Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36890 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36890 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
The men exchanged a look, one that said they understood. Then Vincenzo gestured toward the building. “We’ll do a sweep. Make sure no one’s been sniffing around. We’re close if you need us.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
They peeled away into the shadows, their movements soundless despite the gravel underfoot. I turned toward the building again, bracing myself. Every step I took felt heavy with hope and dread.
I didn’t even make it halfway down her hallway before the door to her apartment flew open.
Kerrigan came running out, barefoot, in leggings and an oversized shirt, her wild red hair a halo of chaos. She barreled straight into me with a gasp, her momentum sending us stumbling back a step before I caught her in my arms.
“Kerrigan—”
“I love you,” she blurted, breathless. Her hands clutched at my shirt, her chest heaving. “I can’t—I don’t want to live without you. I’ve tried thinking of every reason this shouldn’t work. Why I should be scared. Why I should walk away…”
I stood frozen, my heart lodged in my throat.
“But none of it matters,” she continued. “Not if you’re willing to let me in. All the way.”
My fingers curled around her waist. “Ma petite miette.”
“Exactly…yours,” she whispered, latching onto the first word of my nickname for her.
“Very much mine,” I agreed, my hold on her tightening before I led her back to her apartment, where nobody could eavesdrop on our conversation.
As soon as the door shut behind us, she added, “But I don’t want lies or half-truths between us. If we’re going to do this, we do it together. Partners in crime.”
That last part made me wince.
“You have to know how much I hate that idea,” I murmured.
Her green eyes sparked with stubborn fire. “You said you’d give me anything I needed. Well, this is what I’m asking for, Aston. No secrets…so I can keep you from having to do it alone. Whatever ‘it’ entails.”
I cupped her cheek, brushing my thumb over her soft skin. “I don’t want you dirtying your hands with my sins.”
“Too late,” she whispered. “You dragged me into your shadows. I’m not afraid of the dark anymore.”
Putain. My heart stuttered in my chest.
She surged to her toes and kissed me, pouring every bit of her conviction into the press of her lips. I responded instantly, devouring her with a desperation that had been simmering since the moment I’d left her here.
When we finally broke apart, I rested my forehead against hers.
“You’re sure?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
She nodded. “I want the truth. All of it. And I want to help you because we’re better together. As a team, we can easily trap Sterling Ellis and end whatever hold he thinks he has over you and the DeLucas.”
I stared down at her in wonder. “You really are a little firecracker, ma petite miette.”
“With you in my life, I absolutely am.”
There wasn’t an ounce of uncertainty in her green gaze. Somehow, even with the secrets I’d kept and her kidnapping, Kerrigan had come out of it all stronger. An even brighter beacon of light in my dark world.
A laugh broke from my chest—rough and disbelieving. “I never thought I could love someone the way I do you.”
Her breath hitched. “Say it again.”
“Je t'aime.” I gave it to her more bluntly this time. “I love you, Kerrigan Vale. All of me. Even the parts I kept hidden.”
She gasped, a sound of pure emotion, and her eyes brimmed with tears again. “Always so poetic.”
I slid my hand into my pants pocket, then cursed. “Merde. I don’t have the ring yet.”
Her brows arched. “Ring?”
“I had one sent from Paris. Antique. One of a kind. Like you.”
“You’re proposing?”
I cupped her jaw and leaned in, brushing a kiss over her sweet lips.
“Yeah, ma petite miette. I’m proposing, but it’s the furthest thing from poetic. No grand speech. No kneeling in the rain. Just me, here, promising to love you for the rest of my life. What do you say?”
She laughed through her tears and threw her arms around my neck.
“Yes,” she whispered in my ear. “Absolutely yes, my love.”
EPILOGUE
KERRIGAN
So much had changed in the eight months since I met Aston. I no longer had to worry about impressing my boss or fighting for scraps of attention at the bottom of the curatorial food chain. I didn’t have to sneak into galas or chase whispers of forgeries in hopes of making a name for myself.
Because now, I was the name. The face. The rising star in the art world who had caught a dirty insurance investigator in the act.
And none of it would have happened without the man who stood across the room from me, one arm braced on the windowsill of his studio, phone to his ear, paint smudges on his forearm.
Aston Couillens. The only person who’d ever made me feel as though I was more than enough, exactly as I was.