the heart of it all. Trust. If she stayed, she was trusting him to know his heart, to protect them, to put her first, to never leave her. God, he was practically begging her to not leave him.

“Never, Master.” She laid her head over his heart. Though his face might be blank, his heart was thundering in his chest. “I’ll never sacrifice us. I love you, Ian.”

“I love you, too, Charlie.” His head rested against hers. “I love you, wife. No matter what happens, I love you.” He kissed her again, his tongue plunging deep. “God, I love the way you taste.”

“And I love the way you kiss me. I love the way I feel when I’m with you. I love the me I am when I’m with you.”

His lips played on hers. “I think I would be like Ten if you hadn’t saved me.”

“I didn’t save you.” It was the opposite.

“Yes, you did. I might never admit it again, wife, so drink it in now, but I think I would have sunk into my job. I would have become nothing more than a weapon for them to use. I knew I couldn’t be that after I married you. You were the reason I got out, the reason I have any family at all.”

His hands pulled at the shirt, leaving her naked in an instant. The windows were slightly open, letting in the early morning breeze. It played on her skin, puckering her nipples.

Long, trailing kisses made their way down her throat, stopping at her shoulders, his tongue tasting her skin. She stayed still for him, knowing what he wanted. He wanted to relearn her, this time with kindness and love. He dropped to his knees in front of her, drawing her back to his mouth.

She let her head fall back, giving over to him as he tongued her nipples, one after another. His hands clasped the cheeks of her ass, molding and massaging them.

“Tell me you’re mine.” He bit gently down on one nipple.

“I’m yours.” She’d been his from the moment she’d met him, maybe longer. Maybe she’d been his since the moment she’d been born. Maybe he was the gift the universe had given her for everything she’d suffered. Maybe he was a happy coincidence. It didn’t matter because she’d found him and her soul had settled into place. Finally. Completely.

“Always, Charlie. You’re always mine. And I’m always your Master. Your husband.” He latched onto the nipple and sucked hard, the sensation going straight to her pussy. “Get wet for me. Get ready for me.”

She already was. She didn’t need him to do anything but walk into a room for her to be ready for him. Her body was tuned to his. “Yes, Master.”

He bit her other nipple, making her eyes widen and her heart skip a beat. “I’m going to clamp you, baby. I want to see your tits in clamps, and when we can, I’m going to have them pierced so I can run a chain through them and lead you around by the nipples. I’m going to look at those hoops and know that your breasts are mine and always will be.”

The very thought caused a fresh rush of arousal to flood her system. He moved away from her, grabbing the duffel bag he’d packed. Opening it, he placed a few items on the dresser, a couple of guns, some lube and condoms. He held up a pair of clamps. She should have known he would fill his luggage with guns and ammo and sex toys. Her Master liked to be prepared.

“Do you know how pretty you’ll look in these?” A sweetly sadistic light was in his eyes.

There was a knock on the door and a masculine voice broke through their solitude. “Yo, Tag, we need you out here for the op brief. How are you going to know what to do if we don’t tell you? Get your lazy ass out here. And your brother made breakfast. He’s a hell of a guy.”

Damn, damn, damn. Frustration threatened to stop her heart. She hated Tennessee Smith in that moment. She didn’t want the world to intrude.

Ian didn’t make a sound, but suddenly the nipple clamps weren’t the only things in his hand. He opened the door slightly, not so much that she could see out or anyone could see in, and pointed his big SIG Sauer at anyone who was standing on the other side of that door.

There was a pause and then a low chuckle. “Well, then, I can see you’re busy. I’ll just let everyone know that you’ll come on out here and join us when you’re ready.”

Ian slammed the door. “I am going to take the head off the next fucker who tries to stop me from fucking my wife. It’s goddamn rude. Now hold those breasts in place for me. I want to play, Charlie. I want to play with my sub. What are you right now?”

Oh, if he wanted to play she could play so dirty. “I’m my Master’s toy. I’m Master’s little fuck toy.”

Sure enough his cock was nearly straining out of his pants. He kissed her again, a carnal joining of mouths and tongues. “You’re my toy and my joy, Charlie. Always.”

God, she’d forgotten how sweet he could be. He could take the most perverted acts and make them loving. He could say the filthiest things, get her so hot she couldn’t stand it, and then remind her that she was loved. “Always, Ian.”

She held her breasts up for him, her nipples hard and ready for what he was about to do.

“I think my toy needs some jewelry.” He held two clover clamps in his hand. Little devices that would torture her tits and make her come so much harder. They were silver, joined together by a silver chain. After adjusting them, he pinched at her right nipple before slipping the clamp on. It bit into her, sensitizing her and making her shiver at the feeling. Before she could take another breath, he’d attached the second and stepped back to look at her. “Fuck, that’s pretty. Your nipples get ruby red, like fucking raspberries I want to gorge myself on. Show me your pussy. Get on that bed and spread your legs and let me look at it. It belongs to me, too.”

Her Master was in a possessive mood. The men waiting for them might want to get comfortable because she had the feeling he was going to take his sweet time.

Nothing mattered while they were together. Nothing except the two of them. When he looked at her with that supernova heat in his eyes, she could easily let the rest of the world slip away. She could believe that they could be together forever.