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It’s not just my face, it’s an emotion he and I still haven’t named to each other, right there on the canvas, like he said, for anyone to see.
A choked sound escapes me, and my hand goes to my mouth. Tears well in my eyes, making this amazing piece of art, this piece of hisheart, blur in my vision.
Then Dante turns my face back toward his.
“I lied to you earlier,” he says, his face as serious as I’ve ever seen it, raw truth in his eyes. “I told you I care about you, but that’s a cop out. I’m fucking in love with you, Riley. Iloveyou. I—”
“I know,” I cut him off as all my own emotions surge up inside me, making me cling to him. “I know. I love you too.”
He grunts like the words have hit him hard, a single, powerful shudder moving through his body. Then he wraps his arms around me so tightly that my ribs ache and kisses me, inhales me like I’m the oxygen his soul requires to survive.
He kisses me for so long that all the shit swirling around us—the danger from West Point and the volatile future we’re walking into and the horror show of possibilities that no doubt wait for us there—all of that fades to the background, eclipsed by this one little slice of heaven. By the one thing that’s solid and real in my life. The one thing that matters.
This.
Him.
Us.
16
MADDOC
I’ve been gone mostof the day dealing with the business of securing Reaper positions and preparing for whatever McKenna might throw at us next, but I still haven’t done enough.
I’m not sure if it’s possible to do enough, now that he has such a big cash advantage.
I scowl, pushing that thought away before it can gain any traction. We’ll do whatever it takes, and since we won’t back down until we take him down, “whatever it takes”isgonna be enough, by definition.
Of course, the other problem to contend with is that we’re trying to second-guess a fucking psycho. He’s always been a wildcard, but now he’s just as dangerous as he is unpredictable, and that’s going to be a deadly combination no matter how much planning and reinforcing we do.
I park the SUV in the garage, suppressing my daily twinge of annoyance over the loss of our Escalade, and walk in through the kitchen, still silently cursing myself for letting McKenna get so far ahead.
Not that I had a choice. My focus was and always will be on keeping Riley safe. There’s no amount of money that will ever change the way I feel about her.
At least I made some progress today. I touched base with several new informants that McKenna won’t realize are on my payroll. Hopefully, they’ll be able to pick up any rumblings about what he’s up to before he figures that shit out.
I stop in the kitchen and look through to the living room. I can just see the top of Riley’s head over the back of the couch, but that’s enough to make my worries fade into the background for now. Just knowing she’s here calms my nerves, soothing the side of me that’s been agitated and raging all damn day.
She belongs in this house, and I don’t ever want to know what it’s like without her here again.
I still have shit to do, but my legs carry me across the room instead of toward my office, and I don’t fight it. Next to her is the only place I want to be right now, and for once, just for a minute at least, I’m putting what I want before what I need to do as a leader.
My beautiful butterfly looks up and smiles, and dressed in comfortable clothes without any makeup on or one of the flashier nose rings she likes, she’s still sexy as hell.
She’s even more than just sexy, though.
She’s what I want to come home toeveryfucking day.
I sit down next to her, but there’s a slight hesitation in her eyes as she places a hand on the center of my chest. “How did things go today?”
I grimace, then drape my arm across the back of the sofa and pull her into my side, where she doesn’t have to see my expression. I don’t really want to talk about my day or the necessary preparations we all need to make right now. She has a right to ask, though. She’s caught up in this shit as deep as the rest of us are.
“Maddoc?” she presses, starting to pull away, like she’s gonna try to sit up and search for the answers she wants in my face.
I hold her tighter, needing her close just as much as I want to shield her from seeing the turmoil I’m feeling about what’s coming.
“It went as well as it could.” I pause. Apologizing, explaining myself, looking weak, opening up about shit like feelings, all of that is a dangerous move in my world, and I’ve been betrayed enough in my life to know how stupid it is to show any vulnerability. And yet, everything’s different with Riley. Besides, she already knows how I feel about her, so I go ahead and add, “I’m sorry I left so abruptly.”
