“And I love you,” she whispers, nestling her head in the crook of my neck. Her voice is watery, but her grip is tight. “I’m home again. Home.”
We’re in the middle of a parking lot, but I know what she means. Home is together.
“I wish we could stay like this forever,” she whispers. “But we can’t. It isn’t safe. And you and I both know what we have to do next.”
I slide her to the ground in front of me, nodding. “I do. But it’s best if you let me do this alone.”
She laughs out loud. “Nice try, bossy.”
My palm itches to smack her pretty ass. To take her back to a hotel room and reunite with her in all the best possible ways. And I know I could make her stay. I could somehow forcibly make her stay out of harm’s way, make her do what’s safe and not take the risk. Well I could try, anyway. But appealing to her logic sometimes works best. “I don’t want you hurt, Harper.”
God, it would fucking kill me. I’ve withstood so goddamn much, but that would be my breaking point.
She turns to me and pierces me with a look that means business. “Don’t you know, Cy? Don’t you know?”
“Know what, baby?”
Her voice wavers but her eyes look at me unblinkingly, and I’m reminded of the fiery temper that matches her fiery hair. “What will hurt me most right now is separation from you.” She shakes her head. “No. We go to Morose together. We plan this together. Haven’t we had this conversation before?” she says with a toothy, adorable grin. Is there anything normal she does that isn’t the cutest damn thing I’ve ever seen?
“We have,” I say thoughtfully, tugging her hand and pulling her into the shadows behind the dumpster. “Before… hell, before damn near everything. In fact, I believe I owe you a punishment, no?”
“You owe me lots of things,” she says. “But you can pay up later.”
I fully plan on paying her later, with interest. Even though we’re far from safe, even though we still have much to accomplish, even though our entire damn lives were uprooted or buried or whatever-the-fuck they were, my heart is lighter than it’s been in years.
I’m off the motherfucking island.
And Harper’s holding my hand.“First, we talk, and we get the fuck out of danger,” I tell her, dragging her by the hand back to the door she exited. I want to be sure we’re safe. She just put out the word that a man as powerful as Morose, the man who orchestrated not only the abductions but an elaborate scheme that cost him millions upon millions of dollars, is guilty. If he knows we’ve escaped his minions, he’ll send someone after us. He probably already has.
“Right,” she says, nodding. “First, we come up with a plan. Second, we execute it.”
“No, baby,” I contradict, tugging her hand and pushing her up against the wall outside the hotel entrance. I pin her against the bricks, bracing myself with one hand on the wall beside her, leaning in and whispering in her ear. “First, I lay you down and fuck you. Claim you as mine. Bring us together again.”
Her eyelids flutter closed, and she bites her lip. “Why yes you do,” she whispers. “Yes.”
I kiss her cheek, wanting to do so much more, but we’re in a vulnerable place. We don’t have the luxury of this reunion.
“Let’s go,” I say, and just like that I’m aware of us being watched. Of the danger we’re in. Call me paranoid, but I even suspect the fucking security cameras they’ve got hooked up everywhere.
I lead her inside and she shows me how to use a back staircase to get to her room. A few minutes later, we enter a large hotel room.
“There are guards on the other side of that door,” she whispers. “The Times said it would be best to give me a detail.”
I nod. “Good call.”
I check the locks and my gun. She gasps. “Of course you’re armed,” she whispers.
I turn to look at her. “You?” My body tenses. I don’t like the idea of her being unarmed.
She nods. “A friend got me a handgun and a knife, tucked into my boot.”
I feel a muscle tick in my jaw. I don’t want her to have to use them, either.
“I have a plan,” she says.
I sit on the bed beside her and reach for her, pulling her onto my lap. I nuzzle my nose in her hair and inhale, breathing so deeply her scent permeates my whole being. My heart. My mind. My soul. I love this woman. My cock stiffens beneath her ass, and it feels like I haven’t had her in months, years, eons. I need in her.
“Let’s hear it.”
“I don’t—” she pants. “Christ, Cy, how am I supposed to—” her voice pitches off into a moan when I nibble under her chin. I missed this. God, I missed this.