Page 74 of The Acquisition

I blinked up at him, fully aware my eyes were still brimming with unshed tears. "You really mean what you've been saying, don't you?"

"What's that, sweetheart?" Not brat, or wife, or any of the other sarcastic terms we typically threw at each other.

"That you're in this. You really want to be married to me?"

He kissed me, and even though it was a sweet quick press of his lips to mine, it still made me shiver. Colt smiled at my reaction. "I told you there was a lot for you to learn about delayed gratification. And to answer your question, I'm in this, ‘til death do us part."

I turned in his arms so I could finally soak up the scenery. I wanted to jump up and down and scream. I'd wanted to go to Paris for so long. There was no way he could have known he was giving me one of my greatest wishes.

Spinning back around, I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him with much more enthusiasm than he'd shown me a moment ago.

"What was that for?" he asked, but his smirk told me he already knew how he was affecting me.

"For making one of my childhood dreams come true. Some girls dream about the perfect wedding, but I always dreamed about falling in love in Paris."

His cocky smile grew wide. "That is a wish I can't wait to fulfill. Too bad we won't see much of the city."

My mouth fell open. I'd assumed when he said this was our honeymoon, we'd get to spend some time sightseeing unlike our trip to Berlin. "Do we have meetings or something while we're here? I thought you said to Caroline we'd be unreachable for a few days?"

Colt put his finger against my lips. "We won't get to see much because it is our honeymoon. I plan to keep you in bed as much as possible. In fact, I believe I left you quite frustrated earlier. I think I should make that up to you."

TWENTY-EIGHT

COLTER

Five perfect days in Paris flew by. A little snooping through Jana's social media helped me target her dream Paris vacation. We had dinner at the Eiffel Tower, a private tour of the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, and walked aimlessly around the streets of Paris. That was when we managed to pull ourselves out of bed.

Jana joined me on the sofa at the rear of the AG jet. "You aren't going to blindfold me again, are you?"

I laughed at her disgruntled expression. "No, we're on our way home. I might gag you if you're going to start acting like a brat again now that our honeymoon is over."

"Ugh, I can see you're back to your grumpy self again."

"Yeah, well we're back to real life again." I pulled our phones out of my carry-on bag and gave hers to her.

She stared at her device like it would bite her. "I don't even want to think about how many messages are on this thing."

"Only one way to find out," I grumbled and started up my own phone.

The notifications started up immediately. I scrolled past the work emails and messages from Caroline. There were a few from Sabrina and several from Beck that seemed increasingly urgent.

I tried Beck, but it went straight to voicemail, so I immediately dialed Sabrina.

"Oh my God, Colt!" she screeched into the phone loud enough to make me pull it away from my ear.

"What the hell, Sabrina? Why is my phone filled up with urgent messages? You knew how to get a hold of me."

"At the hotel, but you've been gone for hours."

"Can we just skip to the part where you tell me why everyone is freaking out and not discuss my itinerary?"

"Evie is in the hospital."

Everything stopped. I felt the phone slip out of my hand. I wasn't there, once again. She needed me, and I wasn't there.

Jana picked up the phone and put it on speaker. "Sabrina, what's going on? Colt dropped the phone."

"Evie went into labor this morning. The last I heard was that there were some complications with the baby."

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