Page 118 of Guarded Knight

I need to focus on the present, not the future. Because today is the day.

The gala is full of unknowns, and Kevin’s shadow is everywhere—on my car, on my doorstep, in every glance over my shoulder. Maybe he won’t show. Maybe he’s already on the run. But if he’s there in that ballroom this afternoon, I need to be ready. This could escalate.

I won’t be the girl who runs. If I can be part of keeping Kevin close, I can be part of leading him to his demise.

Gabriel watches the shift in me, the way my breath shallows. He leans in and kisses the space behind my ear. “We got this.”

As much as I want to lie here for a million years, I need to get ready to leave. The hotel isn’t close so it’s time to move.

I take a drink of water and allow myself two good clears of my lungs. I peek over, and Gabriel sits up in bed next to me, unfazed by my hacking.

“Do you need more water?” He sits up, and his stunning glutes are on display in a pair of tight boxer briefs at the edge of the bed.

“Or are you ready for coffee?”

“I’m not sure I’m ready for anything.”

He glances over that broad, tanned shoulder of his and smirks. “Man up, Young.”

“Sorry, not all of us are trained killers.” I take the pillow and whack him on the shoulder.

“If you can outsmart me back in the day, you can outsmart that douchebag.” He takes the pillow and whacks me in the arm.

Oh this is fun…

I smack him again, a little harder this time across the cheek. Not too hard. Just hard enough to surprise him and wind him up. His mouth drops open, and I go to hit him again, but he grabs the pillow with a vise grip and snatches it from my hand before it hits.

Oh shit…

Instantly, I snap up out of bed, and he’s coming after me around the room. He could catch me in a heartbeat, but instead he circles the room, stalking me, slow and smug, sexy and merciless. I jump off the bed and to the other side of it, laughter bubbling in my tummy.

Gabriel swipes at me over the mattress, deliberately missing, and my laugh is high and unguarded, like I’m ten years old again. Like we’re back in the Canyon, playing tag at dusk.

He’d chase me then, too, always one breath behind, never quite catching me, like the fun was in thealmost. I’d collapse in giggles before he ever had to try, and it reminds me of our cops and robbers’ games, our soldiers and hostages. The ones we used to play with Xander.

Joy explodes in my chest as I snatch a pillow from the bed and dive toward my backpack.

All the while, he beats the pillow down on the mattress, as if he’s some wild gorilla coming for me, and I’m smiling so hard my face hurts.

Out of my workbag, I grab a scissors. “Don’t move,” I warn, brandishing the scissors. “Or the pillow gets it.” I narrow my eyes.

“Put the pillow down and no one gets hurt.” There’s a glint in his eye.

He leaps up on the bed as if ready to attack again, and I panic. I stab the pillow mindlessly and gasp when the scissors go right through.

Shit. Didn’t mean to do that.

I drop the scissors on the floor and try to sound dead serious. “I told you not to test me.”

He laughs, pure and boyish like when I first fell in love. I want to hear it again…

I’m overcome in the moment and I join him on the bed, thwacking him with the pillow, again and again. He pretends to be defenseless and can hardly catch his breath through fits of laughter.

White whisps fly around the room, floating with innocence and joy, hopeful little butterflies, each like a memory of times when every day between us was like this.

For a second, it feels like nothing could touch us.

Gabriel regains composure, tosses his pillow behind him, and lunges for me. He snatches me around the waist, picks me up like I’m made of nothing more than the feathers around us.