Page 64 of Fall into Savagery

She looked down at the bedsheets. “I guess I had been feeling a little off all morning.”

“A little off?” I asked, trying to keep the frustration from showing in my voice.

I obviously didn’t do a good job of it because her shoulders sagged.

Fuck me.

“Catalina, look at me.”

She kept her gaze on the bedsheets. I put a little command in my voice when I spoke again. “Catalina.”

Finally, she looked up, showing me those brown eyes.

“What’s wrong?”

She laughed. There was nothing humorous about the sound. “What’s wrong? You were just taken from me for a week. I barely just got back, yet it doesn’t feel like it. It feels like I could blink, and you would disappear before my eyes. Only this time, I won’t be able to get you back.”

I never expected the trauma and stress that she went through would just disappear overnight. I just didn’t expect it to be this bad.

I pulled her into my lap without saying another word. She wrapped her free arm around my neck, looking at me.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I whispered.

Her bottom lip trembled. “Not now. But with what you do … who’s to say there won’t be someone else who will try to take you away from me? You have a target on your back. You all do.”

I shook my head. “True. What we do is more dangerous than the average … profession.”

Her expression twisted as if to say, ‘Tell me about it.’

My lips curved up in a small smile. “But we’re not easy men to kill, pet. I’m always going to come back home to you.”

“Promise?” she asked.

I once told her I would never lie to her. We both knew I just broke my word when I said, “Promise.”

The truth was, I might be harder to kill than the average man, but there was no denying the danger surrounding my life. She was right. There was a target on my back, and everyone wanted to be the one to say that they had taken me down.

But I would always try my damnedest to come back home to her. No matter what.

She snuggled closer to my chest, and I took in her addictive scent.

I could sit like this with her for the rest of my life and feel content.

My free hand moved up to cup the back of her head. “And besides, now that I have you handcuffed to me, you’re not leaving my side that easily.”

She pulled back and wrinkled her nose at me. I knew my amusement showed on my face.

“What if I have to use the bathroom?”

“Tough. You’ll do it with me nearby.”

Her face scrunched up. “No way, Mister. That’ll kill the romance.”

I laughed. “Mister?”

She shrugged, red staining her cheeks.

“I don’t think there is anything you can do that will, ah, kill the romance, as you put it.”

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