Page 113 of Sweet Deception

“For leading you into so much danger, I’m…so sorry.” Fuck, it’s difficult to say all this. “I promise that I’m going to leave the chaos behind. From now on, I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you safe?—”

“Darren, stop.” She places a finger against my mouth before wrapping her hand around mine. “I brought the trouble to you. I never asked you to choose between me and your family. I…” She pauses while her chest rises and lowers, as if she’s gathering the courage to continue. “I love you, okay?”

My pulse accelerates so much, I’m surprised the stupid machine doesn’t blare an alarm and call everyone in hearing distance to my bedside. Seriously, my heart can’t take this. If she doesn’t stop, it’s going to explode from joy. At the very least, I’m in danger of tearing my stitches.

I squeeze her hand, wishing I could kiss her with every fiber of my being.

“All of you,” she continues. “Even the chaos agent part.”

Her smile ignites a spark in my chest, banishing the cold and filling my entire body with liquid warmth.

I swallow past the weird lump forming in my throat. “You’re sure you can love a ticking time bomb?”

She bites her lip, and I just want to grab a handful of that beautiful blond hair and tug her down for a kiss. “I think I’ve managed to cut the right wires,” she says, a teasing lilt to her voice that drives me insane. “Besides, I’m just as broken as you are. If you can handle me, I can handle you.”

A grin splits my face. “I don’t know if you’re worth the trouble, princess, but I guess I can do it for Napalm.” I glance down at the little furry circle by my knees. He raises his eyes to mine, purring.

“Shut up.” Fuck if her angry glare doesn’t make me want her more, but then her features soften. “Look at what we accomplished together. Those women are free because of us. They got their lives back because we pooled our skills. It’s like Rory said. We’re a good team.”

“A good team,” I echo, studying how the light catches her eyes.

“We could do more. Help more people.” She squeezes my hand back. “I’ll be right beside you, wherever that takes us.”

“No more running away?”

She shakes her head. “If you want me, I’m yours.”

“Come over here and say that to my face.”

She giggles, leans over me, and lays her lips on mine.

“Fucking hell, I love you,” I say against her mouth. “And I’m never going to let you go, you know.”

After she’s kissed me enough to stress out the EKG machine, she sits down and reaches for Napalm, who’s curled up in the center of my chest now.

“He’s okay.” And for the first time since the bullet hit, I grin. “Getting shot has me thinking that I really don’t want to die anytime soon. I think I want out, Nika. I sure as hell don’t want you in this kind of danger ever again.”

She blinks her beautiful gray, gold-flecked eyes at me. “So…what do you want to do?”

Watching her smile, I realize I’ve never felt more alive than when I’m with this woman, the one who walked into all my chaos and made it mean something.“I want to atone.”

Epilogue

Classical music plays softly in the den while Piro naps on the couch. He’s not the only one asleep in there. The newest addition to our family—a black kitten with lime green eyes—is curled up beside him. Tungsten. Tutu for short.

It’ll be the first and only time I let Darren name a cat.

I’ve got the heating kicked up to the max, the first November snow drifting down from the sky outside my windows.

But I don’t have any complaints.

Not one in the whole world.

I’m preparing a pot of peppermint tea, but it’s a bit difficult to maneuver the kettle because I keep getting distracted by the rock on my ring finger, newly placed by the dangerously sexy man wrapped around my waist. Just a few inches away from that is my grandmother’s pearl bracelet, which I’ve started wearing more often to hold her memory close.

Darren kisses my neck while I shut off the stove and remove the kettle from the burner. “You don’t have to stay for our business meeting, you know,” I say.

He bites me. “But it’s so sexy when you talk business.”