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“I said—”
“How? How can you know that? How do you even know who he is? What the hell is going on?”
“Lumi.” Whit calmly takes hold of my hands. “I will not let anything or anyone hurt you or Ade. I will protect you to my last breath. When you told us what he did, I searched for him until I had the information I needed.”
“But how?”
“I have friends all over. Do you want me to tell you how I know you’re both safe?”
I nod. Tears threaten to spill from my eyes and I swallow down the painful emotional lump in my throat.
“He’s in a maximum security supernatural prison in Europe. He was given several consecutive life sentences for crimes too vile to repeat. He’s not going anywhere, Lumi. I promise, you and Ade are safe. For good.”
His words unlock something inside of me and I feel the chains of fear release themselves from around my chest. I blink like crazy and will my tears away but they slide unauthorized down my face regardless of my wishes. I take a shaky breath, then another, and another. With each exhale, I feel myself becoming lighter, freer.
“Really?” I manage to croak out, looking up at Whit through wet lashes, barely daring to hope.
“Really.”
That one word releases the final lock around my heart and with it, my control over my emotions. Everything I’ve held back for Ade’s sake comes rushing out of me in a torrent of emotion and magic.
Literally.
A tidal wave forms behind me and rushes down the corridor, crashing me into Whit’s arms and sweeping us along. As soon as the release—my relief—is out of my system, the water vanishes and I’m left straddling Whit awkwardly on the soggy carpet.
“Sorry,” I murmur. I try to get off him but he grabs my hips and stills me, grinning. He really is devilishly handsome with his floppy blond locks, rugged stubbled jaw, and bright violet eyes. I like the way they sparkle with mischief and change color with his mood. Right now, his grin is playful, but his eyes are dark with desire.
He pulls me down into a hesitant kiss, and when I don’t fight him, he deepens it. Which is all well and good until I shift and my knees squelch on the carpet and I’m reminded that we’re making out in a corridor, potentially a few feet away from where my daughter’s sleeping.
I push up off his chest and clamber to my feet, then hold out a hand to help Whit up too. He looks a little shocked by my sudden movement but takes my hand and gets up.
“Come on, I’ll show you where Ade’s sleeping. She chose the room herself.”
I don’t say anything, but follow him back along the corridor I washed us down until he stops at a door. He opens it a crack and steps back for me to peer in. The room is illuminated by Whit’s softly glowing orbs and almost all of Ade’s stuff from home is set up in the room, which is about three times the size of her one at our apartment. Ade is sleeping peacefully in the bed with a sparkly purple comforter pulled up to her chin and fairy lights entwined through the headboard behind her.
I step back, having seen enough. I don’t need to go in and disturb her, she already looks right at home here.
I close the door softly behind me, and Whit gives me an appraising look.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“Come on, I’ll show you where you’re sleeping.”
He takes my hand once more and leads me a little way down the hallway, stopping at another door that’s indistinguishable from Ade’s. He leaves me to open this one, and I step into a room which is decorated in various shades of navy and grey. It’s clean, tidy and very masculine.
“Thanks,” I say, turning back to Whit, intending to say goodnight to him only to find he’s entered the bedroom behind me and closed the door. “Erm…”
“This is my room,” he says.
“Oh, erm, it’s very nice. Where am I sleeping?”
He nods at his bed.
“Where are you sleeping then?”
He smirks.
“I can sleep in with Ade if there’s not room—”
