Page 44 of King of Wrath

I didn’t know she was doing that. But that doesn’t matter now. Her family is never going to forgive her.

She comes back out of the bedroom in a pair of short little shorts and a tank. I lean against the counter and watch her as she slips onto a stool and lifts another piece of fruit, pineapple, and pops it into her mouth.

Even her chewing is sexy, and I cross my arms, committed to just watching her eat. It’s sexy as fuck and I’m a starving man.

“I feel like I need a little sun,” she says after a few more pieces. “You?”

My brows lift. That’s it? Suddenly we’re talking about taking a stroll together? I’ve spent the last two days, when I’m not admiring every part of her, racking my brain on how I help my family and get her out of this mess that I’ve landed her in.

“Outside?”

She pauses, her mouth open, a piece of kiwi in front of her lips. “That is where the sun shines.”

“What about the sun porch?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Not the same.”

My brows cock. I know she’s up to something. I can’t have her getting hurt now. And I can’t give her the chance to try and run. Tonight I’m going to pitch a plan to Mason. We get Nia’s taped confession for the police, and then Nia and I disappear.

I’m still not the forever guy, despite my proposal. That was as much about convincing her to trust me as anything else, but that doesn’t mean I can’t spend a year protecting her, helping her establish a new identity, while my family finishes neutralizing the Italians and bringing them to heel.

But to explain that I’ll take her away but not marry her means I might have to come clean about my original intentions.

Nia is not a woman who trusts easily, and I’m going to kill any trust I have left, which is not much. I know that.

“You want to go out now? It’s got to be one hundred and ten degrees out there.”

She nips at her lip. “It’s a dry heat.”

I shake my head with a chuckle. That’s Vegas’s favorite line next to,What happens in Vegas…

“A little sun?” I ask, watching her closely.

I see the light that sparkles in her eyes. She is definitely up to something.

“A little sun.”

“All right then,” I push off the counter, moving around the island to take her hand.

Pulling her toward the door, I stop to swipe my finger over the invisible pad.

The lock clicks and I feel her fingers tightening around mine.

Was she hoping to learn how the door worked? She’d have to cut off my finger to be able to use it on her own. I’ve wired this place myself and I’m the only one who can operate the house.

Good thing the knives are now firmly tucked away.

We step into the heat, my skin instantly growing sticky. “So much for dry,” I mutter.

A small smile tugs at her lips. “It feels wonderful.”

“Like to be hot?”

“The sun warms you up when no one else will,” she answers and lifts her face to the sky.

Maybe this was her plan. Because my chest tugs at the admissionof loneliness in her voice. And I find myself wanting to promise to keep her warm for a long, long time. Fuck me.

There are a few old chairs, left over from construction, leaning on the side of the house and I grab them, unfolding each one and setting it in the dirt. She slips into one and I take the other.

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