Total pages in book: 170
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160166 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 801(@200wpm)___ 641(@250wpm)___ 534(@300wpm)
I clear my throat just to get a whisper out. “Yes.”
He lets out a relieved noise then crosses the room to me, takes my face in his hands, and kisses me into the pillows. Deep and needy like the night before. He’s already showered, and the clean scent of him overwhelms me again. His touch, his desperation…it’s fucking everything. Nothing else matters.
I can’t help that I love him. That when he kisses me, he soothes every pain and worry. I can’t help the way my body wants to be near his. I touch his shoulders and his arms and his neck. I pull him in as close as I can. Declan does the same to me. If he didn’t have to leave, I think he’d get back into the bed with me and stay here.
Nothing can be simple, can it? There’s always something waiting to screw things up.
His mouth on mine doesn’t feel screwed up, though I know parts of it are. We still need to talk through everything that happened and why he lied. That seems less important than why he wants to marry me. Uncertainty makes my stomach clench.
“You really want to marry me?” I whisper as he pulls away.
The Cross brothers are strong and powerful, but right now, Declan is doing this for me. He wouldn’t do this for anything else. All the emotions of the past forty-eight hours run across his face again. So much fear that echoes my own.
“I need you to.” It’s strange to hear so much vulnerability from him.
Declan and his brothers don’t seem like they would need anything. They’re the kind of men who can take it for themselves. But Declan needs this from me. “I need to know you still love me and that you’ll be here tomorrow. I need you to know how badly I need you, and want you, and how committed I am to you.”
He starts to sit up straighter and I know he’s leaving. But I also know I won’t be okay until we address what happened. I can’t just leave it be. It’ll fester and I can’t have those thoughts coming back.
He said he had to go, but I can’t stop the sentence from rising to my lips. “What happened in that hotel room—”
“Braelynn, I was never going to hurt you.” Declan closes his eyes, just for a second, and when he opens them again, the depths of his pain reach the darkness in his eyes. “I could never hurt you, let alone kill you, or let anyone else touch you.”
It’s a promise I’ve wanted for most of my life. Tears well up in my eyes, though I know it’s not fair to him. He has to leave. I blink them away so he doesn’t have to go wherever he’s going with this image of me in his mind. “Declan, I—”
“Just think about it, all right? Think about being my wife.” His fingers splay through my hair. “I love you.”
My heart races as it occurs to me that he truly loves me. This man, I think he really loves me. Declan presses one more kiss to my lips, then pushes off the bed and walks out of the room. He’s gone before I can say another word.
“I love you, too,” I whisper. He can’t hear it, but it feels more honest than to not say it back at all.
DECLAN
Apparently the dumb fuck cops work for a detective named Harold Mauer. Mr. Mauer is going to wish I never discovered that information from a cop at the station who works for me.
The scent of cigarettes is pungent. It reminds me of my father if I’m honest. The stack of discarded papers rustles as I step on them. It’s impossible to avoid now that the office is trashed. The floorboards creak above me, and I know Carter is still looking for anything and everything that may be hiding in the cop’s home.
The alarm is only disabled for another ten minutes but we won’t need it. We got what we came here for. What we spent all day planning.
I stare down at what I’ve found, praying it will end all of this. For Braelynn’s sake, I need it to end. Violently and swiftly if I have my way.
Carter’s boots appear and then his body is slowly revealed as he climbs down the stairs from the attic. Its access is in the office so it was worth a look.
He’s head to toe in black, jeans and a sweatshirt, just like the two of us. The moment I see his hands are empty, a feeling of hopelessness washes over me.
Even though my own hands are occupied.
“He’s still tailing them,” Jase says while looking at his phone.
Daniel is tailing our detective…who is tailing decoys. Tonight is certainly eventful.
“He just messaged?” Carter asks and Jase nods.