AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“How would you deal with not being high up?”
God, I loved that she knew me so well.
“There are no strategic vantage points around this area.”
“No places for a shooter to set up?”
“I mean, where there’s a will there’s a way, but not without causing attention and gaining an audience.”
“Would that put you at ease?”
“I’m never at ease,” I admitted.
“I know, sweetheart,” she said on a sigh, her fingers moving higher, tracing my cheekbones and the lines of strain that spread from my eyes and along to my forehead.
“Could you be happy here? Because, more than anything, that’s what matters to me. Happiness isn’t something…” I blew out a breath. “I haven’t earned the right to happiness, but you have. If you can be happy here, then this is where we’ll split our time.”
Her eyes softened, which made it all the more jarring when she asked, “Is this a tactic so I don’t open a storefront in Manhattan?”
I blinked. But I shot her a grin. “That would be a very sneaky move, wouldn’t it?”
She chuckled. “It would.”
“Well, in this instance, I’m not maneuvering.” I pressed a kiss to her temple. “That day when we were in the park and I told you I’d leave you if I worsened, then, after the intervention… it got me to thinking. I make you happy.”
“You do,” she confirmed.
I ignored the relief that buzzed through me at her easy admission to say, “So, I thought, rather than staying somewhere that potentially makes me worse, why not try a change of scenery? I mentioned it to Conor, and well, here we are.
“If you want it, Conor said he and Star will go over the place. Make it safer than a bank vault—”
“Very cozy,” she drawled, nose crinkling.
“There are trees we can grow to make sure we have privacy—” They’d have to be conifers to make sure snipers couldn’t nest in them. “—and that visibility is poor even from above, and…”
She didn’t let me finish, just reached up onto tiptoe and pressed her lips to mine to still me.
Bump got in the way, which I figured was a metaphor for what was going to come, but I didn’t mind.
Bump was Inessa’s. Mine too, but mostly, I hoped, Inessa’s.
She’d always be the best of him.
As her lips drifted, leaving soft, tender pecks to dart across my mouth, she whispered, “Whatever you need, we’ll make it happen.”
“That isn’t fair to you,” I rumbled, reaching down to cup her butt and haul her into me.
With Bump, that wasn’t close enough, and she yelped when I hauled her higher so that her knees were on either side of my hips.
“I knew it was a smart move to wear pants today,” she joked a little breathlessly.
“I hate when you wear pants,” I groused.
“You just like easy access.”
“Always.” I arched a brow. “Do I look like a moron?”
She grinned. “I won’t answer that.”
