Page 128 of The Love Destroyers

I press another kiss to her skin, but Shadow paws at the leg of my pants. I stoop down, ignoring the twinge of my bruise to scoop her up and hold her between us.

I can hear Jeffrey stirring, trying to get up—good luck given the way I tied those knots—but I don’t care if he sees us. I hope he does, and he realizes what he lost. What he will never have again.

The sirens get louder, and I pull back slightly. “We should get outside and wait with our hands up.”

“What about him?” she asks, taking Shadow from me and holding her face to the cat’s soft side.

“Oh, he’s not fucking going anywhere. My uncle taught me how to tie someone up.”

She watches me, her eyes warm, “I think I’m falling in love with you.”

God, it feels good to hear her say that. Her words wash over me and engulf me, and I press my forehead to hers. I don’t want to hold her to it, though. I don’t want her to say anything she’ll regret later, when we’re not both running on the high of taking a bad man down.

“IknowI’m falling in love with you,” I murmur. “But that doesn’t change the past.”

“You know what?” she says, holding my gaze as Jeffrey makes another attempt to bellow from behind his makeshift gag. “I’m ready to leave the past behind.”

I look at her in wonder. Could it really be this easy? For years, I’ve tried to do that by seizing onto the present and saying FU to the past and the future. But it didn’t work. Now, though…

I don’t want to fuck over Future Seamus anymore. I’d like to give him a high five. Buy him a beer.

“I am too,” I say, my voice wobbling. “Where’s Shadow’s leash?”

She laugh and nudges me with her arm. “You threw it away.”

“I’m not leaving her in here with that asshole,” I say, and then open my jacket and tuck Shadow into the top of my sweater.

Emma’s eyes melt into me. “God, you’re sexy.”

I wrap an arm around her. “Feel free to remind me of that every day.”

I take a closer look at her, dressed in a Buchanan Brewery sweatshirt, her hair slicked with what’s obviously beer. “You need your coat.”

“Okay, weather police.”

She pulls on the coat herself, since I’ve still got Shadow in my sweater, and we head out onto the stoop together as the sirens come closer and closer.

“I have to unlock the gate for them,” Emma says, and I walk to the gatehouse with her, because there’s no way I’m letting her out of my sight anytime soon.

When we sit down on the stoop, she leans her head against my shoulder. Contentment unfurls inside of me, even though I’m still very much aware of the trussed-up piece of shit inside the house. Harmless now, but he’d come with the intent to harm.

I rest my chin on top of her head, and she says, “Do I smell like beer?”

“Yes, I kind of like it. I’m guessing there’s a story there?”

She laughs softly. “I’ll tell you later. You know…I almost invited you up to my room on New Year’s.”

I shift my head so I can look at her, taking in her clever eyes framed by her dark, beer-scented hair. “Now you tell me,” I say. “I wouldn’t have had to wait two months to get into your pants.”

I get a smile, and I’m glad for it. I’ll take every smile I can get.

“What stopped you?” I ask.

“You said we could make it our little secret. I washislittle secret. I didn’t want those kinds of secrets anymore.”

I swear, because I definitely hadn’t meant it like that, and I don’t like thinking I made her feel worse about herself when she was already low.

She pulls away slightly, watching me as the sirens and lights get closer. Jeffrey’s yelling something inside, probably offering us deals we would never take. Because a man who’s used to bargaining his way out of trouble never stops.

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