Fallen Empire (Dirty Empire)

For us.

For our future.

I can’t live in a world where Gabriel Easton doesn’t exist.

He kicks his jeans away and then tugs at the strings of my damp bikini without any preamble. The skimpy black material tumbles to the floor, leaving me standing before him, aching for his warm hands, his capable touch. But instead of hungry eyes over my naked body, a tortured gaze measures my injuries.

“I’ll heal,” I remind him. Already, the cut on my lip isn’t so angry, the welts that accompany the bruising on my wrists have shrunk, my cheek doesn’t throb.

“I know,” he whispers, lifting my knuckles to his mouth. But it’s a chaste kiss that ends quickly, and then he’s pulling the sheets back and guiding me into bed. He slips in behind me, my body fitting into a perfect spoon with his, his arm sliding beneath my head. I hear the deep inhale and I smile. He does that every time he comes up behind me—burrows his face into my hair. He’s always loved the scent of my shampoo.

Instinctively, I roll my hips into his pelvis. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Gabriel naked and not erect, and yet he remains flaccid against me.

“I just need to hold you right now, babe,” he whispers, his arms tightening. “Hold you and not think about all the shit I’m gonna have to wade through to get us out of this mess.”

“Of course.” I reach back blindly and stroke my fingers through his sable-brown hair. My heart pangs for him. He’s lost three good friends in the last week, I don’t know what’s happening with the cartel, though it can’t be good, and then there’s the issue of his father. No matter how hateful—how evil—the prick is, giving the order to have him killed must weigh on Gabriel’s conscience.

“I agree with you by the way,” I hear myself say. I’ve thought about it all afternoon, and Gabriel’s right.

“About what?” His voice is throaty.

“Life imprisonment hasn’t stopped your father, and too many people have died because of him.” The few that I know of are already too many. Gabriel’s aunt’s screams, her pleas for her life, still ring in my ear. Surely her mistake in falling in love with his uncle didn’t earn her a bullet. The guiltless flight crew, and even Finn and Felix, whose playboy lifestyle didn’t warrant their end either. Mike had nothing to do with any of this. And my poor father… I won’t let anything happen to him while he’s trapped in that hellhole. “Too many people will die if someone doesn’t stop him. You have to stop him.”

A long stretch of silence meets my words.

“Gabriel?” I roll over, to find him with a pensive look on his face. “What are you thinking about?” I remember a time when I didn’t care to ask that question, I didn’t want to know what went on in his devious mind.

“I’m thinking about how I never imagined being with a woman could feel like this.” He reaches up to push the strands of hair off my face. “You know I’m in love with you, right?”

Flutters stir in my stomach as I press my forehead against his. “I remember.” But it’s nice to hear him say it again, without my frenzied prompting.

“Okay. Good.” He closes his eyes. “You want to know something else?”

“Yeah?”

It’s a moment before he speaks. “I’m terrified.” His angular jaw tenses. “People I care about could get hurt. You, Caleb, my Empire staff. Too many things could go wrong, I feel like a fist is tightening around us, and I’m fucking terrified.” It comes out as a whisper, as if he’s afraid to admit the words.

Gabriel Easton, the cocky, dominant, stubborn rogue who says and does what he wants, when he wants, who walks around as if he owns the entire world and the world owes him everything, has never shown a hint of vulnerability. Now, it bleeds from his voice.

And that scares the shit out of me.

But he doesn’t need to hear that. He needs to hear that everything will be fine.

I push my fingers through his hair in gentle, soothing strokes. “It’s okay to be scared.”

“No, it’s not. There’s no room for fear in what we’re trying to do here. It’ll cloud our thoughts and get us killed.”

“Fine. Then let yourself be terrified right here, right now, with me. And then when you get up and go out there, you pack it away and you do what you need to do.” I smooth my hand over his chest, reveling in his body heat. “As long as you don’t do anything stupid, no matter what. Deal?”

“Deal.” His eyes are still closed but he’s smiling. “How did I get so lucky?” he murmurs drowsily.

“Because you propositioned the right girl in the prison parking lot.”

He answers with a weak snort.