AllFreeNovel
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She’s tucked in tight, like I’m the only one she trusts to protect her from any monsters that might come in the night.
I’m the monster that comes for her in the night, apparently. I’m the man who shows up in the rain to thrust information about her sister’s drug dealer boyfriend into her hand. I meant it as an apology for being such an unholy prick.
There’s no question in my mind that it was a mistake to admit so much to her last night. But I was clear with her. I’m not going to walk away from the consortium. I owe it to my parents, and to myself, to make their murderers pay.
What I did was more dangerous than using her to get to her parents. It was more dangerous than breaking my rules for her. I was showing up metaphorically naked on her doorstep with a desperate offering in the hopes that she’d let me stay at the only place that’s ever felt like home.
Not her bakery, which is much less than she deserves. Not even her apartment, which is too run-down and cramped for someone as good and pure as Elise.
If this is going to end in some enormous fireball and death, then for the love of God, Gabriel, kiss me while we still have time.
One of her hands opens and closes next to the pillow, and she stretches. Her knuckles hit my chest. Elise sighs and nuzzles in.
I can’t move.
Her entire apartment smells sweet. Buttercream frosting. The scent of her skin. It’s heightened by the warmth of her worn-in sheets and blankets. I’m breathing in everything I’ve wanted for fifteen years. Everything I wouldn’t allow myself to have. I should feel glutted on it by now. I should feel sick.
Instead I feel…
Safe.
I didn’t expect to feel that again. Not ever. It’s a special irony that we’renotsafe. This apartment isn’t secure, the way Mason’s building is. Elise’s father is a menace. I’m a dangerous asshole.
She should have shut the door in my face. Pushed me out of the bakery instead of pulling me in. Blocked my number on her phone and forgotten about me instead of…
Whatever this is. This thing where she doesn’t love me, but she wants me to be here. This thing where I’m leaving her, but I’ll stay until I can’t stay anymore.
I curl my hand around her wrist and rub the pad of my thumb along her delicate flesh. “Wake up, sweetness. I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Elise turns onto her back, scrunching her nose. Then she rolls over again and buries her face in my chest. She mumbles something that sounds likeuhnomlite.
“What was that?”
“I’m late. To start baking. I should have been baking already. It’s light in here. That means I’m really late. What time is it?”
The sunrise is barely peeking through the blinds. “It’s seven. And you’re not late.”
Elise pushes off my chest and sits up. “Shit. I open at seven.”
“You’re closed today.”
“I missed a day last week. I can’t miss two.” Her dark eyes meet mine, huge and worried.
“Because you took Lydia home?”
“By the time I got back here, it was way too late to bake. It was too late to open.” She might not have been so late if I’d gone back for her. The guilt is never going to end, is it? “My customers will wonder where I went. If they don’t trust me to be there, they won’t come back. I have to be able to pay the rent.”
I have her wrist in my hand, and I run my palm down to her elbow. Back up again. “You have it calculated down to the penny, don’t you?”
“Yes,” she admits.
“I understand.” Down to my bones, I understand. I still know how much money I have in my personal checking account. The balance never goes below twenty thousand dollars. “You’re closed for a private event today. I’ll pay you twice what you’d make in sales, plus costs for supplies and utilities.”
“You want me to stay in bed with you that much?”
“Is it not enough? Quadruple it, then.”
The corner of her mouth hints at a smile. “What if I don’t want your money?”
