“No. I don’t believe in regrets.”

“What do you believe in then?”

“Learning from my mistakes.”

He steers my body around until I’m facing him, his index finger slipping under my chin to guide my eyes to his. In them, I see a vulnerability that he normally hides so well behind a stormy blue gaze and a hard jaw. He can’t hide it from me anymore. I’ve gotten to know him too well. “Am I a mistake?”

“Without you, my father would be dead.”

“And if he ends up dead anyway, because of this? Then will I have been a mistake?” he asks quietly.

Tears stream down my cheeks and while the water washes them away, he must know I’m crying. I don’t know the answer to that. Yes, a million times yes, falling in love with Gabriel Easton was the biggest mistake I could ever have made in my life, because now I can’t just walk away—not after Agent Lewis’s threats, not after my kidnapping, not with whatever future or lack of future there is ahead of us. “If you are, you’re one I could never have avoided, and I don’t think I’ll ever learn from it.”

He collects my cheek in his palm, his other arm curling around my waist, pulling our bodies flush again, front to front. It’s only been days since we’ve been intimate and yet it feels like forever since that night in Vegas, overlooking the terrace. “My father is not getting what he wants from us. He’ll be dealt with soon.”

“Before he hurts my father? Or worse?”

“Your father’s in solitary until this is over. I just spoke to Donny and he confirmed it.”

“Solitary didn’t protect Fleet’s cousin,” I remind him with knowing glare.

“That was different. No one is getting to him, I promise. You have to trust me on this, Mercy.”

“I do trust you. I just….” I release a shaky breath. A cell on his own? What must be going through my father’s head right now?

“We’ve cut our father off his money. He has nothing substantial left to bribe anyone with, and that message is filtering through the entire prison. It’ll take some time for it to resonate but when it does, there’s a long line of enemies waiting for him. And then we’ll set a truce with Navarro and deal with anyone else who might want to give us trouble. I’m going to get us far away from this world.” He caps that pledge off with a tender kiss.

Is that fool’s hope though? “I can’t live like this for the rest of my life, Gabriel,” I whisper. “Worrying about agents trying to turn me against you, or some lunatic ambushing me in my home—”

“No one’s going to lay a hand on you ever again. I’d kill them if they tried. But no one will have any reason to. Except me.” His hand slips down between us, his knuckle teasing my nipple. It reacts accordingly, pebbling beneath his touch. “DeHavilland will get your father’s case dropped and this nightmare you’ve been living for too long will be over.”

I want to believe him. “And then what?”

His bottom lip pulled between his teeth in thought. “You know a lot of things, Mercy. Things that could get you into trouble with Lewis or the next agent who decides to make their career off the Easton name.”

“I’m not going to tell them anything—”

“I know.” He abandons his teasing touch to scoop my face in his palms. “But I don’t want to give them the opportunity to use what you know against you.” He hesitates. “So I think we should get married.”

My jaw drops.

“Just hear me out before you say no.” He pauses, his gaze rolling over my features, as if soaking them in. “If we’re married, no one can use you against me, and they’d have a hard time fabricating a case against you.”

It’s not the first time Gabriel’s mentioned marriage but the last time he did it, it was in the context of teasing. Not serious.

Now, he sounds genuine.

“That’s not why people get married,” I hear myself say, a rush of adrenaline flooding through me.

“Normal people, no, but we don’t lead normal lives, Mercy.”

“I know, but—”

“What do you need to hear? That you’re unlike any other woman I’ve ever met, that I would give up my freedom and my life for you, that all it took was thinking I’d lost you for a few days to know I will follow you anywhere in this life and into the next, hopefully many years from now.” He leans in to plant a soft kiss against my collarbone.

I shudder as his fine stubble scrapes over my skin.

“I know I’m not good enough for you, but I’m trying to be. And together, we can live the kind of life you deserve. We can do whatever we want. Go wherever we want.” One of his hands curls around my back. The other shifts down over my belly, between my legs, his fingertip goading my body to respond. A rush of blood flows downward toward my core. “The mountains, an island, on a yacht in the middle of the ocean. Europe, the Caribbean….” He slips two fingers deep inside me and a moan escapes my lips. “Have you ever been to Malta?”

Tags: K.A. Tucker Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net