Page 102 of Mila: The Godfather

And every second she was far away from me… it felt like an eternity.

An agonizing one.

* * *

“It feels as if I waited a thousand fucking years for you…” I whisper, watching the rise and fall of her chest while she sleeps. The second her head landed on the pillow after we got done dancing in the rain and sought shelter in the gazebo, she went under. I notice she falls asleep everywhere. It doesn’t matter if she’s uncomfortable.

That was proven when I found her huddling in a corner of a dark closet. I don’t let the anger that threatens take over me. I don’t allow the dark thoughts to get at me at this moment in time. Not while she’s sleeping soundly, with a small smile on her face.

She suffered from night terrors, but they’ve gradually disappeared since she’s been here, except for one. Carlotta and Bain, the man I had on her when I couldn’t be there, the one she knows as Augustus gave me daily updates on her, and one of them was the fact that she would wake up in the middle of the night screaming from nightmares that haunted her. It feels fucking good to know that, since she’s been here with me, the nightmares are slowly fading away. A creature as good and pure as her shouldn’t be touched by darkness and the ugliness of this world.

I shove down the anger I feel every time I think about the shit she’s gone through and focus on her instead.

On her beauty and the fullness of my chest whenever I see her. Fuck. I’m so obsessed with this girl, it’s not even funny. So much so that, after I know for certain she’s fallen asleep, I sneak into her room to watch her sleep as if I had the power to keep the nightmares away. Sometimes I just sit there watching her sleep, just to make sure she’s real and that this is not a dream. That she is alive and well with me.

Like I am doing now.

After the rain settled, we went inside the mansion, and I walked her to her room. I didn’t push her for more, even though just a kiss will never be enough. I can’t push her because, if I do, she might retreat into herself, and I will lose everything I’ve accomplished this past week.

I walked her to her room and kissed her goodnight.

Then, I snuck in like I do every night.

I sit in the huge bean bag chair next to her bookshelf with one of her books in hand. Yeah, I sometimes pick up one of her books with the naked assholes on it and read them. I was surprised to find out that my sweet butterfly likes her filthy stories. The shit I’ve read in some of these books almost made me fucking blush. Almost.

There are a thousand and one things I love about Mila. One is her ability to be unapologetically herself, even when she sometimes feels self-conscious and afraid to show the real her. She managed to surprise the fuck out of me the first time I ever laid eyes on her, when she looked like a breakable little doll, but then opened her mouth to tell me off. A man a decade older than her with more kills than tattoos on his body. She is soft and kind, yet she is strong and curious at the same time.

She loves fucking baking, plants and fairytales, yet she also reads about a CEO fucking his much younger intern on his desk while pinning her down and calling her his little slut. It turns me the fuck on. I am not ashamed to admit it.

And I can’t wait for the moment she lets me do to her what the men she reads about do to their women. The things I would show her. The things I would do to her body would make her blush more than her little books do.

I smile when I notice she added a blue sticky tab to a page where the characters are having sex while one of them is in a zoom meeting. That’s what I call multitasking.

Dirty, dirty, beautiful girl.

Closing the book, I place it back on the shelf where I took it from and lean back, getting comfortable just watching her. Her wild curls are splayed all over her pillow and one is stuck to her mouth as she softly snores. She even manages to look adorable with her mouth open while she sleeps. I long for the day I can lie down in the same bed and hold her while she sleeps.

Soon.

There’s a buzzing in my pocket. Reaching inside my jeans, I pull out my phone and see a notification.

Maeve: Location has been compromised. They’re coming for her. You have to move. Now.

Fuck.

I quickly get up, rush to the bed, and gently pick Mila up in my arms.

“Riagan?” She slowly opens her eyes and looks at me for a second before her eyes look around her. “What is going on?”

Tucking her closer to my chest, I hurry out of her room and into the hallway, making my way toward the stairs when I get an eerie feeling. I put Mila down on the floor and grab her shoulder, gently forcing her to look my way. “I need you to trust me, butterfly. Will you do that?”

Without question, she nods her head yes. Fuck, so sweet. “Yes.”

“Cover your ears and stay behind me, and whatever you do… don’t move. Be my shadow, yeah?”

Again, she nods and does as I say without question, but I see it. The fear in her eyes. I don’t have time to feel guilty or think about all the ways this could go wrong. Of all the ways I fucked up. Nobody knows of this place. It’s a safe house, so that means someone betrayed me. But who? With no time to dwell on it, I focus on getting out of this situation alive and with my girl intact.

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, I say. “Nothing will happen to you.”

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