Page 150 of Kill for a Kiss

Her trembling fingers thread through my hair. Her nails scrape into my scalp.

“And then you came along,” she says with a shaky sigh. “You took the weight off my shoulders. You carried it so I wouldn’t have to.”

Tears sting my eyes. I let them fall.

She pulls away, scaring me for a second until I see her smile and feel her steady hands cup my jaw. Her eyes lock onto mine with awe I don’t deserve directed at me.

“Sterling, what I’m trying to say is…” Her voice breaks beautifully. “You truly are a dokkaebi.”

The air leaves my lungs in a shudder. Her thumbs brush my damp cheekbones.

“I don’t remember every detail,” she says, “but someone used to tell me stories. Sometimes a dokkaebi hears the pleas of desperate people and chooses which ones to answer.”

She stares into my eyes. I remember them brown, but they’re just as brilliant as blue.

“You answered mine,” she whispers. “You didn’t just save me. You took away everything that tried to cage me. You’ve set me free, and everyone else, from Kys.”

I wait for a heartbeat. When she doesn’t say anything else, I crush my mouth to hers. Kissing her like I’ll never get enough. I won’t. But I pull back to let her breathe. “I didn’t care about taking down Kys,” I say against her lips. “None of it ever mattered. Until you.”

Her tears fall fast, trailing down her cheeks. Mine follow. There’s nothing left in me to stop them.

“I did it all for you, Elle,” I whisper. “Only you.”

“I know,” she breathes. “I think…I always knew.”

Before a desperate sob can break free, I bury my face into her hair, breathing her in, grounding myself in the only thing that has ever mattered in my life.

Elle. The girl who survived. The woman who saved me. The only soul in this broken, burning world I will ever belong to.

She’s my breath. My blood. My beginning and my end. My reason to keep breathing when everything else feels like ash.

My heart beats for her. Breaks for her. Builds itself back into something stronger just for her.

The world could burn to nothing and I wouldn’t care. As long as she’s mine. As long as she knows I’m hers.

I press my quivering lips to her temple, close my eyes, and let the truth settle, absolute and final. This is what it feels like to survive the fire. To stay, even after every failure. To love her, even knowing I’ll never deserve her.

I’ll keep being the man who earns her every smile, every kiss, and every quiet act of her never-ending forgiveness.

“Elle,” I say, sounding shattered. “Stay with me.”

“Of course I will,” she whispers with a soft laugh.

Her voice is light. But her words carry a heavy oath. One that settles deep into this useless soul she saved and claimed as her own.

“Always and forever, Sterling.”

Epilogue

Sterling

Four months later

Manila, Philippines. February 14th. 1800 hours. Weather: 83 degrees Fahrenheit, sunny. Humidity high but tolerable. Visibility clear. Entry and exit points secured. All personnel accounted for. No immediate threats detected.

I keep stock of these details automatically, the way I always have as a mercenary. What I’ve always done before walking into something I can’t undo—taking down criminals and their corruption with them. Except today, I’m not walking into bloodshed. Today, I’m walking into forever.

The church is a pristine white monolith against the bright blue sky, sunlight slanting through the stained glass windows, casting scattered rainbows across the aisle. It smells like polished wood, hot candlewax, and fresh-cut roses. So beautiful, so bright. It doesn’t match the wreck inside my chest. The suit chafes at my shoulders. Too new, too stiff. I’d rather be in Kevlar.