Page 137 of His Tesoro

“There had been tension between my uncle and my parents, but I said he could come in. I let him into the fucking house. It wasn’t long before we heard a gunshot, followed by a scream. My mother’s scream.”

It was Sofiya’s turn to hold me tight. She didn’t interrupt, didn’t pressure me to keep going. She was just here, with me.

“I had to make a decision—run to the study to save my parents or escape with Sienna. She was so little, so scared. She grabbed my hand, and I knew I had to save her. We ran to a secret passageway that led out of the house, but before we slipped away, I heard the second gunshot.”

My eyes burned and, against my will, a tear ran down my face. Sofiya brushed it away.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

I shook my head. “I should have done more. If I hadn’t let my uncle in, if I had run to the study?—”

“Then you would have died.”

I knew she was right, even though I couldn’t quite make my heart believe it. It was the same thing Sienna had said to me. Romeo, too. “I see their blood in my dreams. Hear the gunshots and the screaming. It haunts me every night… at least every night you’re not by my side.”

“You make my nightmares go away, too,” she murmured.

I wiped away another tear and kissed her forehead.

“I want to forgive you,” she said softly.

I froze.

My heart skipped a beat before it started racing in double-time.

She twisted her fingers in my shirt. “You broke my trust, and it’s going to take a while to rebuild that.”

“But you think I can rebuild it?”

She tilted her head up. Her eyes were so fucking beautiful. “You’ll have to do a lot of groveling. I hope you’re prepared.”

My lips twitched. “And what will this groveling entail?”

She pressed her face into the crook of my neck and breathed in deeply. “That’s for you to figure out. But it involves a lot of New York City hot dogs.”

“I will buy you your own hot dog cart. All the carts in the city.” An idea flashed into my mind and my chest tightened, but this time with a thread of hopefulness and excitement. “In fact, I will help you check off every item on your list.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes.” I would do whatever it took to fulfill every single item.

“Maybe we should make a new list together.”

I swallowed past the lump in my throat. “I would love that, tesoro. Just as I love you.”

She breathed in sharply. “You love me?”

I had a vague memory of saying it after I was shot, but this was the first time I spoke the words with full clarity. They left my lips like it was the easiest thing in the world. I thought I’d been protecting myself from pain by closing myself off from my wife. But the greatest suffering I could ever endure was being separated from her.

“Of course I do. More than anything.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered. She held my gaze, her eyes swimming with tears, and then our lips crashed together. I gripped her chin, pulling her close as I devoured her. She shifted on my lap until she was straddling me, and I groaned at the change of position. I got lost in the taste of her, in her sweet scent, in the feel of her body pressed against mine.

I kissed my way down her jaw and sucked a spot on her neck. I needed to mark her, to shout at the entire world that she was mine.

The plane lurched with turbulence, pulling us apart. Sofiya grinned at my scowl, running her fingers across the lines on my forehead. “Wait, am I hurting your leg?” She tried to move off my lap, and I tightened my hold on her waist.

“I thought you’d learned to stay where I put you.” I arched my eyebrows. The bullet wound in my thigh burned, but I needed the pain. It was my way of repenting, for suffering a fraction of what I’d inflicted on her.

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