Page 71 of Sinful Empire (Mount Trilogy 3)
She pinches the fingers of one hand together beside her temple and spreads them wide as she jerks them away. “Mind. Blown.”
Laughter rumbles up from my chest, booming through the room. Only this woman . . .
I cross the room and carefully wrap my arms around her. “I fucking missed you.”
“Good, because it wasn’t a picnic without you around either. One clandestine meeting in the depths of the hospital wasn’t nearly enough. Let’s not do that again, okay?”
I lower my chin to her hair. “Deal.”
She pulls her head away from my chest and looks up at me. “Would you kiss me? Please?”
“You’re still healing . . .”
Her green gaze pleads with mine. All the humor that followed her through the door has vanished. “I know. But when I woke up in that hospital bed without you there and no ring and no necklace, I thought for a minute . . . with my busted brain . . . I thought maybe none of this was—” Her voice breaks.
“Hellion, stop.”
Keira shakes her head. “No. I have to get this out. It matters.”
I curve my palm around her cheek and catch a tear that tips over her lid. “Then tell me.”
“When I thought there was a chance that I’d made this all up in my head and that you weren’t real . . . it was devastating. I never want to feel like that again. Ever.”
My arms tighten around her. “This is as real as it gets. You and me. We’re in this for life.”
“Promise?”
I release her and dig into my pocket with my right hand, pulling out the ring I had retrieved from her personal belongings.
“This ring doesn’t come off your finger again,” I tell her as I slip it back on where it belongs.
Her eyes light up at the sight of it before meeting mine and going hard. “They’ll have to pry it off my cold, dead hand.”
“Don’t you fucking say that. I almost broke in that hospital waiting room, thinking I lost you. And I don’t ever want to feel that way again either.”
She swallows, threatening tears turning her green eyes shiny again as she leans into me. “Kiss me, and we have a deal.”
The pain of that memory washes away with the touch of her lips on mine.
Keira
“He does not get to forbid me from going to work. I promised my dad I would be there this morning. You heard me. If you think for a second that my dad’s not going to call the cops if I don’t show up, you’re nuts.”
V grunts, his fingers flying across his phone as he’s returned to his mute state. My phone buzzes with a text, which is a really inconvenient and unsatisfying way to argue.
V: Boss said you stay here.
“Then he’s going to have to tell me to my face. Otherwise, I’ll walk out that damn courtyard gate and hail a cab. You really think he’s going to like that?”
V’s eyebrows swoop together as he texts me again.
V: He’s busy. On a call. You have to wait.
“At what point during the whole time you’ve known me have I made you think I’m cool with waiting? I will scream down this house, if that’s what it takes. We don’t need my dad calling the cops. You know that even better than I do.”
V grunts again, and I shove my finger into his solid chest.
“Take me to him now, or we’re going to have a serious problem that goes far beyond me being pissed as hell.”
