Page 52 of Romancing the Reaper

He looks like he’s afraid to touch me… as if he doesn’t know if he’s allowed to or not.

Slowly, I turn my ring back around on my finger, the stone glinting even in this low light. Kieran’s face melts, his shoulders slump and I throw myself at him.

I forget everybody around us. Each and every gun and other body in this room is nothing but background haze to me as I kiss him with everything that I have in me.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

KIERAN

This is everything that I have ever wanted, I was just too stupid to know it until Ada’s arms wrapped around me. The relief when she smiled at me made all the knots in my chest loosen at once. I kiss her back, letting my eyes close and leaving myself wholly at the mercy of her brother. Defenseless. Ada’s touch is the only one that has ever made me vulnerable.

I pour all the fear, the longing, every other pent-up emotion and unspoken promise of the last couple of days into that kiss.

I wish we had more time. Cristiano’s voice cuts through the air like a knife, shattering the brief respite.

Cold metal digs into the back of my head. Should have seen that coming. My grip on Ada shifts, my arms loosen and my hands rest on her hip and I give her a soft smile. She needs to move. When they shoot me, I don’t want my blood on her any more than it’s already been. She shouldn’t have to see me die.

Alberto shoves the gun forward into the base of my skull, digging into the skin painfully.

Ada whips around, pressing her back to my chest and sliding her hands into my own. I don’t dare move, but my eyes slide over to Cristiano, who looks seconds away from ripping Ada out of my arms so he can kill me with his bare hands. It takes everything in me to keep from smirking at him just to make him snap all that much more.

“What the hell are you doing, Ada? Get the fuck out of the way.” Cristiano seethes, the vein in his forehead looking like it’s about to burst.

My fingers indent Ada’s hip, pulling her back to me for what might be the very last time. “It’s okay, Ada. This was always how this was going to end.”

Ada’s chin wobbles and she shakes her head. “No.”

“Is this why you said I can’t kill him?!” Cristiano shouts.

His tone offends me. He shouldn’t speak to her that way.

“You can’t kill him…” Ada inhales, summoning courage as she tightens her grip on my hand. “You can’t kill him because I love him.”

Cristiano laughs, it’s a cruel and bitter sound. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. Get away from him.”

“You’re always doing that to me, Cristiano! Telling me how I feel, what I want, what I don’t want. Don’t talk to me like that! I know what I feel, Cristiano! I love him, we’re engaged, and I’m having his child.” Ada’s voice cracks, the painful truth of her feelings cutting through the anger and fear.

The gun at the back of my head falters, just for a fraction of a second. The timing is perfect as my knees threaten to buckle too. Is that true? My ears are ringing. Am I hallucinating? Maybe I’m already dead, and this whole thing of her standing at my side is nothing more than a hallucination. That would be far more plausible.

“Wha-” The word falls from my lips incredulously as I wait for somebody else to speak, anybody else to speak.

A child, a promise of a legacy that I had never dared to hope for.

“Preg– a baby?” I stammer, shock is making my whole body feel icy cold.

Ada spins in my arms again, her thin hand lifting to cup my face, a gesture that I lean into. I can’t let her go. I never cared if I livedor died before, I knew that was always a possibility but now that I’m having a child? I can’t let her handle this alone. She’s going to need so much support.

“How long have you known? You didn’t…”

“I wasn’t sure before… but now I am. It’s been a few days and there’s still a chance that it might not stick… but the test was positive.”

Ada looks up at me with the most heart wrenchingly beautiful smile that I’ve ever seen. I forget how to breathe.

The prospect of her having my child is everything beyond what I imagined in my quest for revenge. It’s a life-altering revelation that makes everything else seem trivial. I know that it was something I teased her about, a threat to hold over her head… but now that it’s real?

“You’re not keeping it.” Cristiano says, his voice cold and full of malice. “You can’t want to actually keep his child, do you?”

Ada cuts her gaze to him, not removing herself from me another inch. She holds up her hand, wearing the ring that I gave her. “We’re getting married.”

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