Page 114

“I’ll run us a bath.”

The water starts running, but I’m too boneless to move just yet. My body aches in the most delicious way, and despite everything else going on. A momentary reprieve from the mess that is my life.

Zeke returns a few minutes later, scooping me up once again to carry me to the bathroom. The huge soaking tub is full of steaming water and bubbles that smell like lavender.

He settles us both in the water with me leaning back against his chest, his strong arms wrapped around my waist. The hot water soothes my pleasantly sore muscles as he carefully washes every inch of me.

“We’ll find him,” he says quietly, pressing a kiss to my shoulder. “I promise you, Eve. We’ll bring Leo home.”

I close my eyes, letting his words and the warmth of the water wrap around me. “I know.”

And I do know. Because Ezekiel King is a man of his word, and he just promised to love me for the rest of his life. After what we just shared, I believe he’ll move heaven and earth to keep that promise.

Tomorrow we’ll face reality again. Tomorrow we’ll deal with mafia threats and missing nephews and all the complications of our strange, dangerous life.

But tonight? Tonight I let myself believe in love and happy endings, even if just for a little while.

Later, much later, we lie tangled in fresh sheets, my head pillowed on his chest while his fingers trace patterns on my bare back. The peace from earlier starts to fade as reality creeps back in.

“What are we going to do?” I whisper into the darkness.

His hand stills on my skin. “Whatever it takes. I meant what I said—I won’t go back to Nicolo’s world. But I won’t let him or Alessandro hurt our family either.”

Our family.The words send a shiver of something warm through my chest, even as worry tears me apart inside.

He pulls me back down against him. “Get some rest first. You’ll need your strength for what’s coming.”

The ominous note in his voice should probably worry me more than it does. But wrapped in his arms, still floating in the afterglow of multiple orgasms and his declaration of love, it eases some of the tension weighing me down.

“I love you,” I murmur, already drifting toward sleep.

His arms tighten around me. “I love you too. Always will.”

The last thing I register before sleep claims me is his voice, barely a whisper in the dark.

“And God help anyone who tries to take you or Leo from me again.”

My mind keeps drifting backto last night—to Zeke’s confession, to the way he touched me, to those three words I never thought he’d say.

I love you.

A smile tugs at my lips before I can stop it. Even now, hours later, the memory sends warmth spreading through my chest. After Ryan, after the divorce and the drinking and all the self-doubt, I never thought I’d feel this way again. Never thought I’dwantto.

“Earth to Eve.” Rissa’s voice cuts through my thoughts. “You still with me?”

I blink, forcing myself to focus on the papers scattered across our shared desk. “Sorry. Just—”

“Thinking about your husband?” Her pale blue eyes sparkle with amusement behind her black-framed glasses. “Must have been some night.”

Heat creeps up my neck. “That obvious, huh?”

“Please.” She sorts through a stack of witness statements with practiced efficiency. “You’ve been grinning at that same page for twenty minutes. Either you’ve discovered some breakthrough in the Costa case that I’m not seeing, or…”

“Or my criminal husband finally admitted he loves me?” The words come out before I can stop them.

Rissa’s hands still. “He said it?”

I nod, unable to suppress my smile. “Last night. After New York.”