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“I never asked you to. That’s why I’m sitting here.” I never asked her to give up her dream. I simply put my life on hold so I could keep an eye on her. If anyone wanted to hurt her but saw me standing there, he’d run for the hills.
“You can’t stop living either, Griffin.” She angled my face toward hers, making me look at her. “You belong at the winery with my father. That’s your legacy. And this is where I belong. When the afternoon is over, we go home to each other—every day.”
Everything she said was rational, but I wasn’t thinking rationally. “I can’t let anything happen to you.” When I’d finally gotten her back in my arms, I broke down again. This woman was my whole world. If anything happened to her…I never would recover.
“I know.” Her fingers moved into my hair. “But one of the reasons why I love you is because you believe in me. You know I’m a fighter. You respect my strength and my intelligence. You know I can handle myself.”
“Yes…to a certain extent.” But when eight men came at her all at once, there was nothing she could do. Only I could have saved her.
“You killed all those men. There’s no one left to hunt us.”
I’d retired from my job and didn’t leave any stone unturned. It seemed like my past was buried for good. There was no reason to look over my shoulder when there was no one following me. The promise I gave to her had been fulfilled.
“So there’s no reason to protect me anymore.”
“I will always protect you, baby.” I would protect her from everything, from all the horrible things that could possibly hurt her. I would take all the bullets, all the punches, and make sure she was left untouched.
“I know. But there’s nothing to protect me from anymore. I have a pistol in the desk if I ever need it. But a group of men is never going to burst into this gallery again. No one is going to rob me because all my transactions are digital. There’s no one out there who wants to hurt either of us. So let it go, Griffin. Let me do my job and stop scaring away all my customers.”
“What am I doing that’s so scary?”
“Staring people down like a hungry bear.”
“I’m not doing that. That’s just how I look.”
“Whatever. It makes people uncomfortable.” She ran her fingers through my hair as she sat on my lap, her sexy lips close to mine. With her legs crossed and her dress hiked up to her thighs, she was artfully seducing me. Her perfume entered my nose, making me soften like a wilting flower. “Griffin, go back to work.”
I growled quietly.
She smiled. “And you say you don’t act like a bear…”
“I act like a bear with you. That’s it.”
She kissed the corner of my mouth, her bright lipstick leaving a gentle stain against my mouth. She breathed new life into my lungs, gave me a sense of peace no one else could bring. She had me wrapped around her finger, and she knew it. “Griffin.”
I closed my eyes and savored the feeling of her lips against mine, treasuring it as a special memory even though I received those warm embraces on a daily basis. She cast a spell on me the moment we met, and the effects had never worn off. “Alright. I’ll go back to work.”
When I arrived at the winery in the heart of Tuscany, I pulled up my phone and checked the tracker on the screen. Seeing Vanessa exactly where I left her gave me the strength to walk into the building and enter Crow’s office.
Vanessa was right. I couldn’t watch her every single moment of the day. We would have to sacrifice both of our lives to make that happen, and it seemed unlikely that someone would bother us again. I’d butchered every single member of the crew that tried to steal Vanessa, so there was no reason to look over my shoulder.
I needed to leave it in the past.
I tapped my knuckles against the office door before I stepped inside.
Crow was behind the desk, wearing a black t-shirt. He was signing a stack of papers, his black wedding ring a perfect complement to his dark skin. With a structured jaw and brilliant eyes, he was the embodiment of the strength that all the Barsettis inherited. “Griffin.” He dropped the pen and rose from behind the desk, slightly surprised to see me. He moved around the desk and approached me, a grin coming onto his face. “I wasn’t sure when I would see you next.” Instead of greeting me with a handshake, he hugged me the way he hugged his son.
I hugged him back, embracing this man like a father. I used to despise him with every fiber of my being. I used to want to slit his throat and watch him die. I used to want to murder his wife for revenge. But now…I couldn’t imagine my life without him. “That makes two of us.”
