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She looked up at him. "Did it go online?"
"Yep. Live streaming. He had two hundred comments already."
A familiar tension settled in her gut. "He might see it."
"Then we need to make plans."
She bit her lip. "I could just go home—"
"No." His fingers closed around hers this time. "Don't hide again, Sofia. You've been hiding for sixteen years, and we all lost out. Whether you choose to stay with me or not is irrelevant. Just don't hide again. Don't run. I'm powerful and so is my family. Use that power to your advantage. Fight this time. You have an army behind you."
Oh, God. "There are so many things in that little speech that I want to respond to." Choose to stay with him? Was he asking her to stay with him? To try again? To see what happened? She couldn’t. Could she?
"I want to hear them all eventually, but right now, I need to hear that you're not going to disappear in the middle of the night again." He searched her face. "Don't run from me again, Sofia. Promise me that."
She met his gaze. "I can't promise you anything. I won't. That traps me."
Tension flickered in his jaw. "Will you consider it?"
She let out her breath. The idea of no longer having to look over her shoulder was so tempting, almost surreal. "If there is a way to make it so Gabby never has to be afraid again, I would do it." If she kept herself focused on what was right for her daughter, then she knew she could trust her choices.
He nodded. "My family and I can do that." He paused. "Sofia, we can make sure that neither of you need to worry that something bad is going to happen to you."
Sudden tears flooded Sofia's eyes, and emotion seemed to seize her throat. "For sixteen years, I have lived in fear that if something happened to me, if he found me, then there would be no one to protect her, to take care of her. My business partner, Jocie, is who would take her, but she doesn't have the resources to hide from him. I just… It's haunted me every minute of every day and—" She stopped, unable to talk past the emotion.
As a mom, there was literally nothing that mattered more than her daughter's well-being. The thought of her ex finding them and killing her had been terrifying. But equally scary had been the worry that if she ever got in an accident or had anything else happen to her that left Gabby alone. "It's hard to be a single parent with no family," she whispered. "It's terrifying, the 'what ifs' that can get you."
"I get it. I was the kid of a single mom with no family. I know what happens when the parent dies."
She heard the emotion in his voice and looked at him. "Oh, Keegan."
He shrugged it off. "That's why I will do whatever it takes to make sure both of you are safe. I'm not trying to trap you. I'm trying to protect you from what happened to me."
And that was it. The moment she knew she could trust him with what mattered most: her baby girl's well-being. With tears trickling down her cheeks, she leaned forward, put her hands on Keegan's face, and kissed him.
Without fear.
Without hesitation.
Just with an open heart and a need to connect with this gift that the universe had given her…twice.
Keegan immediately grabbed her around the waist and pulled her toward him. She went willingly, climbing into his arms and onto his lap. She sank down on him, her knees on either side of his hips, kissing him with all the emotions that had been pent up inside her for so long.
She wasn't afraid. For the first time in so long, the shadow of fear wasn't hovering at the edge of her mind.
Keegan locked his arms around her waist, kissing her with the same commitment coursing through her. He felt so good against her. Hard. Strong. Muscled. Solid.
She couldn’t get enough of him. She leaned into him, locking her arms around his neck, meeting his kisses with the same urgency that he was tapping into.
He swore suddenly. "Too many potential cameras around. I'm not exposing you like this."
Before she could react, he locked his arms around her and surged to his feet.
"You can put me down—"
"Nope. Can't. You might run away." He got a better grip on her, then headed down the hall with a purposeful stride. When they got into the elevator and the door slid shut behind him, he started kissing her again.
Hot.
