Page 55 of Iron Blade

“I have a solution for that.” I lifted a single finger - just one because I didn’t want to scare her. I didn’t want her to feel threatened. She was a flight risk, looking for any reason to disappear. But I had to touch her. Just once. “I’ll have an offer on your desk tomorrow. Think about it - truly, think.”

I pinched her chin between my thumb and forefinger, turning her head so she was forced to look at me.

“I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse and give you a gift that comes with no strings attached.”

I placed a small kiss to the side of her forehead. Nothing aggressive. Just a brush of my lips on her skin. An excuse to let the scent of her floral shampoo into my nose so I could hold it in my lungs for a moment.

“Kira…” I reached out my hand, cupping hers in mine, her palms up for my inspection. The unscarred palm looked up at me like an abomination, and I yearned to place that diagonal cut from the base of the pinky, to the pad of the thumb. The diagonal scar that would, in my world, declare that she and I were one. That her burdens were mine, and my vows were hers. That she was mine by oath, protected by God and every blood of my blood. “You must let me help you.”

It wasn’t for her. It was for me. I needed to help her. I needed to be her servant, and her knight. I needed her to need me.

“No one can help me.”

“I don’t think that’s true.” I reached out, cupping her cheek, letting my fingers push away the hair that came loose from the tightly coiled bun at her nape.

I didn’t look away from her eyes, as I brought her hand to my lips, kissing the center of her beautiful palm. More than the kiss we had before, this one felt intimate. It was a promise. A silent oath of my own that said that she would be mine. That she was mine, and the world would know it.

“I have to leave the city for a few days.” Fuck, I hated saying that. The heat of my breath on her palm made me shudder. “But I’ll be back, sweet Muse.”

“Okay.” Was I hallucinating, or was she as breathless as I was?

“May I have a kiss before I go?” I had stolen a kiss from her before. The very first one.

I didn’t regret it. I should, but that wasn’t an emotion I could find within myself. If you taste a bit of heaven, even if it was stolen, regret just isn’t a feeling you can associate with it.

“Yes.”

I almost buckled with her acceptance. I had to take a breath, so I didn’t take more than what I asked for.

I was sure that if I wanted to, I could seduce her into my bed. I could take her here, and she would relent because she wanted me as much as I wanted her. I knew that as well as I knew my own name.

But there was something sweet in her giving. Something sweet in her declared, admitted consent. She’d love me one day. And it would be a love that was earned.

My kiss was gentle, closed-mouthed, and sweet. My bottom lip grazed the top of hers, before my tongue darted out, begging for entrance. She let me in. She opened for me, and I took just a little more, as her tongue darted out to meet mine.

I closed my eyes, and the image of The Kiss by Francesco Hayez came back to the forefront of my mind.

Danger lurked behind the corner. Conspiracies, and darkness was all around, and she couldn’t see it. Shadows were ready to pry us apart, even as we shared this perfect moment. I needed my dagger to fight them off. All of them.

I pulled myself away from her. I walked away, and out the door, turning around to look back at her one last time. I ached to see her look back at me, as I left her standing in the middle of her office.

Her glorious form was there, in front of her desk, one knee bent in her high heels, and form-fitted black dress. Her black curls partially tamed in a thick, full bun at the base of her skull.

What would I have done, if she had looked back? I don’t know. Maybe I would have run back to her and begged her to run away. To run far, far away.

“For what it’s worth, I like her,” Dairo said with a smile.

I wanted her to run away to a perfect world in the forest, where she could be my Titania, and I would be her Oberon, jealous of a babe in her beautiful arms.

“She looks like trouble,” Dairo continued, “and you like trouble.”

Chapter nineteen

They’re Mafia

Kira

Icaught a glimpse of him, before he disappeared. I had turned, just in time to see him and his clone of a cousin turn the corner of the hallway, out of view.

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