Total pages in book: 217
Estimated words: 207224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1036(@200wpm)___ 829(@250wpm)___ 691(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 207224 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1036(@200wpm)___ 829(@250wpm)___ 691(@300wpm)
“Will be distributed as needed,” Danny says, continuing to massage my shoulders. What the fuck is going on? It’s as if he’s had a personality transplant.
“Am I missing something?”
“Like?”
I look to Esther, who shrugs, as equally perplexed. “You tell me.” Am I suddenly bulletproof?
“Happy wife, happy life,” he murmurs.
“Okay,” I say, standing from my chair, prompting his hands to move from my shoulders. “What’s going on?”
“Let’s go,” James says, collecting Beau and exiting quite speedily.
“What?” Beau asks, appearing to be a slave to James’s strength, unable to stop him from leading her away. It’s absurd. She’d turn the tables on him with one swing of an arm and a roundhouse kick. So, of course, my worry heightens, especially when Otto declares he and Esther are also leaving.
And then it’s just the two of us, Danny and me. His hands find my shoulders and push me back down to the chair, and I wince terribly when he crouches, his jaw tight. His chest. His beautiful, smooth, mutilated chest. A lump in my throat forms, and I damn myself to hell and back as I take his T-shirt and pull it up, as if I need to torture myself some more.
His chest is heavily bandaged, so I can’t see the damage. But I see it. I caused that. His maiming. His pain.
Gently taking my hand, he eases it away, and his chest is soon covered again. I move my eyes to his. To this day, I still can’t fathom how ice blue can radiate such heat. And yet here it is, hot blue burning through me. This is my husband. Confident and in control. This is the man I was instantly attracted to, the dark creature that reflected a version of me, but, ironically, it was the vulnerable, lost man I saw past the darkness that I fell in love with. The man I saw this morning. I flinch away from that thought, and Danny catches it.
“Never again, Rose,” he reiterates, cupping both of my hands in both of his.
I could cry for him. “Stop it,” I say. “Just stop it.” I need him to be rid of this self-loathing. I must take some of the responsibility. Finding and killing a man isn’t a cause for anguish for my husband, but the impact it’ll have on me is. I should have supported him in his hopelessness, not kick off and cause him further stress, because his hopelessness was spiked by worry for me. Haven’t I learned?
He nods, if mildly, “I have a gift for you.”
“You’re my gift. I don’t need anything else.”
He smiles, but it’s half-hearted. “I shouldn’t have been so careless with you. I shouldn’t have zoned-out. I should have been fully aware, and I wasn’t.”
And I know that will only increase his anger and purpose. God help his enemies.
“If you left me,” he goes on, squeezing my hands in his, “I wouldn’t blame you. But I’m begging you not to, Rose, because a life without you is not a life I am interested in living.”
I remove my hands from his and encourage his crouched body into mine, hugging him carefully so not to put pressure on his wounds. “I’m never leaving you.”
“Good. So you’ll accept my gift.”
“What is it, a slap?” I joke, feeling him smile against my neck.
He pulls away and reaches into his back pocket, pulling something out, holding it up to me.
A ring.
I frown. “Are you proposing, because I’m pretty sure I’ve already married you twice.”
“Oh, how my wife’s sense of humor thrills me.” His nose wrinkles, and he moves in, slamming a hard kiss on my lips.
“Did you and James go shopping together?” I ask around his mouth, making him pause our kiss and tilt his head, curious. “He asked Beau to marry him again,” I say before he can ask. “She said no, but she’s wearing the ring.”
“No, we did not go shopping together.” His lips are back on mine, kissing me with purpose, and, of course, I indulge him until he’s had his fix, although, admittedly, and as I have told him endlessly, I could binge on him forever and never feel full. “Now, back to us.” He holds up the ring, and I eye it. “It’s an eternity ring, in case you’re wondering.”
Funny, I was wondering. “Eternity,” I say, leaving the ruby sitting between his finger and thumb. “Does that mean, if I accept, I have to spend forever with you?”
“You already agreed to that when you caved in to my charms and let me take you from the casino floor of the Aria as an insurance policy.”
I laugh loudly, my head thrown back. “Oh yes, when you kidnapped me.” I let my amusement fade into a chuckle and lower my head. I find him smiling. Such a beautiful smile. He drops a peck on my mouth as he takes my hand and slips the ring onto my finger to join my engagement and wedding rings. He looks down at it. “This is the only red I ever want to see on you,” he says quietly as he strokes the ruby, and I inhale subtly as he looks up at me, his scar glowing. “I mean it, Rose.” The damage we have both sustained at the hands of others, the damage we have inflicted on each other. It stops now.