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He kisses me like there’s no tomorrow.
His hand at the back of my head, the other at my back. The threat of his warm gun against my skin. My toes push me closer to him, my heart melting.
Nothing else exists in a world where Xi kisses me like this. For someone who’s always wanted to feel special,wanted, this kiss portrays everything I’ve ever dreamed of. The possession in it is one that promises he meant his words: just me and him.
Xi is never letting me go.
We’re both out of breath when we pull away. It reminds me of our first kiss. Back then, too, it hadn’t stopped abruptly. We had slowed down, taking our time to separate, never wanting to let the other one go.
He rests his forehead on mine and a short, relieved laugh escapes him.
“Stop laughing,” I sniffle.
“I’m in love.”
“You just killed someone.”
“My most justified kill ever.”
“No,” I pinch my lips. “I don’t want to hear that you killed other people.”
His hand slides in my hair at the side of my head. I feel his warm palm against my cold ear. “I would kill another hundred for you, Alex.”
He pulls away and goes to his truck. Coming back with a canister of gasoline, he pours some on Duncan’s dead body.
Why am I not panicking anymore? There is a corpse lying less than twenty feet away from me. The man I’m desperately in love with is a murderer. He’s crossed the line so far over that I’m forced to teeter on the edge of it myself.
Love.
Such a pure, simple feeling driving you to the most senseless actions.
Xi reaches into his jeans and comes up with a pack of cigarettes. He pulls one with his lips only and shoves the rest of the pack back in his pocket. He searches his jeans again, front and back, his hoodie is next before his head falls back.
“Ah, fuck,” he huffs around the cigarette before looking up again.
In the dark of the night, I can see the moonlight illuminating his beautiful bronze skin. His profile is one of a god. A square jaw covered with a five o’clock shadow. Plump, dark lips. His nostrils flare as he frowns his bushy eyebrows. His long lashes fan out on his cheeks when he closes his eyes and inhales deeply. I sense him trying to calm himself down, his shoulders rising to the rhythm of his deep breathing. His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he swallows with his cigarette between his lips.
He doesn’t have a lighter—the one he meant to use to set the dead man on fire.
Reaching into the fuchsia Gucci purse strapped across my body, I unzip it and slide my hand inside. Feeling for the plastic little pink lighter I know belongs to Xi, I press the pad of my thumb against the sparkwheel and roll it backward. Just like him, I ground myself as I inhale cold air into my lungs, taking time to process the decision I’m about to make.
What says I love you more than sacrificing my life and freedom for you?
I would take the most significant risk and be an accomplice in your crimes.
I’ll be the Bonnie to your Clyde for a simple taste of forever with you.
Taking the lighter out, I close the distance between us. His eyebrows rise as I lift the lighter to the end of his cigarette and light it. He takes a drag on the stick before pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. He pulls it out of his mouth, his hand coming to rest by his side, and blows the smoke to the side.
“Nice pink lighter.”
There’s a tension inside my belly like never before. The good kind. “It’s fuchsia.”
“Just say it.” The calm in his tone is only betrayed by the impatience and hope shining in his eyes.
My lips twitch. For once, he’s waiting on me, expectant.
“I’m in love with you, too,” I murmur.
