Page 81 of Velvet Chains

“Kieran—”

“Shh,” I whispered, kissing delicate stripes across her skin. “I’m still here.”

For now.

Chapter Twenty: Kieran

Ididn’t leave…and this time, I wasn’t going to.

She tried to kick me out, but in the light of day, with soft winter sunlight streaming through the crack in the curtain, all I could do was stare at her. I counted the beauty spots on her face, the freckles on the bridge of her nose. I took time to linger on the arch of her brows, on the ridges of her lips, on the shadows of her cheekbones. She had lost weight since I had seen her at that cafe, drinking a cappuccino and half-eating a lemon scone, furious about having me confront her.

In a way, I had done exactly what Tristan wanted from me. In a way, we owned Ruby Marquez. And that…fuck, it should have made me happy, but all it did was scare the crap out of me.

Reaching out, I hesitated before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. Her eyes fluttered open. She looked disoriented for a second, then her gaze settled on my face.

“You’re still here,” she said.

“Nowhere else I’d rather be.”

“You’re not leaving?”

“No. Should I?”

“Yes. You absolutely should. No one can know you’re here.”

“No one will know I’m here.”

She sat up, shaky. “Kieran, you can’t be here. This is untenable. It’s bad for you and it’s bad for me. You can’t…”

I yawned and stretched. “I mean, it wasn’t bad for me. I had fun. Didn’t you have fun?”

“Yes, I had fun, but that is absolutely not the point,” she replied, rolling her eyes. “I always have fun with you.”

“A compliment? From you?” I said. “Wait. Are you fucking with me?”

She shook her head. “This is serious, Kieran. What about your brother? Didn’t he give you—”

“A week,” I said. “I bought myself more than that, I think.”

She sat up straighter, pulling the blanket tighter around her chest like she’d just remembered she needed armor. “Cost you a lot?”

“Just my dignity.” I tried to smile. “Told him I had it under control.”

She didn’t smile back.

“And he believed you?”

I watched her expression shift—saw the gears turning behind her eyes. The calculation. The fear.

“He wants to believe me,” I said.

Her voice dropped. “Kieran… he threatened to kill me.”

“I know.”

“He said he’d put a bullet in my head.” Her mouth was tight. Her hands clenched around the blanket now, knuckles white. “You said that like it was just another day at the fucking office.”

I exhaled slowly. “It’s not.”