Page 55 of Dangerous

They both gave Blaine a pat on the shoulder before they left, leaving us alone in the apartment.

When they were gone, Blaine pulled his head back a little, and when I looked up, he brushed his mouth gently against mine.

My heart sped up at the tingling spreading in my lips from his featherlight caress. Mindlessly, I tightened my fingers around his shoulders and kissed him back with every ounce of need and every drop of desperation in my body and soul.

Blaine’s grip on me tightened as our tongues met, and I moaned with bliss.

Yes, yes!This was right—this was what I needed more than the air in my lungs.

When he finally pulled back, we were both breathing hard.

“Hey,” he whispered.

“Hey,” I answered, my lips pulling up in an involuntary smile.

Gently, he let me slide down to the floor again, and I winced when my wound made itself known through the haze of bliss. Right. No steamy make-out sessions right after getting shot.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“Not really. The hospital gave me excellent drugs.”

“Hmm,” he rumbled, his brows knitting into a frown as he looked down at me. “Don’t ever take a bullet for me again.”

“I wasn’t planning to,” I said. “But maybe don’t provoke any more crazy men with guns, either.”

Blaine made a noncommittal noise.

“So… what now?” I bit my lip as the bliss of being in his embrace slowly withdrew. As good as it had felt to kiss him, and as much as I wanted to just stay in his protective arms forever, reality began to seep through the cracks.

I was still pregnant with a baby who didn’t deserve to grow up in the brutal world I had.

He shrugged. “You tell me. You’re the one who ran away. What happens next really depends on whether or not you want to stay.”

I blinked. “You would let me go?”

“No.” Blaine’s lips flattened, but he kept his voice calm and business like. “I won’t force you to stay as my wife, but I can’t let you leave again. It wouldn’t be safe. Especially not… with the baby.” His eyes flickered to my stomach for the briefest moment, but I saw the yearning in them clear as day.

I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. “It’s not that easy, Blaine. I…”

“I love you,” he said softly.

“I love you too,” I whispered, sniffling. I was quickly losing the battle to the tears. “But I saw you hurt that man. I know you… I know you hurt people all the time. It’s what men like you do. And I can’t… I can’t put my baby through that. I can’t hurt it like you and I were hurt by growing up like this.”

Blaine reached out and wiped the tears from my cheeks with a thumb. His other hand curved around my belly. “It’sourbaby, love. And I don’t want him to grow up like we did, either. I want him to grow up with love and safety. That man you saw me… saw me torture—he was scum. He’s kidnapped and brutally raped countless women. But more importantly, he had insider information about your family’s connection to the Belfast prostitution ring, and I needed him to tell me so I could nail your father for what he did to you as a kid. Make sure he never walked free again.

“I’m not sorry for what I did to that guy, and I’m not sorry for every sleazeball I’m going to hurt in the future to make sure you’re safe. But I will promise you this, Mira: if you stay with me, if you let me be the husband you deserve, I won’t hurt anyone who isn’t a threat to you or our family. And I will spend every moment of every day worshiping you. You are the only one who has ever made me feel whole—like there is more to me than what my father created with his violence and terror. You are the only one I could ever love. You, and our little one.

“Please, Mira. Please stay with me.”

I was crying in earnest now, and no matter how much Blaine stroked at my cheeks, the tears kept coming thick and fast. But despite my outright sobbing, the swell of emotions in my chest were for once strikingly clear.

I had a man who had gone against everything he’d been taught just to make sure I was safe, and who swore to do anything and everything to keep me that way.

A man, who loved me despite everything I’d put him through in my fear.

The only thing I felt as I raised up on my tiptoes and pressed a salty kiss to his lips was happiness so strong it nearly took my breath away.

“Yes,” I whispered against his lips. “I will stay with you. Forever and always.”

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