Nila panted, whimpering beneath my hand.

She looked so fragile and delicate, but I knew that was a lie. She was stronger than anyone. And I wanted to bow at her feet for the rest of eternity.

Keeping one hand over her mouth, I rubbed my fingertips together, slick from her desire, and grabbed my cock to position at her entrance.

I sucked in a gasp as her body heat cremated me.

I slammed inside her.

Stretching.

Fisting.

Tight.

Tight.

Tight.

“Goddammit, Nila.” My blood boiled with feral hunger.

My mouth watered to bite her throat.

Her hands latched around my wrist as I held her silent, her lips parting wide beneath my palm. I sank deep, so fucking deep. She spread her legs, her body yielded, and I sheathed into my soul-mate.

For a second, we paused. Heartbeat to heartbeat. Desire to desire. Sex turned to saturated connection, and I couldn’t stop the words spilling from my lips.

“I love you, Needle.” My hand fell from her mouth as I slammed my palms on either side of her head on the mattress, rocking into her. My toes curled in my shoes, my jeans tightened around my thighs as I stood over this goddess and fucked her like she begged.

“I…love…you…” Her pants destroyed her voice, but I didn’t need the words to know. Her emotions screamed it louder than anything. My condition swam in her contentment and affection, and I knew there would be no going back from this.

This was the moment she became totally mine.

And whatever happened afterward, we would be together forever.

I couldn’t live another moment without her bound to me. Without knowing this creature belonged to me for every day after, every year, every decade.

I needed her.

“Marry me.”

Nila gasped, her body flinching with shock. “What?”

I grabbed her legs, wrapping them around my hips. Her shoulders remained on the bed, arching into my hold. Her pussy fisted my cock, giving me an answer to my question.

The most important significant world-changing question.

“Marry me. Become mine.”

I groaned as I rocked harder, fucking her with everything I had. My knees bashed the bed, my balls smashed against her arse. Emotions and feelings and sensations grew out of control. “I need you so much.”

Her breasts bounced as my pace turned crazed.

“I need you forever.”

My hips bruised against her inner thighs as I rode her so hard.

“I need you as my wife.”

A release snarled into being, hungry, savage in intensity.

My heart twisted as Nila licked her lips. “I…I—”

Everything else faded.

I drove into her over and over again. Our eyes locked and we fucked into promises. “Say yes…. Fuck, please say yes.”

I lost myself to the rhythm, sinking my fingers into her thighs.

Her pussy clenched; her head thrown back as her body prepared to release. Her eyes glazed as the pain of riding her and the pleasure of her building orgasm turned our connection into an almost unbearable fight.

I couldn’t think straight. I was lost, owned, consumed.

I couldn’t get enough oxygen. My arms trembled as Nila finally gave me the greatest gift I’d ever earned.

“Yes…Yes, I’ll marry you.”

“Christ.” My heart shattered into fractals.

I gave up.

Our rhythm turned frenzied, fucking, rutting, taking everything we could.

“God, yes. I’m coming…I’m coming.” She cried and laughed and cursed as she drowned under the crest of her release. Her gaze locked with mine and midnight irises consumed me as fireworks turned into catastrophic detonations.

“Yes,” I hissed. “Yes. Shit, yes.” Electricity charged through my toes, my quads, my balls, my dick. Spilling deep as I pounded inside her, delivering every last drop of bliss. Pleasure I’d never experienced stampeded with a thousand heartbeats.

She was mine as much as I was hers.

Now and for always.

Alive or dead.

We were one.

“THIS WON’T WORK.”

Jethro shushed me, inching through the wonky panel hidden in the toilet block. The wretched air almost made me gag.

The moment Jethro had come, he’d made me dress, and hoisted Daniel’s carcass over his shoulder.

His eyes blackened with nerves and resolution as he ignored me. “It will.” Under his breath, he added, “It has to.”

Another shiver darted down my spine. The millionth shiver since I’d arrived in Africa.

It felt like an eternity had passed since I’d claimed a life, pierced my needle and taken someone’s last breath, last gasp, last thought. It felt like eons since I’d finally succumbed to the raging lust in my bloodstream and forced Jethro to take me.

But in reality, only forty minutes had ticked past.

How long would Cut give Daniel to rape me? An hour? Two? Or would he wait until Daniel tired and went to tag him for his turn? Either way, time was finally on our side—for now.

Every step, I couldn’t stop the remembrance of Daniel’s heart giving way to my needle point. Every breath, I couldn’t stop reliving the final moments of victory, followed by a canyon of regret.

I’d killed someone.

I’ve murdered.

I no longer had the right to heaven or angels or eternal paradise. In order to win against the devils, I’d had to become one. Before, I was willing to make that sacrifice, but now…now I knew what a weight it was to value my life above another’s. And I wasn’t so sure. Did I have the right? Did anyone—regardless of circumstance?