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Wonder filled his eyes as they searched my own. The corner of his mouth twitched into a grin as he whispered, “Goddamn firefly.”
His mouth fell onto mine in a soft, but breathtaking kiss, his tongue tracing my lips before teasing my own just as the doorbell rang.
A growl sounded in his chest and his forehead fell to mine. “That’s probably dinner.” Sliding my legs off his lap, he stood from the couch and pulled me up with him. “I’ll meet you in my room with the food.”
“Something wrong with the kitchen?” I asked wryly as I walked away, a low laugh sounding in my throat at his answering glare.
But as soon as I was in the hall heading toward his room, my smile slipped.
There were similarities—so many similarities.
I’d known the Borello family had lived freely while we’d remained out of sight. Staying on the property or slipping from shadow to shadow throughout town.
It was why my brothers and I had been homeschooled. It was why most of the Holloway men chose to live in Soldier’s Row, keeping their families in Raleigh. Keeping them a secret from our dark world.
It was why I’d been mostly kept from the outside world long before my faked death.
But even with all their freedom, the Borellos were still hiding.
Dare was hiding them.
Even if there was a way to stop what was coming—if there was a way for us to be together—it would still be a life of fear and protection and being kept from enemies.
And yet, even at that realization, I knew I would gladly live that life if it meant a life with Demitri Borello.
Because living without the man who could touch my soul—the man who had silently put my destroyed heart back together—would be a slow, agonizing death. More painful than anything Johnny could do to me physically, or Kieran and Mickey could inflict on me emotionally.
That familiar energy slid over my skin a second before his deep voice rumbled, “What is it?”
I turned to find him watching me intently, a bag of food in hand.
“What is it that sometimes makes you look like you’re being tortured by something worse than Johnny?”
“What I want and what I would give up to have it,” I said honestly. Lifting a shoulder in the barest hint of a shrug, I let a sad laugh tumble from my lips. “And what I can’t change.”
He stepped into the room, setting the food on his dresser so he could pull me into his arms. His eyebrows drew together, his dark eyes begging to understand.
“Will I ever know?” As patient as he’d been, I could hear the wariness in his tone. I knew he couldn’t handle the half-truths for much longer.
Then again . . . we didn’t have long left.
“One day,” I answered with a forced grin as I slipped from his hold. “One day soon you’ll know it all.”
I grabbed the bag of food off the dresser and slid my hand down his arm to intertwine our fingers, pulling him toward the couch.
Tilting my head back to look at him, I said, “But tonight, I just want you and me. I don’t want to worry about what’s happening in our lives. I want to eat . . .”
“Thai,” he answered with a smirk that was quickly widening into one of his blinding smiles.
I scrunched up my face and teased, “Italians eat Thai?”
He twisted our joined hands around my back and pulled me close, his fingers digging playfully into my side as he buried his face into my hair. “I’ll show you what I want to eat.” The huskiness of his tone sent a shock straight to my core.
My head dropped back and my eyes fluttered shut when he ran his fingers between my legs, a plea for him to continue on the tip of my tongue before the bag of food was suddenly snatched from my hand, and he pushed me backward onto the couch.
When he followed me down, I slid my fingers into his hair and placed a teasing kiss on his lips. “I want to have tonight to know this is real.”
To remember it was.
