Page 101 of Girl Anonymous

He tilted his head toward the door. “There. When Jack challenged you.”

It’s simple. I’m in love with her.

“Yes. I…” She discovered in herself a huge streak of cowardice.She couldn’t work up the nerve to say it back to him. She, who had taken a huge hurdle with him, balked at completing the race.

On the other hand, he watched her with a half smile, as if he saw something in her hesitant discomfort and the blush that lit her nose and made her ears hot.

She plunged into a conversation that had nothing to do with fertility or future or…love. “Why are you throwing so many workers into what is a potential crime scene? When every one of them could be an assassin?”

“I consulted with your Saint Rees. He agreed with my plan. He and his crew are watching. Observing.” He glanced out the window at the crew trimming the bushes. “We’re hoping to lure the killer with the appearance of carelessness. Let him onto the premises among the other laborers. Tempt him by the chance to do the deed early.”

“I thought the wedding—”

“Do you imagine I want our wedding to be ruined by a killer?” Dante pushed his face close to hers. “Do you really think I would use you as a front to flush out the son of a bitch who wants to take me down?”

Obviously she wasn’t the only one who could ask difficult questions. “I think we do what we have to do.”

“Using the wedding is your idea, Maarja.”

“If it works, I’m glad for that.”

“Remember—we can see the finish line. We won’t stop now until it’s over.”

She slowly nodded, comprehending and yet wanting it all laid out. “If some construction guy points a knife at my throat?”

“Take him down, Maarja.” He sat with his hip on his desk, to all appearances relaxed and confident.

The way Dante viewed her… As if he expected her to save herself. To save them both.

She could do that. She had practiced her self-defense moves until she knew them as well as she knew how to breathe.

He continued, “Then we’ll be married by your mom the way she wants it to be—all peace and love and forever. That will do for us. That is who we are. We are not enemies. We are lovers until the end of time.”

She kept trying to inject modern life and reality into their lives.

Dante kept taking them back to the fogs of myth, the memories of a time before where love created life and justice was won by courage.

She was starting to like his way of looking at life. And him.

From the practical standpoint of getting shot or stabbed or framed, from the moment she ran into the flames to rescue Mrs. Arundel, she had known she’d steered herself into perilous waters.

Yet the physical danger she’d faced was nothing compared to the emotional complications. Her feelings for Dante veered from one extreme to another. He annoyed and attracted her. He exuded menace; people were rightfully afraid of him, yet because of her actions, he’d extended the umbrella of his protection over her. He also believed, apparently in all sincerity, he had a right to her. As if she were a possession he owned.

No. Wait, that wasn’t right. As if she was part of him…and he was a part of her.

She had never in her life imagined she would have the courage to be paired with any partner, much less a powerful man who believed in destiny.

Of course, how could she have foreseen that the old fears for her own safety would fail in comparison to the turmoil of emotions that now dominated her mind and heart?

CHAPTER 48

Maarja’s clock said 2:11 a.m. when she heard the floorboards squeak and Dante slid into her narrow bed behind her. “It’s our wedding day,” she whispered. “You promised Mom.”

“I promised not until the wedding day.” He kept his voice low, too. “Technically that’s today. It’s after midnight.”

“Hm.” Splitting hairs, but sure.“Traditionally—”she injected a little sarcasm into the word “—you’re not supposed to see the bride before the ceremony.”

“I can’t see you. I can’t see my hand in front of my face.”

---