City Of Need

18 ❤️‍🔥 Deal

London

What is it about this woman has me acting like a Neanderthal? Getting into fights that's not me. And now threatening her exes... What the fuck. But I actually mean it, the thought of anyone hurting her... Fuck... I can barely fucking contain myself.

She frowns at me. 'No, London. You don't need to teach anyone a lesson. I've already moved on.'

I look down at my plate but food is the last thing on my mind. The thought of someone hurting Roxy. Messing with her, selling her – for fuck's sake. I have never wanted to hurt someone so much.

She lays her hand on my forearm and gently says, 'London. Take a breath.'

I take a breath, it doesn't help. The anger in me is huge and violent.

'London, come back to me. Everything's okay. I'm okay.'

I look back at her and her huge hazel eyes with the gold flints start to fill my vision. It's like staring at a Rothko painting. They pull me in, calm me. I feel the red mist subsiding. 'Sorry. Shit. I didn't mean to make it about me. It's just the idea of someone hurting you...' I trail off.

'Someone that isn't you, you mean!' She grins and I grin back.

'But that's different, that's how me and you operate. We do it for kicks and fun,' I say.

'So let me spank your ass and you can tell me how not painful it is,' she laughs.

I brush the hair from her face and say softly, 'Is it not what you want, Baby Doll? Is it not what you need? The pain I give you?'

Her eyes flare, lips part, just a fraction.

I continue, 'I think you like my kind of pain. I think you need the strength of me because of how strong you are.'

She nods and ever so slightly leans towards me. It's like we're hypnotising each other.

'Do you Baby Doll?' I murmur, 'Do you need the pain?'

Her breath hitches, and her mood softens as she whispers, 'Yes.'

I pull her head onto my shoulder and stroke her hair. She feels small, soft. As if she could break apart into tears at any moment. In return I want her tears. I find myself wanting more and more of this complicated creature. Brash and loud one minute, soft and emotional the next.

I want to keep her safe and I want to punish her for not being mine completely. But right now I just want to hold her close and breathe in the scent of her skin and hair and her everything.

'I'm so tired,' she murmurs. 'My sister is back. That means my family wants me back at work sometime soon. Lilah promised me she'd give me a six week warning. That's how long it takes them to put a project together. If she's here, it means they need me to help.' I feel the weight of her tiredness sink against my body.

'You want to talk about it?'

'I can't. Family stuff. Better for you if you don't know about it.'

'C'mon, Baby, Let's watch a movie together,' I say and slide my arms around her back and under her knees, lifting her to the sofa. She curls into me. So fucking tender that I fell my heart beat against her.

I lay her down, take the remote control from the table and climb over her, sliding between her back and the back of the sofa, then spooning into her.

'I'm know you're not a rom-com girl. What do you fancy? Zombies or true crime?' I ask.

'End of the world stuff.'

I flick through Netflix. Find something apocalyptical and press play. Then slide one arm under her head, and wrap the other over her ribs.