Page 71 of Always Watching

Which means we can’t go back to his apartment until morning. Wylder is very good at clean-up, and we probably could go back in a few hours, but I want Ranen to relax… and I’m positive my brother will still be there, waiting to ask more questions.

If I have to hear him call Ranenkittyone more time, I might explode.

I turn down the offer from Dad for us to stay in the guest room and opt to rent a hotel for the night instead. I could take Ranen back to my house, but… I want to make sure it’s nice for him.

That’s a strange thought.

I’d never cared about what my hookups thought about my place before, and I’ve taken people back to the house a few times. The only thing I’d worried about then was making sure I didn’thave anything incriminating lying around, but I was meticulous about not leaving any evidence behind, and I didn’t make kills at my house.

I wasusuallyvery good at not getting caught.

It was just Ranen… Ranen made everything different.

“We really can just go back to the apartment,” he finally says, and I shake my head.

“It’s better if we’re out of the way while Wylder makes sure there’s nothing left behind to worry about.” At least it was a half-truth. If the rest of it was the fact that I need him alone, I need to process what had happened between us—the way he said he loved me, the way he proved it by being beside me every step of the way in getting rid of the body I’d made for him…

Well, I could worry about that later.

I pull up to the hotel and make it around the car in time to take Ranen’s hand as he hops out. He smiles up at me, but I can see the way today has weighed on him. Maybe he hasn’t complained at all, but it’s been a lot.

Of course it has. I don’t know anyone else who would have been able to handle everything thrown at them today with any of the grace that he has.

It makes me want to be alone with him even more.

He leans against me as I pay the woman at the front desk for our room, and by the time we get into the elevator, he’s practically wrapped himself around me.

“Long day, hm?” My voice comes out softer than usual, and Ranen nods where he’s nuzzled against my arm.

“Yeah, a little bit.” He sounds so sweet when he talks, and I can’t really stop myself when I slip my arms around him and turn him so I can take his mouth with mine. I don’t care if someone comes onto the elevator and sees us. I don’tcarewhat anyone thinks.

I just know if I have to spend another minute without touching Ranen, without showing him how much I fuckingworshiphim for how he’s handled things today, I’ll die.

“Ranen?” I murmur it against his lips, pleased to feel the way he sighs in disappointment when I pull back to speak.

“Hm?”

“Ranen…” I murmur it again and brush kisses along his jawline so I can press my mouth to his ear.

“North?”

“I love you.”

A little shiver runs through his body, but I can feel it in mine too. I never thought I would say those words—never thought I couldfeelthose words—but I feel it so deeply for Ranen that it’s like its own living, breathing piece of me. It’s voracious with want, burning with desire. It’s fire and ferocity—a beast with a beating heart—and that tempo echoes the thunder of Ranen’s pulse.

It’severythingI’ve been missing my entire life, and I know now that’s because it was all there, in Ranen’s eyes. In his smile, his innocence—in his very soul.

Waiting for me to find him.

Waiting for me tolovehim.

I’m so enraptured by the way his pupils dilate that I don’t hear the elevator doors slide open until someone behind us clears their throat. Ranen flushes again, and I turn to glare at the older man standing there.

Whatever expression I have on my face must not be much of a mask, because the color slowly drains from his complexion and he mutters unintelligibly, then apologizes and heads to the stairwell.

“Come on.” I’m already pulling Ranen out of the elevator and toward our room. My fingers are sliding beneath his shirt beforeI have the door open, and I’m pulling the fabric off before I have it locked behind us.

“Need you.” Ranen’s voice comes out soft and breathy, more demanding than I’m used to. Maybe he can feel it too—the tension drawing in a sharp line from my chest to his, the way today has been so much… has meantso much.

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