Page 31 of Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy 3)
Keira
I try to bury myself in work, but I can’t. I’m stuck on what Magnolia said and did. I spin around, midway across the floor I’ve been pacing for half an hour, when the door opens.
It’s the man my best friend made sure I ended up with by using any means necessary. I want to condemn her for lying, but I’m having trouble with my righteous indignation. Lachlan wouldn’t be mine right now without her intervention, but that doesn’t mean my emotions aren’t completely conflicted when it comes to her and her underhanded manipulation.
He steps into my path, closing his palms around my shoulders. Somehow, the simple touch calms my chaotic emotions by a degree.
“You should be resting, but you’re in full hellion mode.”
“You could say that.”
“I take it you got your answers.”
I nod.
“Can you live with them?” His tone is quiet, but not patronizing. I hear what he’s not asking.
Does this change things between us?
I meet the dark gaze I’ve come to know almost as well as my own, including how it flares with heat, goes harsh cold, or turns flat when he locks down his emotions. Right now, it’s somewhere in the middle. Cautiously resolved.
“It doesn’t change anything.”
The flash of relief is so quick as to be almost indiscernible, but I see it anyway before he carefully pulls me against his body, one arm sliding around my waist and his other hand cradling the back of my head. His lips press against my temple before he speaks, low and firm, into my ear.
“Good. Because I’m not letting you go now, regardless of how or why we got here.”
I revel in the strong and steady beat of his heart and soak up the warmth of his body.
This man is mine. Nothing else matters right now.
When he finally releases me, I see a new intensity stamped on his face and ask, “What is it?” After the conversation I just had, I brace for something unpleasant.
“You’re moving back up to our suite. V will take you as soon as the nurse checks you out one more time.”
Our suite. Not his. Not mine. Ours.
“That’s definitely preferable to this . . .” I look around the stark white walls and medical equipment. “So, what then? What happens? I know there’s more you’re not telling me.”
His lips press together as he studies my face like he’s memorizing it. “There’s always more, Keira. There always will be. Some you’ll know, and some you won’t. But we’re going to steal tonight for ourselves, at least for a few hours.”
“What do you mean?” His statements seem like code, and I don’t have the key.
“You’ll see. Go with V. He’ll bring you to me when you’re ready.” He lowers his head, consuming the questions that would have fallen from my lips with a quick, hard kiss. “I’ll see you soon, hellion.”
A smile plays on his lips as he releases me and backs away toward the door. His gaze doesn’t leave my face until the last moment before he turns to leave.
What is he up to? I latch onto the question, grateful to have something to distract me from everything else.
The nurse gives me another dose of painkillers and asks me a bunch of questions to check my mental state, then makes an offhand comment about me not hitting my head as hard as she thought.
I follow V without protest as he leads me through the network of interior hallways that continues to astonish me. Instead of exiting into the suite, we step into the hallway from behind a floor-to-ceiling painting.
“I swear, this is the coolest place ever.”
V almost smiles. Almost. It’s more of a twitch of a corner of his mouth as we stop in front of the glossy black doors. He nods down, directing my attention to new hardware on the wall next to them. Some kind of high-tech device. A fingerprint scanner?
“What is this?”
