Page 154 of Desperate Crimes
Chapter Thirty-Nine-Leanna
Iclose the bedroom door behind me and sag against it for a second, breathing in the quiet.
Nico’s finally asleep again—thank God.
It took warm broth, pain meds, and me all but sitting on him to get him to rest.
Seriously?I was considering using the chloroform I found in the medicine cabinet, but I refrained.Just.
He doesn’t know how to stop.
Doesn’t know how to be still.
Not even when he’s held together by gauze and sheer stubbornness.
Eight broken ribs.
A dislocated shoulder.
Torn ligaments.
Sixteen puncture wounds in his hands and feet.
And more bruises than I can count.
He looks like war.
Like Hades after he clawed his way out of Hell just to come home to me.
And somehow he still has the audacity to wink at me and make lewd suggestions.
Like everything was no big deal.
Like he didn’t almost die.
Like he didn’t shatter me and glue me back together with three words I never thought he’d say.
I love you.
He said it.Finally.
And once he started, he kept on saying it.
Again and again.
Whispering it into my neck, my lips, my heart, my soul.
I wish it was just us right now, all alone in our castle.
But now there’s noise downstairs.
Voices.The kind that carry the weight of dynasties.
I walk into the living room and find the entire goddamn family, some pouring over into the foyer.
His parents.
His little sister, Annabella, whom I haven’t even seen in the past year while she’s been studying abroad.
