Page 84 of When Sinners Rise
Still, to keep myself occupied, I walk for the outside area and let the wind batter me some. Apparently, this is what I need to do – let her breathe. She’ll always come home, she says. Why wouldn’t she? She loves me. And it’s not like she’s completely on her own. I had both Darius Hepez and Carlo Triaga flown in from back home when I agreed to all this. One helps me kill people, the other helps me understand where Wren is. She didn’t have a choice in that and has made her feelings about it very fucking loud.
Doesn’t stop me checking the tracking on my phone to see where she is. Seems like she’s nearly home.
Smiling, I look down over the balcony. Lights blink and flash down there, and there’s no way in hell I’m seeing her from this height. I sip at the bourbon and turn back for the inside, ready to pour her a shot. It’s Friday night, and we’ve got plans even if I’m not in the mood for them. I’d rather stay here and relax the night away with my dick buried balls deep inside the woman I love.
We’re gonna be arguing about that in the next ten minutes.
I wait by the elevator doors, staring, until they finally open.
She looks straight at me and cocks a hip. “Stalkerish much?” she says, laughing. “We talked about this, Dante.”
I sip my drink again and look over her curves under that sharp suit. “I missed you.”
“Well, that’s sweet.” She walks forward, clacking the marble floor with her heels, until she’s looking up at me and smiling. “Did you check your tracking to see where I was?”
“Yeah.”
“And where was I?”
“Coming home.”
She gets up on her tiptoes and kisses me lightly. “Always.” Another kiss lands on my lips before she’s turning away from me and heading for the kitchen. “Go clean up. We need to get going. We’ve only got an hour.”
I follow and take her drink to her. “I’d rather fuck.”
She swings around on me and picks her drink out of my hand, eyes narrowing. The whole damn double gets downed, and then she’s slamming it on the countertop. “You said you’d help. You’re not backing out now.”
My eyes roll, and I start walking for the goddamn lounge. “The fuck do I know about walking down an aisle?”
“Dante!” She catches up with me and grabs my arm, huffing. “It’s ten minutes worth of your time, and then, well, you get to do whatever the hell you want. To me. That was the bargain.” My brow raises. She’s right. We did make that bargain, but I get to do that whenever I want to her most of the time, anyway.
Still, my own eyes narrow. “Ass.” No way is she agreeing to that.
She backs up a step. “No. We’ve already discussed that. I don’t like it.”
“Not doing it then. Find some other pretentious dick to walk her down the aisle.”
“But she wants you.”
“She’s not having me.”
She starts getting all riled up, hands on hips again, and that look of rage comes down on her face. “Look, it’s the wedding of the year, and who am I to tell her she can’t have some bad boy look taking her down to the groom? You just happened to be there and said yes when she asked if you’d do it for the rehearsal.” I did, to make sure Wren looked good. No way was I ever gonna do it, though. I thought she’d remove that problem long before this night.
Her hands come off her hips and she waves them around. “I knew you’d do this. It isn’t like it’s the actual wedding. She’s got the rock god Astin Myers coming for that. Please, Dante. Don’t screw this up for me.” I smirk and lean back on the countertop.
“Ass.”
“No.”
I snort. “Yes.” Still isn’t happening even if she does agree, but I’ll get ass so …
“Oh my god. You’re such a fucking bastard.”
“Yeah. And you know that. Gambling with me was dense, Wrenbird.”
“And don’t use that name against me. You promised! Why won’t you do it now? It's ten minutes, and this is important to me.”
“Yeah? It’s important to me not to.”
