Page 60 of Blind Devotion

I didn’t let her down when we reached the bottom of the stairs, or when I crossed two of my men on patrol, or to open the sliding door.

Her head lay against my chest. Her exhales flurried against the exposed portion of the unbuttoned top of my dress shirt. I nudged her head with my chin.

“What do you need from me now?”

She wrapped her arms around my neck tighter.

“Would you take me to the beach? To the water?”

I didn’t question the request. The panic was gone, but she was still teetering at its edge from how shaky her voice remained. It flared a roaring instinct within me.Protect. I knew right then I was done for. Whatever she feared, I would vanquish. Whatever she wanted, I would give. I was hers. This fragile woman with the heart of a lion had conquered my beast of a soul.

As I walked down the shore, sand crunched beneath my oxfords. Cicadas sang in the background as puffs of tepid wind carrying sea brine blew over us. Small droplets clung to my skin and tongue within seconds, sticky with salt. Waves crashed against the shoreline, then lapped with soft claps up and down the beach, all of it with the glow of the moon splayed over the water. A mesmerizing sight, made all the more beautiful by the woman in my arms.

Her head was turned toward the Mediterranean, her lips parted, her body relaxed in mine.

“I have to get into the water,” she said.

Despite my shoes and dress pants, I didn’t hesitate to carry her in.

Chapter 24

Theseasloshedandsplashed as he waded through it. The smell and sound of it were everything, washing away the dread of my memories, but I wanted to feel it against me. Wanted to know with bone-deep certainty that I had gotten away. It didn’t make sense. I knew I wasn’t back there, but I needed this to clean the memories off me.

With a gentle shove to his chest, he set me down. My bare feet sank into the sand, my toes gripping at it, while the water lapped all the way to my thighs.

My knees buckled. I’d made it. I survived. I fell against him and cried into his muscular chest.

He didn’t say anything, just caressed my head and held me tight. It was exactly what I didn’t know I needed. I cried for the woman I once was. I cried for the woman I was forced to become. I cried until I had no more tears left. And still he held me, murmuring soothing words into my hair. I felt safe in that moment, so very safe, I wasn’t sure I could ever let him go.

“I remember,” I confessed against him. There were still some years in my past that eluded me. Unfortunately, this trauma wasnot one of them. “I remember Bogdani and everything from that fucking boat. Every bit of it. I’m glad you killed them.”

He tilted my face up and tucked my hair behind my ears. “I’m glad you survived.”

I kissed him then, gentle and soft, exactly what I knew we both needed.

“You don’t realize how you saved me, Adrien. This bullet”—I pressed his hand to my stomach—“ended it all. I killed Bogdani. I did it, but if you and your team hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have made it through his sycophants. You saved me.”

“No.” His thumb caressed my wet cheeks. “You saved yourself. You’re strong. The strongest woman I know, and it’s an honor to be here with you.”

“I hate that you killed the other women. They deserved better.”

“They did.”

“But I don’t hate you for it. What does that say about me?” More tears drained down my face.

“That you’re human. That you have a good heart that just needs to heal.”

“For threatening my death as many times as you did, you’re pretty good too.”

“No,ma p’tite rescapée, no, I’m not. Shoveling in my graveyard will dig up plenty of skeletons.”

“Meaning?”

“My soul is as dark as they come, with just enough light in it to see you.”

I buried myself against him, welcoming his warmth as the night air chilled my wet skin.

“I thought I’d never get free.”