Page 58 of Sinister Devotion

The way her voice soothes something deep inside of me, is telling. I want to open up to her. I want her help. I want her all to myself and that's when Julian leans in close to whisper in my ear. "Don't fall for her, Claire. I saw you first, you belong to me."

"I do, always and forever, just as you will always belong to me."

Dr. Mescal smiles. "You two are so sweet. I'm happy for you both. It's going to take some work to get you both sleeping through the night, but I have hope you'll leave here with all the tools you need to live happily together."

Julian turns to her, "How much did Edward tell you?"

Her eyes drop down to his bandaged knuckles. "Enough, but the news of your father's death tells me a lot more. Shall we begin?"

Dr. Mescal leads us into her office, where we start from the beginning. It's the beginning of us, the beginning or our lives together. Later that night, lying beside Julian, he reaches for the package I picked up from Nina's.

I'm too tired to think, but when he opens the box to pull out a ring box, I sit up. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Being honest with you, Claire. I'm not going to ask now, but I want you to know I have this. The work we're doing here, is moving us toward this goal. I want to be a man who deserves to put this ring on your finger and to honor you as we grow together. I'm not easy, but I love you. You've taken all of me and still choose to be here."

"I love you too, Julian. I'm choosing to be here because you've chosen to be honest with me, to let me in and I want to do the same for you. I can't wait to see what life has in store for us."

"I can't wait to feel you wrapped around me, Claire. You'll be mine, forever."

Julian places the ring box on the nightstand beside me, reaching over me, but stopping when his mouth hovers over mine. It's insatiable, the lust and anticipation between us. The softness of his lips capturing mine is the opposite of his firm hand slipping under me to pull my body under his.

My legs naturally spread to give him room. Our tongues chase one another while his fingers prepare my pussy for him, gently stroking between the folds of my slit. Sensations of wild pleasure erupt across my body when he rubs my tender nub.

My moans and gasps of bliss echo around the room as Julian strokes his fingers in and out of me. He coaxes out one orgasm after another. The bulge of his hardness rubbing against my entrance makes my core tighten from the pressure of him easing every inch inside of me.

"Relax, Claire, let me inside you," he whispers against my ear, taking the lobe between his lips, and using his tongue to ignite a trail of pleasure down the side of my neck. My breathing quickens and my nipples perk as I bring one knee closer to my chest, giving him more space to slide inside my walls.

"That's perfect, Claire." Julian's husky tone, laden with seduction, holds me in a trance. His hand grips my ass while his other anchors to the mattress in a way my leg has to press against his shoulder. Every motion is deep, powerful, sensitive. Our rhythm, his thrusts, the way my body rolls into our own melody of lovemaking brings a single tear to my eye.

Happiness and peace wash over me for what we've had to fight to get here.

Julian's thrusts come faster, harder, and deeper.

There's no one else for me. With that ring in a box beside us waiting to grace my finger, there's no one else for him.

The sounds of my juices coating his shaft entice me into another wave of pleasure that pushes me over another orgasmic cliff.

This is our forever. We get to love and fall in love over and over again…forever.

10 YEARS LATER

JULIAN

"Breathe," I whisper into my earpiece.

"Shut the fuck up and let me take the shot," Claire replies. Annoyance ripples through every syllable as we've been gearing up for this moment that's been years in the making.

I have her in my sights, watching through a pair of binoculars as she lies flat on her stomach, snuggling against her Remington 700 semi-automatic rifle, on the ledge of a construction site that's fifteen stories in the air. Her target?

My binoculars pan from the empty construction site to a Panamanian jungle bungalow resort suite where Carmine Scarpella is eating breakfast by an indoor pool. My heart races as I hear the swift pop of Clare taking the shot she's been training for. With Carmine bleeding out over his breakfast, our last monster is dead.

"Happy birthday, baby," I tell her over the earpiece.

"You sure know how to celebrate with a girl." She winks at me from afar as she cleans up her kill site. No shell casings, no fingerprints, no evidence left behind. By the time the maid discovers Carmine's corpse, we'll be on a flight back to the states as a happily married couple going back home to our children.

I would have never thought life could give me so much after taking away so many. Having Claire on this journey makes me the luckiest man alive. Her growth into this lethal bombshell beauty, a mother, a friend, a business partner, has been everything I never knew I wanted until she let a monster like me love her.

THE END