Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 91847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91847 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 367(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“I’m out, sis,” Odin says and gets up. “You coming by tomorrow?”
I lift my glasses up and look at him. “Yeah. I’ll be there.” Odin and Rick moved into Uncle Jax’s house a few weeks ago, and they’ve just started renovating. I transferred the title to his name and handed over the keys and couldn’t be happier about it. It didn’t feel right to sell the place, but I’d never live in it. Besides, I love this house. I realize it’s not Avarice that changes Santos. It’s his family, and them being gone makes all the difference.
“See you.” He shakes hands with Santos. The two are on slightly friendlier terms these days.
Once he’s gone, Santos sits on the chair beside mine facing me.
“So. Entertaining yourself while I’m away?” he asks, nodding toward one of the men.
“He’s too young for me. I prefer them old,” I tell him, getting up to sit on his lap. “Like you.”
“Old, huh?” He kisses me, and the baby does a somersault.
“Whoa,” I say.
“She’s active,” he adds. I was right. She is a girl.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” I ask, unable not to although unwilling to let go of the ease of the moment.
He told me what he did to Caius on that beach. Told me he left him alive. I’m glad for that because I don’t want him to have his brother’s blood on his hands. Caius deserved to be punished, without a doubt, but he was manipulated too, and, in a way, the brothers do love each other.
Santos considers my question for a very long minute. “I found what I needed to find,” he says, cryptic. Something in his eyes tells me not to push for more.
Evelyn Augustine disappeared the night Caius ambushed me in Hells Bells. No one has heard from her in three months, although Santos did notice the chunk of money that vanished with her. She’d been stealing from the Augustine inheritance for years—for a decade, probably preparing for when she’d be found out. I don’t know the punishment he has planned for her, and as much as I don’t want Caius’s blood on his hands, I also don’t want his mother’s on them.
Santos smiles, the light returning to his eyes. He glances at the workers and stands, wrapping his arms around me and cupping my ass. “Mrs. Augustine, you seem distracted.”
“Do I, Mr. Augustine? You’ve been busy. I’m just passing the time…”
He’s taken on the management of Augustine & Donovan Media and removed Dad from the business altogether. He’s also employed Odin in a management position. Although Santos will never be able to erase his past, he is creating a different future. A legitimate one.
The Avery family is sticking around. It’s an annoyance, but not much more. After everything that’s happened, I don’t feel threatened by them. They’re powerless to hurt us, just like Ana. Just like Caius. Just like his mother.
“Just passing the time, huh?” He lifts me up in his arms making me yelp. “Let me help with that.”
“I’m too heavy,” I protest as he carries me into the house and up the stairs.
“Hardly.” When we reach our bedroom, he stands me up and makes quick work of undressing me, taking a long moment to look at me, to take in my ever-growing belly. The look in his eyes when he does it, it’s so beautiful and tender that I reach out to touch his cheek.
“Are you all right?” I ask him.
He shifts his gaze to mine, eyes a little sad. “I’m perfect when I’m with you, my love.”
My love.
That’s new. But I don’t have time to dwell when he bends his head to kiss my mouth, my neck, my breasts. He lays me down on the bed, stripping off his shirt as he leans over me to kiss me full on the mouth, careful not to lean his full weight on me. He is ever-protective of me and the baby, my Santos.
After he’s made long, slow love to me, and we lay on our sides lost in each other’s eyes, he kisses me again and says those words again. My love.
And I know that we’ve fulfilled our destinies, that he and I have delivered each other from the grip of evil and made light out of darkness. Made love where there was only hate.
“I love you,” I whisper before melting into his warm embrace.
“I love you,” he says, wrapping his big, powerful and warm arms around me.