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“Shit, Colt,” Luca says. “That’s the lead we were chasing. We’re heading to the bar now.”
“We’re in the cellar,” I tell him.
“Sneaky bastards. It was only two blocks over from the bait.”
“That’s why they were called the Snakes,” I tell him.
“Were?”
“Eduardo’s gone.”
I stuff a rag into Ralph’s mouth and make sure Dante is in a good position. Then I sit with the gun resting on my knee, aimed at the door, as my mind drifts to more hopeful places.
I see myself walking into a ring store, coming out with an enormous diamond, letting go of the past, and focusing on what matters—the future. In fact, that’s what I’ll do. As soon as this is over, I’m buying a ring. I can’t let this chance go.
“I was never meant to be happy,” I tell Ralph or the ruined mess that was Ralph. His face is swelling and red, and it isn’t easy to pick out his features. “A childhood like mine with everything I’ve seen and done… I was never meant to be, but we were—Lexi and me. We were meant to be. You tried to break her, but she’s too strong for you. She’s too tough.”
I think of the ring glittering on her finger, her dress glittering around her curvy body, her happiness glittering around her soul as she cradles our baby in her arms for the first time. I feel like crying. Dammit. Maybe it’s the concussion. I feel like weeping for how badly I want this future.
“Make a move, Ralph,” I say coldly when he sits up.
He deflates, shuddering, his shoulder bulging awkwardly from his shirt from where I’ve popped it out of the socket.
CHAPTER 34
Lexi
“Are you sure you’re okay?” I whisper, sitting in his lap in his office, feeling surreal that he’s here and I’m holding him. He was just cleared from the hospital. It’s lunchtime. He had to stay overnight with a Marino-friendly doctor. It feels weird wearing this lingerie under my clothes. I wasn’t sure if I should.
“I had to stay for their tests,” Colt growls, his hand moving up and down my knee, a wild look in his eyes as he stares at me. “I was thinking about you, Lexi…”
He trails off, making me wonder if he’s hiding something, but I won’t let nasty thoughts like that in my head right now.
“What’s going to happen to Ralph?” I ask.
“Any day now, our police friends will connect the dots. Until then, he’s staying at a safe house outside the city. Letting him wander around was a mistake.” He shudders. “I almost…”
I touch his face, turning him back to me when he turns away. I can feel the heat blazing through him, like a testament to our closeness. “Everything we’ve been through, Colt. It’s… it’s fused us, okay? I don’t care how that sounds. It’s the truth. So don’t close up on me.”
“I almost killed him,” he says, his voice dark. “I wanted to, but for the first time in my life, in a dark moment, somebody else’s voice was louder than the anger. Yours, Lexi.”
He grips my hips, leaning forward and crushing me with a kiss. I’m taken off-guard, but my body isn’t. The way my belly heats up and the tingles dance all over me, it’s like my body has been waiting for this since I slid into his lap. He groans and pushes me gently aside, meaning he can lean over and smooth his hand up my leg.
“Aren’t you hurt?” I whisper.
He leans back but keeps his face close to me, the heat moving over my cheeks and neck. “I need you. Just you, Lexi. Forever.”
“Forever,” I repeat, my voice shaking, emotion clashing with the lust.
“Forever,” he says fiercely. “I’m done playing games. I could’ve died in that cellar. I want you. I need you.”
I gasp when he picks me up, carries me to his bedroom, and deposits me on the bed. He slides his hand up my skirt, up my leg, and against my underwear. He rubs my clit slowly at first, but then he groans and moves his hand faster. “You’re wet for me,” he says, a note of awe in his voice.
“My body’s ready,” I murmur, praying it’s true.
I won’t chicken out. I want this. I want to feel it, and I want him to feel so good.
He groans as he grabs my underwear and tugs on them. Before I know it, he’s sliding down my body onto the floor, kneeling at the edge of the bed as he looks up at me. His hands are buried in my legs, sending more tingles up my thigh.
“I need to claim your tight, virgin body,” he growls. There’s something so hot about the way he says virgin. It’s like it turns him on, me just being his. I want to feel owned by him. “Fuck…” He pushes my legs aside, staring at my sex as if he’s forgetting all the drama, all the pain, and so have I. “You’re glistening for me.”
