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“I know that, but—”
“Just making sure you do. Because if you say yes, I want you to know you’ll be tied to.” He waits a moment, then adds, “Who will be able to protect you as your husband should.”
Oh, he’s good. Link always was even when hewasgood. But Devil… he knows exactly what card to play, and that I have a shit hand of my own.
He wants a wife. I need protection.
From retaliation from the Libellula Family. From the law. From my own conscience… I needhim.
It’s a devil’s bargain, and I can’t see any way but to agree.
“If I say ‘yes’, I’ll be safe?” I ask. “No one will come after me for what I did?”
Not Damien? Not the police?
Not anyone?
Nodding once, Link holds out his hand, palm side up.
Knowing what he wants, I lay my hand on his.
He folds his calloused fingers around mine, then rises up to his full height. Once standing, he gives my hand a tug, helping me to my feet.
We’re so close, we’re basically breathing the same air for a moment before he tugs again, pulling me up against his hard chest.
With his hand a possessive brand on my back, Link’s chin pinning me against him as he rests it on my head, he rubs the edge of his thumb along the height of my cheek.
“I promise you this, pet: no one will touch you when Devil marks you as his.”
FIVE
OUR WEDDING
LINCOLN
With Ava in my arms again, it takes everything in me to let her go.
I have to, though. Officer Burns turned off the flickering lights on the top of his cruiser, but he’s out there. Someone has to go talk to him, and since I’m using my connections as leverage to force her into agreeing to marry me, I need to get out there.
I give myself a few more seconds. Stroking her hair, I have to stifle my shudder at just how fucking soft it is. If my cock hadn’t already gone hard just from touching her hand, her hair wouldn’t been enough to get me ready to fuck through a steel beam.
That’s why I purposely angle my hips away from her. Until we make it so that it’s ‘til death do we part, I can’t scare her. I also can’t give her any reason to change her mind. If she knows how badly I want to fuck her, especially after that Dragonfly bastard thought he could, she might actually take her chances with the crooked Springfield cops.
I’d never let her. She doesn’t know that, but even if she refused my offer, I’d help her.
Then I’d marry her anyway, and she’d just have to get used to it. At least, this way, she thinks she has a say in whether she agreed or not, and fuck if I’m not going to use that, too.
Fake marriage… Ava really thought she could get away with afakemarriage to me. No fucking way. I’ve always been an “all or nothing” kind of man, and now that I have my second chance ripe for the taking, I’m going to snatch it—and nothing is going to stop me.
But, first, I got to marry her. And in order to do that, I got to do my job. Already there are so many things I have to take care of, and the first one is going out to make sure Officer Burns can handle the cop side of what went down tonight. As for clean-up, I got guys for that.
Then I guess I’m going to go get hitched.
And, for the first time since I joined the life, I’ll do it by the book. I need my marriage to Ava to be legal. When so much of my life is spent on the other side of the line, when it comes to her, I won’t drag her into my darkness any more than I already have.
Thinking about the business phone in my pocket as I continue to hold her close, I smile to myself.
Good thing I have a judge or three who owes me a favor…
