Page 17 of Bound to the Crime Lord

“Get on the plane,” I groaned before I pulled him in for one last hug.

Ethan held onto me tightly, his laugh now just low and soft giggles. When they eventually died down, he placed his chin on the top of my head and kissed me.

After I found out about my little brother, I dedicated my life to him and his treatment. I didn’t know a life without him in it.

We pulled away and I smiled through the brimming tears.

“Text me when you can, okay? And listen to Manuel’s men. They are there to take care of you.”

Ethan nodded and gave me one last hug before he boarded the plane. Manuel ended his call and came to stand beside me. The crew on the plane readied it for take-off.

“He’ll be fine.” Manuel offered me these words of comfort, but they did nothing to ease my aching heart.

The tears brimmed my eyes, but I refused to let them fall as the jet withdrew from where we stood. It felt like my heart was breaking with every meter they moved away. I didn’t birth my brother, but I was the closest thing he had to a mother, and well… he had felt more like a son than a brother to me. Sending him halfway across the world was breaking my heart. But this was what he needed, and he would come back with a healed body and a new chance at life.

“It’s okay to cry, you know.” Manuel stared at the plane, but his words were directed to me. “You mothered him for themajority of his life. Don’t deny yourself your sadness for the sake of seeming strong. It’s okay to find this hard.”

I hastily brushed away the stray tear that had managed to escape my eye. “Don’t tell me what I can and cannot feel, Manuel.”

He didn’t say anything. He only stared at the jet with me as my brother left American soil to go and seek a new chance at life. I knew he would be fine, but I would still miss him.

The jet took off, but neither one of us moved. I stayed rooted in my place, watching the sky as if I could still see where they had gone.

I felt his hand come to rest on the small of my back. “Let’s go, Juliette. You can call him in the next 12 hours.”

The skin under his touch heated at the contact, but I didn’t pull away from his touch. There was something oddly comforting about it, though I would never admit it out loud.

I allowed him to usher me back to the car. Just as I was getting into the back, I paused when the realization of what he had said dawned on me. I turned my neck in his direction and glared at him.

“What do you mean, let’s go home?”

“Are you forgetting you’re living with me now?”

I opened my mouth to tell him to go screw himself, but I quickly remembered what I had agreed to. This had been part of the deal.

“I remember,” I quipped, “but I need a day or two to pack up my things and break my lease.”

“No need to do that, I will pay for your rent so you will have somewhere to return to when all of this is over.”

I was taken slightly aback by his words. That had not been a part of our agreement. I knew what this man was and what he represented, but every now and again he would displayabnormal characteristics. He would do things that made him seem more… human.

“Umm…” Why could I suddenly not speak? “Thank you for that. But I still need to go and get my clothes.”

“Okay, so we head to your house first and then we go home.”

It wasn’t until I felt the brush of his body against mine that I realized just how close we were. I could feel his heat radiating off his body in waves. His scent filtered into my nose, taking over my senses completely. A gentle hum moved from my chest all the way into my belly.

“Juliette,” he whispered.

The way this man said my name had my internal system going haywire.

“Yes?” My eyes unintentionally flicked to his lips and then back up again to meet his gaze. The darkness in the brown of his eyes deepened to a richer color.

“You need to get in the car.”

His words were a bucket of ice-cold water on my back. I jumped back and nearly hit my head against the edge of the door frame, but he placed his hand behind my head just in time so I didn’t suffer any damage.

We stayed like that for what felt like minutes but was probably only a few seconds. My chest rose and fell hard, my heart hammering heavy in my chest.

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