Page 99 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold
Her eyes closed of their own volition, like they wanted to keep her treacherous tears in. She wasn’t brave enough to let them fall.
“They’ll come for me.” This time, it was a whisper, but King didn’t care as he leaned close and whispered back—
“Let them try.” Hands cupped her head, and he leaned down to look into her eyes. “No one’s going to look for you here because I got out five years ago and we hate each other. Remember?”
Alex hated how her voice cracked when she asked, “Do we?”
Suddenly, the whole world hinged on the answer to that question.
“You’re safe with me. You will always be safe with me.” He pulled her close, and she couldn’t stop herself from leaning against him. “Let me keep you safe.”
“But—”
“No one knows about this place, and even if they did...”
He didn’t say anything else. He just bent at the knees and lifted her into his arms. It wasn’t the first time he’d carried her, but it was the first time in a long time that she’d been awake—that she’d have memories of it. She wanted to press them in the pages of her mind and save them forever. But that just made her sound like Zoe. Then again, maybe there were worse ways to be.
When King pulled back the curtains of the window, Alex wasn’t sure what she was seeing. The building was big and made of stone. There was a tall tower in what looked like another wing and a stone wall that seemed to encircle—
“Is that amoat?”
“It is.” He sounded almost smug as Alex gazed beyond the walls at the vast rolling hills and thousands of empty acres and slowly realized—
“You bought a castle? With a drawbridge?” She couldn’t help but laugh.
“I bought a castle.” He tucked her hair behind her ear. “With a drawbridge.”
A quiet, jaded voice in the back of her mind askedHow?andWhen?andWith what money?but the word that came out was, “Why?”
It took him a moment to admit, “An operative I used to work with told me that’s what it would take.”
“To do what?”
“To be safe from her.”Oh.“But the thing is... I don’t want to be.”
It was the bravest thing that either one of them had ever said, and Alex didn’t want to let him win. But even more than that, she didn’t want to let it pass.
Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is just stop fighting, so Alex brought her mouth to his. It wasn’t even a kiss, just a brushing of lips. It was just a whisper—just a promise.
And then she pulled back, a little sheepish and scared, but that didn’t stop her from saying, “I’ve wanted to do that since Berlin.”
And then his fingers were in her hair and his lips were on the soft skin of her throat. “I’ve wanted to do this since the island.”
She pulled his mouth to hers, and their lips parted as everything became deeper, darker. More. In every way more.
“I’ve wanted to do that since Cartagena,” she breathed as he pressed her against the wall, giving her his weight and all his attention as he lifted her one more time—as rough and as hard as the stone at her back—before growling—
“I’ve wanted to do that since the Ramada Inn.”
And then he carried her back to bed and dropped her on the mattress, but he didn’t move for a long time. “You can put it down, sweetheart.”
“What?” she whispered while he kissed the corner of her mouth.
“The world.” He looked at her likeIsn’t it obvious?“I’m going to carry you for a while. You don’t have to do anything but hold on.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
King
