CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      Damien

      I CARRY JULIET to a staff-only elevator. She writhes in my arms.

      “What is happening to me?” she cries.

      “It must be the aftereffect of the drug you were given,” I say through gritted teeth.

      I stepped away from her before when something in my gut told me I shouldn’t. I put her in harm’s way. If X hadn’t found the real genetics doctor bleeding from a head wound on the landing of a stairwell, where would Juliet be now? What would the Black Watch be doing to her?

      “How did they get to me?” Juliet asks, and then she moans in my arms.

      I let out a bitter laugh. “They breached the one place we couldn’t stay away from with you in your condition—the hospital. They’ve been unable to infiltrate the palace, but we didn’t anticipate this.”

      “Damien,” she cries, then spins in my arms, hooking her legs around my hips. “Damien, you have to make it stop!”

      I can’t think straight, so I hit the emergency button on the elevator, and we jerk to a halt.

      “Make what stop?” I ask.

      Her eyes plead with mine.

      “I need to come.” She squeezes her knees around my hips and slides up and down against me.

      My cock hardens, my body betraying my animalistic desires.

      “I have to have you inside me,” she grinds out. “Fill me up and give me release, or I swear to you this ache will kill me!”

      She hops down and tears at the button of my jeans, then yanks my zipper open.

      “Now,” she gasps. “Take me now!”

      She hikes up her dress, revealing no panties underneath.

      Christ.

      She grips my thick shaft with her fist and rubs my slick tip up and down her folds.

      I growl. “Juliet,” I grind out, and she whimpers.

      “Inside me!” she wails, but I will not take her like this. Even in her state, I will not lose control. Because I have failed her like I failed Victoria. Just as I knew I would. But I will give her pleasure. I will give her release. She deserves love and protection, but I am good for only one thing.

      “Turn around,” I tell her.

      Her breath hitches, and she stills. “But I thought—” she starts, a sobering look in her eyes. “I thought after last night...after seeing our baby... Damien, I know you don’t remember us, but I also know that you feel something.”

      “All I feel, Princess, is the truth. I destroy everything that is good and pure. Know that my family will protect you and this child, but I will return to my life of banishment—for their safety and yours.”

      She turns, her back to me now, and she presses against my erection.

      “Do what you’re good at, then,” she snaps with bitter resignation. “Give me what I need and then do what you do best. Leave.”

      She reaches behind me and grabs my shaking palm and pulls it around her hips and between her legs. My finger brushes her wet, swollen clit, and she whimpers, her beautiful, innocent ass rubbing against my cock.

      “Do it!” she orders, and I plunge one finger inside her, then two, and then three.

      She bucks as I pump in and out, as I drag my soaked fingers up and down her heated folds.

      She is an animal, riding my palm like no woman has done before, and I silently curse X for not truly preparing me for what was happening to her.

      My tip presses against her ass. I could enter her like this. She would let me past that final threshold.

      But it would be a line crossed over which I could never go back. Taking her like this would mean she was no different than any other woman I’d been with since Victoria. And I would have to live with the knowledge of hurting her like that.

      I slide my fingers from inside her and swirl them around her clit. She cries out, reaching a hand behind me and grabbing my shaft.

      “Do it, Damien! Fucking do it!” Juliet yells. But that is not the voice of my Juliet. That is not the mother of my child, the woman I love.

      Because I do love her, dammit, even if I am poison.

      I bring her to climax with my hand alone, and when she’s done bucking and thrashing—when she falls limp against me—I catch her as her knees go weak. Only when she steadies do I let go, pulling up my pants over my now-painful erection.

      “Damien,” she says, voice shaky.

      “Are you okay?” I ask, my voice hoarse against the knot in my throat.

      She nods.

      “You deserve better,” I tell her. It is the truth—the only truth I can tell her. “Now we must get you and the baby to safety.”

      I start the elevator again, and we both ride to the main level in silence.

      Only when we reach the bottom does Juliet break the silence. “I know what you’re thinking,” she says. “And it’s not your fault.”

      My jaw tightens. “You don’t get it. I ruin everyone and everything. I can’t do this.”

      Her eyes grow wide. “What are you saying?”

      I clear my throat. “I’m saying that you will be cared for and protected by my family. But you will be a princess without a prince. It is not as if I’ve been officially reinstated. It will be best for everyone if the banishment sticks. I am sorry, Juliet.”

      The doors open, and there before us are a host of guards, but they are no guards of Edenvale.

      “Good morning, Princess,” one jeers, and I swear I’ve heard that voice before. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

      Juliet opens her mouth to scream, but one of the Black Watch yanks her from the elevator car and clamps a hand over her lips.

      “Get her to the car,” the first guard sneers. “And be careful. She’s a biter.”

      He shakes out his hand, and I note the scars on both the back and his palm. Whatever happened before Juliet came to find me, this bastard had his hands on her—and she made him bleed for it.

      She kicks and flails, and something in me breaks. I launch myself at the man who holds her, my fist connecting with his face. I feel bone crunch.

      A