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“How do you communicate with my father?”
He took her in, his expression unreadable.
Then he relented and indicated a number he’d used.
She sent the video.
“Now what?” Raphael asked.
She took a long, steady exhale. “We wait.”
I wasn’t just going to sit here and not be able to touch her. Grabbing her hand, I tugged her up and out of the room. At the end of the hall was a small kitchen. I dragged out a stool from the breakfast bar and sat her on it.
“It should be you sitting down,” she said. “The whole way here, I thought the worst, that he was going to hurt you, and then he did. When he pressed that trigger, I thought you were going to die.”
Her voice cracked. I stood between her legs, loving how she instantly curled them around my back, hugging me to her.
“You love me,” I replied.
She lifted her head from where she’d tucked it against my chest, her eyes wide, words on her lips.
But I wasn’t done.
I brushed my nose over hers, holding her gaze. “In case it isn’t obvious, I’m in love with ye. Like the insane, maniac, obsessed kind of love. It’s important to me that ye know I’ll never hurt ye, and if ye give me a chance, I’ll sum up all the ways and times I fell. I know lists work—”
My offer was cut off by Ariel pressing her lips to mine.
She kissed me, just like she’d done on the street near this house what felt like forever ago. But this time, I’d stopped lying to myself. I held her face between my hands and kissed her back, pouring every bit of sentiment into our clinch while my heart did some crazy shite.
Ariel pulled me in tighter, squeezing my hips between her thighs, careful of the places I hurt.
Instantly, my mind shot to a darker place, where I could shred both our clothes and get inside her. Last night, we hadn’t had sex. It felt disrespectful under someone else’s roof, even if technically we’d always been in the castle, but a week of sexual exploration made the past eighteen hours feel like a drought.
I was harder for her than ever. Almost grinding against her in my need to be closer.
Nothing felt better or safer than being with this woman. She challenged me, pushed me, and guided me, and now she was midway through saving her family, too. It was a knife’s-edge of action, and if she needed to leave this place, I’d follow. I couldn’t do anything else.
Someone cleared their throat from the doorway.
We broke apart, breathing hard. I lifted my focus to find Valentine in the frame.
He’d averted his gaze. “Phone’s ringing.”
Ariel’s breath caught. “Already?”
I helped her off the chair, and we hustled to answer the call from her old man.
Chapter 38
Ariel
Cold confidence infused me while I set up the phone, my brother holding the device and Larson in the video frame. Then I swiped to connect before it rang out.
Dad appeared.
There was silence while he took in who’d answered.
“What was that?” he asked.
