Page 122 of The Temptation

“Babe,” I say, lifting my hand and smoothing it over her hair. Those tears are my fucking weakness, and I can’t stand seeing her so upset. “Hey, hey. It’s okay … I’m okay.”

“I thought I’d lost you,” she cries. “The last time I saw you, Dante was doing CPR, trying to bring you back to us.”

“He was?”

She lifts her head, and the look she gives me is one of pure devastation. Those tear-stained cheeks make me want to pull her into my arms and kiss all her blues away.

“After you took out thebastardoswho kidnapped me, you collapsed right beside me. You weren’t breathing, Romeo. You didn’t even have a heartbeat,” she says over a sob. “I thought I’d lost you, and in that moment, I wanted to die too.”

Fucking hell.

My hand moves to her jaw, the pad of my thumb lightlybrushing her cheek. When my eyes lock on the gauze near her hairline, images of her being dragged out of the car, bound and gagged, flash through my mind.

It all starts to come back slowly. The blinding rage I felt when I saw that cocksucker manhandling her, dragging her out of the car like she was a piece of trash.

My instinct to protect her immediately took over, my body seemingly moving on its own. I remember taking out the first guy, then the one in the passenger seat, before emptying the entire magazine into the vehicle. That’s when it all goes black.

“What did they do to you?” I ask as my hand rises so my fingertips can gently skim over her forehead.

“Not much really,” she says with a casual shrug. “One of them clocked me with the butt of his gun and knocked me out after I head-butted his mate, broke his nose, and kicked one of the others in the balls.”

I chuckle because that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Most women would fall to pieces in a situation like that, but not this one. She held herself together, steady and unflinching.

That knowledge doesn’t stop me from beating myself up, though, because I never should’ve put her in that position in the first place.

“I shouldn’t have left you in that car alone … I’ll never forgive myself for that,” I admit.

“None of this is your fault.”

“It is,” I say, clenching my eyes closed, trying to push all those fucked-up images from my mind. “My mother set me up. I should’ve known better.”

“I’m sorry she let you down again, but you weren’t to know. And to be fair, if I’d listened to you and stayed at the safe house like you asked …”

I wonder if Dante has sorted my mother out yet, and Ihate that I even care if he has. She deserves whatever is coming to her for what she did, but the whole situation still makes me feel sick to the stomach.

“Have you had a chance to go to the house and check on Killer?” I ask, trying to change the subject.

“No. Dante is going to take me there when we leave here. The doctor had to sedate me when I got back to their place. I wasn’t coping very well without you.”

Tears rise to her eyes again, and I swear I don’t deserve this woman.

“Come here,” I demand, using what little strength I have to pull her onto the bed, ignoring how much my body screams in protest with every movement.

She doesn’t hesitate to nestle against my side, resting her cheek on my chest.

Snuggling with me seems to have become second nature for her. I wasn’t much of a snuggler before she came into my life. Hell, I don’t even know if I am now, but when it includes her, I definitely don’t hate it.

Turning my face, I place a lingering kiss on the top of her head, grateful I get to hold her. Yesterday I wondered if I’d ever get to do it again.

It’s a shame I can’t keep her, because I want to. I want those mornings with her tangled in my sheets, and her laugh echoing through our home. I want the softness she offers so freely, and the way she looks at me like I’m actually worth something.

But she deserves a world I can’t give her, a life without men like me in it. I’ve already dragged her through more than she should ever have had to endure.

And despite what Dante said earlier, deep down, he knows the truth: I’m punching well above my weight with this woman, because Lucia could do far better than me.

I exhale all the air from my lungs as I pull her a little closer, holding her as if I never intend to let go, even as I begin plotting exactly how I’m going to do just that.

Chapter 30