Page 57 of While He Breathes

That blow job.

I raise a brow, considering her for a moment as we wait at a stoplight. “You sure about that, Little Flame? Is it the car? Do you want me to pull over for a minute?”

She shakes her head. “It’s not the car.”

“So…there is something wrong?”

“Not something wrong, per se.” She pauses to drag her bottom lip between her teeth. “Things just feel a little overwhelming right now, and I need to process everything.”

The light turns green, and I take off, heading toward the warehouse district where we’re meeting Killian.

Our shipment was short, and we need to decide on a game plan for how we’re going to deal with that. Our supplier needs to be reminded what happens when we don’t get the product we need, and our clients need to be warned that there isn’t as much product as normal. A delicate balancing act of showing our strength, without giving away our weaknesses.

“What do you need from me?” I ask, and I immediately feel her eyes on me.

“What?”

“How can I help you feel less overwhelmed? What can I do to make things easier on you?”

Her lips drop open in surprise, but she doesn’t respond right away, thinking through what I’ve asked her. “I need to understand why you’re bringing me to this meeting.”

“Because it’s your business now too.”

“But it’s not.” She shakes her head. “And I don’t think I want any part in any of it. I’ve seen the dark sides of drug use. I don’t think I want to be involved with selling them.”

“You would never be directly selling anything,” I tell her, the thought of her on the street, slinging product, making my stomach roll with discomfort. “But if you’re up for it, I could use a business partner.”

“Shouldn’t that be Killian?”

“He’s my second-in-charge. If something ever happens to me, he will step up and help you run the company.”

I glance over and chuckle as her brow furrows with confusion. She’s really not grasping what I’m saying.

“I need to tell you something, and I don’t want you to freak out, okay?” I hedge. It’s as good a time as any to drop the bomb on her, and if she freaks out, at least she’s locked in a small space with me where she can’t run. At least not straight away.

“Okay…” she says carefully.

“Everything I own is now fifty percent yours.”

“Excuse me? I think I must have just hallucinated because it sounded an awful lot like you’ve lost your fucking mind.”

A bark of laughter tears from my throat as I shake my head. “I haven’t lost my mind. I’ve known I was going to do this since the beginning.”

“The beginning as in the night we met at the club or…”

“No, the beginning since I pulled you out of the burning car and knew you’d become my everything.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

EMBER

Ipinch the thigh Orion’s not holding, hoping it’ll wake me up from this batshit crazy dream I’ve found myself stuck in.

But it doesn’t.

And instead, I earn myself a swat to the hand.

“No hurting yourself,” Orion says softly.