Page 90 of Fire for Effect

Please tell me you’re mine, Taz. Say it, so I can do what I really came out here to do.

“Please?” I added for good measure.

“I never heard you say that word, outside of this visit.”

“You’re not likely to again if you don’t fucking say that you’re mine!”

She was grating on my last nerve.

“Well, since you asked so nicely…”

She let her words linger in the air as I stared at the bracelet, watching how the sparse light from the darkening sky reflected on the chains.

I looked up at her, and she was smiling, staring at me with complete amusement.

“Is this funny to you?” I asked, ready to poke her in the gut if I had to. “Is all of this just a big joke?”

“Just because I’m laughing doesn’t mean I'm joking,” she mocked.

“Har-har-har,” I said bitterly as she threw my words back at me. “Tell me, Trinity Blaze Guerro, that you’re mine.”

“Okay, Kai Winchester Griffith,” she finally said. “We can go steady, or whatever it is the kids say these days.”

She was the only woman in the world who could give me the answer I wanted, and make me want to tackle and hock a lougie into her mouth at the same time. I poked her in the ribs, and she giggled, flinching away, before I got to work. I pulled a pin out on the bracelet, letting the clasp fall off, before relinking the band together.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked.

“Tagging you.” I internally cringed, because if she ever found out there was a tracker on this thing, she would break my face. But I already knew that I wasn’t a good guy, so… might as well embrace my evil inner self. “This bracelet is permanent now.”

“The fuck–”

Before she could freak out, I placed my hand gently on her throat, keeping her eyes on me.

“As long as you want me, you’ll keep it on. I designed it to look good with what you normally wear. But it’ll also go well with something formal.” Like a wedding dress. “And if anything ever happens… if I ever fuck up so irreparably that you… that you want me to stop chasing you…” I swallowed, feeling the lump creep up my chest and into my throat. “Then break it off, and I’ll know. I’ll know that you’re done with me.”

I didn’t want to start a relationship by talking about how to end it, but I also wanted things to be clear. I was in this.

“But until that day, I will come after you. I’ll keep chasing you, and you’ll keep running away, because that’s what you do. But if you still love me…”

“Who says I love you?”

I lifted a brow and looked at her in irritation, not bothering to answer that stupid question. “If you still love me, then you’ll keep it on, and I know it’s not over between us.”

I brought her palm to my lips and kissed it.

“You’re a flight risk, baby,” I said. “But wherever you’ll fly, I’ll follow.”

Her multicolored eyes were misty, as she stared at the bracelet, then me, then back down.

“Do you like it?” I asked.

She nodded. No smart ass remarks this time… she was stunned into silence.

“I love it,” she says, her fingers tracing the little firefly engraving on the platinum jewel.

“And you love me.”

“And I love you.”

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