Free Fire (Beautiful Ashes Series, Book 2) by Lora Ann

gentled at that. Of all the things she could’ve said. He tangled his fingers in her long hair and locked his lips on hers with an urgent hunger. She needed to feel how much he loved her. But before he got carried away and made love to her right there for anyone to walk in on, he broke the heated kiss and placed his forehead against hers. “I know where Keeley is at because I’ve been there myself.”
    Lacey fought to control her need to have her husband buried deep inside her body and truly listened to what he was saying. “You mean when your Domme was murdered?”
    “I went to a very dark place, Lacey. You see,” he tenderly moved her off his body so he could stand up. “I didn’t realize what her son was capable of when I taunted him.”
    “Oh,” she gasped, “I assumed it was her ex-husband who killed her.”
    He scoffed, “That would’ve at least made sense.” E paced as he continued, “I knew how upset Matt was about the whole situation, but I didn’t quite grasp why he was so territorial. So my cocky ass flaunted how awesome it was fucking his mom.”
    Lacey wasn’t surprised by that. She loved his smartass remarks and could only imagine how they would’ve been back when he hadn’t learned some self-control. He’d been an angry teenager and she knew he would’ve been downright cruel with the things he’d said, especially if he knew someone was uber sensitive. Not that she faulted him for it. Keeley was like that too. Ahhhhhhh, now she was seeing the connection. “You didn’t know what he was capable of.”
    “No. But I still feel responsible.”
    She held her hand out to him. “That’s why I love you.”
    “Why’s that?” he inquired as he pulled her up to him.
    She placed her other hand over his heart. “Because this right here, is beautiful and full of compassion even at a point in your life when you tried so hard to be anything but.”
    He shook his head. “I don’t deserve you.”
    She brushed his tears away with her lips. “I’m not really an angel. Please, don’t set me up to fail you.”
    His breath caught. She was his angel, his sweetness, yet he heard her plea loud and clear. “I vow, no matter how hard it is, to remember you are human and you do have flaws, too.”
    She smiled against his mouth. “Thank you.”
    It would’ve been so easy to back her up against the wall and show her what she meant to him, but E knew he needed to explain things further. “Keeley will have to learn how to control her very real need for pain. Much like I had to control my needs.”
    “You really do understand her on an elemental level that I don’t,” she sighed.
    “Hey, I love you . Yes, I love your sister as if she were my own, but nothing more.”
    “She just has this way of making men do things for her that I’ve never understood.”
    “Keeley has also attracted the wrong men who have hurt her deeply. Don’t forget that, Sweetness,” he said adamantly.
    Lacey felt horrible for even entertaining a smidge of jealousy toward her sister. “I’m sorry, I thought…”
    To hell with whoever walked in, he needed his wife to know he was hers. Only hers. E trapped her hands behind her back as he nudged her backwards and caught her gasp of surprise in his mouth as he took hers, demanding she comprehended he loved her with all of his being. His hand traveled up her sexy-as-sin thigh just as the door flew open.
    “You two are like bunnies, I swear!” came the low rumble of Nik’s voice.
    “They’re newlyweds, Nikko,” Aimee giggled. “Don’t you remember how we couldn’t stop fucking.”
    He growled low, but not low enough that E and Lacey didn’t hear his, “I still love fucking you.”
    They both looked over to see his hand on her ever-growing stomach and the light of love in his eyes as he kissed his wife.
    Alex stepped in behind them. “For the love of…get a damn room of your own.”
    Everyone broke out in laugher.
    Sofie walked over to the bed where E had helped Lacey