Page 61 of Midnight Revelations

Her eyebrows rose. “Who would get past your security?”

“I didn’t say it was a good idea,” I grumbled, suddenly tired from the past few weeks of pretending.

Lucrezia picked her way through her breakfast, licking crumbs from her fingers along the way. We ate in silence until she finished and decided to interrogate me.

“I need to know everything that is going on, Ash. I also need you to show me how to fire a gun. Jordan tried to teach us when we were younger, but I had no interest in learning.”

I almost choked on my coffee. “Is there a reason you need to fire a gun?”

“Yes.” She looked me straight in the eye. “Your family.”

“Fair enough.” She was right. They were the biggest risk to her safety. “I’ll take you to one of our ranges. Anything else?”

Lucrezia pushed her chair back and climbed onto my lap, her hips straddling mine. Her hands fisted in my top. “Yeah, I do have an issue that needs addressed.” I liked this feisty side of her. “You haven’t once kissed me since we arrived home.”

Home.

As soon as she said it, I knew it was true. This was our home, it was the place we could be ourselves. I tipped her head back, my thumb tracing over her bottom lip.

“No more running off or not trusting me,” I said.

“No more pretending to fuck other women,” she replied, her forehead pressing into mine. She blinked and our eyelashes kissed.

Her eyes closed with the first brush of my lips on hers. Her arms wrapped around my neck when I deepened our kiss. Our lips moved in perfect synchronicity, our tongues stroked along the length of each other. My hands slid down her sides to cup her ass and align our pelvises. She was the air that I needed to breathe, the reason that I forged forward to complete my quest and eliminate the world of Blackwood evil. Lucrezia had no idea how far I would go to protect her.

“We need to get back before Lucas sends out a search party with pitchforks and lit tapers,” I muttered against her lips.

“Hmmm. Five more minutes.” Her lips returned to mine.

She was going to destroy my carefully constructed walls if she kept going. Her fingers crept up my neck and lodged themselves in my hair. There was a change in her today, almost as if she was claiming me. She could have me because I didn’t seem to work for anyone else. Lucrezia had activated some latent gene in me that only reacted to her.

I slapped her ass and she reluctantly moved her head back. “The next few days is all about Xavier and Cassandra. I’ll get your lessons sorted as soon as they say, ‘I do.’ In the meantime, no more wandering off. Understand?”

Her hands trailed around from the back of my head until they rested on my chest. “Did you really beat Michael up for me?”

“Surely you know by now that no one gets to touch you but me. Ivan may be suffering a few unfortunate episodes as well.”

Her brow furrowed. “It wasn’t his fault that I was lonely.”

I cupped her face in my hands. “You can be in a room filled with people and feel lonely, Angel. I should know, I do it every damn day. “

She stared into my eyes, not flinching from what was lurking there. All my life I believed I had been cursed by my father. Lucrezia gave me hope for the future.

“I don’t want either of us to be lonely, Ash. You can pretend for all the world, but I want the reality. Xavier isn’t the only one allowed a happy ending. That belongs to us as well.” She looked down and chewed the side of her mouth.

“What is it you want?” I asked softly, my thumb caressing over where she’d been chewing.

Her eyes came up to meet mine. “I want us to stand together, because separately, we will fall apart. If I’m beside you, then no one can hurt me.”

Lucrezia would never be a good poker player because she wore her heart in her eyes.

“Considering that you keep getting yourself into trouble, I might just have to keep you where I can watch you.”

“I love you, Ash. You just need to give us a chance.”

“That love could destroy you,” I pointed out.

Her lips twitched. “I’ll take the risk.”

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