Page 39 of Beyond Enemy Vows
"Nothing worth having ever is. We can sneak around for a bit, keep it just between us, pure from any outside influence for a while. See how things go."
Sneaking around. That sounds kind of hot. I've gotten pretty good at that. Not so much to see men, but to get out of view from my bodyguards. And if I'm honest with myself, I'm not ready to give this up. Not if he wants it too. For once, this isn't something arranged or expected. It's something I chose. Freely. And I love that.
"Okay. If you want to try. Let's do it," I say.
I settle against his chest. We sit like that for a while, watching the fire, the remains of our dinner forgotten. In this moment, it really does seem possible—the two of us, facing the world together.
And if all this is on borrowed time, and reality does tear us apart the moment we step back into it, so be it.
I lift my head, meeting his gaze. "Next time you cook, maybe make sure to set a timer before you go down on me."
He laughs. "Where's the fun in that?"
11
NIKO
The suite is perfect.
I've spent the past two hours adjusting every detail. Dimming the lights, lighting candles, scattering petals across the California king, and chilling a bottle of Dom Pérignon.
Long-stem roses sit in vases in the entryway, kitchen, living room, and bedroom. All for her to enjoy.
I've even got soft music flowing through hidden speakers, strings mostly, because I noticed how she closed her eyes when a violin played at the restaurant in Dublin.
Nothing is left to chance. Nothing is less than exquisite.
My eyes drift to the black velvet box sitting on the nightstand. Small, but carrying everything I've felt since that first night in the cottage.
I roll the sleeves of my dress shirt up to my forearms and pour myself two fingers of whiskey. It burns, but not enough to quiet the restless energy coursing through my veins.
Our last forty-eight hours in Ireland together after that pastitsio disaster is all I've been thinking about.
We'd barely left the bed those last two days. Her skin against mine, her body arching beneath me. The way she looked up at me that final morning, dawn light catching in her hair, the cloth wrapped around her throat.
That was two weeks ago.
Two fucking weeks since I've touched her. Since I left that damn cottage with her scent still on my fingers and her taste on my lips.
Keira had helped us. Warned us when she and her family would be arriving. Calli wasn't ready for Keira's brothers to know anything. Hell, she wasn't ready for anyone to know. So we got just enough time to pack up the evidence, say goodbye like strangers, and pretend nothing had happened.
I hadn't argued. This was her life, her rules. I would play by them. For now.
Since leaving, the texts between us have been constant. Flirtatious at first, then explicit. This progressed to late-night confessions and vivid descriptions of what I wanted to do to her. What I would do to her. Photos of me shirtless that left her imagination to fill in the details.
Her responses grew bolder. A picture of her collarbone. Her lips around a wine glass. That shot of her in the bathtub with just her shoulders visible above the bubbles, and then, I pause and take a sip of my whiskey, the FaceTime calls. Damn those calls. Twice I almost flew back to her, my cock hard in my pants.
Then Keira worked her magic. Clever girl with her loyalty to Calli and her understanding of what was building between us. She convinced the Kastaris brothers, Ares, more likely, that Calli needed "girl time" with her once they left Ireland and flew back to Boston.
A perfectly innocent sleepover that would give us the freedom to be together without suspicion.
Three nights. That's all I get with her before she heads back home to Chicago. I will make them count.
I check my phone again. She should be here any minute. I down my drink and pluck a petal that's begun to droop from one of the five long-stem rose bouquets I have set throughout the suite.
And then, I hear it. Three soft taps that stop my breath in my chest. A goddess summoning me.
I walk across the room and pause in front of the mirror next to the door. I adjust my shirt, run a hand through my hair, and look around the suite one more time just to make sure.
