Page 139 of Safe Word

But it came. Then the shape of her emerged from the crowd. The eyes settled on us.

She was here.

My deliverance. My absolution in mortal flesh.

She stood among the baying crowd, eyes wide, breath caught, watching – me. The noise around her fell away, the lights dimmed, and for one intake of breath the fight faded out of focus.

My salvation had come.

Every blow I had thrown, every bone I longed to break, every drop of blood shed beneath these lights – it was all for this – for her. She was watching me dance to death’s drumbeat, bearing witness to the holy rite I had prepared in her name.

This was no mere fight now.

It was the final ritual before I could purge the stain from her soul.

And in her terrified gaze, I found proof of my purpose.

I would bleed the monster clean for her.

I would not fail her.

My gaze never left hers as I slid a finger beneath the slit of the wrap around my hand, curling it around the small, hidden blade beneath the tape. Warm steel met my fingertips like the hand of God Himself.

Now, I thought, as the crowd howled and Cain turned to face me again.

Now, she could be made pure.

TWENTY-FIVE

It couldn’t be him.

At first, I didn’t recognise him. He seemed like just another broad-shouldered, dishevelled male caught in the primal-most state. But then he made a graceful, brutal move and something inside me lurched. That was Cain!

His fists were raised, sweat beading along his temples as if he’d done this his whole life. His frame moved with lethal purpose, but he didn’t seem like a stranger, yet as the man I’d sat across from and exchanged stories with. The one who haunted my thoughts.

My stomach fell through the floor.

Obsidian… This wasn’t a sanctioned scene. This was raw, illegal violence. And it didn’t come with waivers or safe words. This left people broken.

‘Is that—’ Gianna’s voice cracked beside me, startling me.

I couldn’t answer. Couldn’t blink.

The masked fighter towered across from him, a golden angel grin smiling mockingly, cruelly, almost divine in its malice. But there was nothing holy about him. Every movement screamed purpose. He wasn’t just trying to win – he was trying to dismantle.

What the fuck was Cain doing?

‘Damn,’ Gianna murmured as Cain threw a flurry of punches, matching the masked fighter. Blow for blow. ‘He is fucking hot.’

My fingers dug into the velvet-wrapped railing. What was left of my common sense recoiled at her words – but God, I couldn’t look away. This wasn’t the man who ordered salads, who wrote dark romance, who held himself as if nothing ever ruffled him. This was someone else. Someone bare, brutal.

And I hated that my body lit up like a fuse at that. Revulsion and desire warred inside me – terror in one breath, hunger in the next – until shame settled heavy in my gut.

The roar of the crowd around us jolted me out of the trance. My gaze stayed fixed on Cain’s back, the tension in his shoulders, the way his stance widened before each strike.

I didn’t know what shocked me more – the fact that my boss wasn’t as perfect and composed as he presented himself – or that he was this raw.

Or perhaps…