Page 38 of Final Cost

“I can’t believe I had that effect on you,” I say, and I feel the blush rising up my neck and across my cheeks.

“Believe it. But how could I explain any of that without scaring you away? Do you know how freaked outIwas? You think I wanted to find myself in Barcelona? Dashing to men’s stores trying to find two weeks’ worth of clothes and praying I’d even get a cabin on the ship? All while ditching the important meeting in Boston that was the reason I was at the airport in the first place?”

“Ithoughtyou looked out of place. You only had a briefcase when you got on the plane.

“Indeed,” he says darkly.

“A normal man would have asked me for a drink in the city when we got back,” I point out, my cheeks still burning.

“Nothing about us is normal.” He grins in a devastating display of dimples. “But I thought about it.”

“And…?”

“Fuck that.” I hate to say it, but I find something about his pirate’s smile and his unapologetic stance to be wildly arousing. He saw me. He wanted me. The end. Isn’t that what every woman wants? “Would you rather have a cosmopolitan at some random bar in the Meatpacking District? Or fun adventures all over the Mediterranean?”

“No comment, you arrogant ass,” I say, laughing, smacking him on the butt and trying to turn my head away when he kisses me. But he’s not having it and neither am I, to be honest. He seals his mouth over mine, a tender kiss so perfect it’s like a direct pipeline to heaven.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” he says, his expression darkening when he lets me up for air. “You know that, right?”

I could do without this reminder of the rest of the world, but I nod anyway, my heart heavy now. “I know.”

He gives me a look of purest determination. “I was always going to do whatever I could to stay out of jail. But now they we’re back together?” He shakes his head, all grim intensity. “I’m not going to let anything stand in our way. Especially now that we’ve gotten past most of your doubts.”

“Good.”

“I need you to have faith in me. Can you do that?”

There’s only one answer to that. The truest answer I could ever give him. “I’ll do anything for you. As long as we’re together. I can deal with everything else.”

“Same,” he says, tightening his arms around me again as he leans in for another kiss.“Same.”

16

Lucien

Tamsyn showsme no mercy the following morning. She rides me long and hard, her eyes glazed with passion, her head thrown back with her hair forming a wild halo around her damp face and a half smile on her parted lips. Sweat glistens between her jiggling breasts with their pink nipples and I gotta admit — I love these visuals. I’m not sure who’s holding who tighter. Me, gripping the curves of her hips as they rotate against me or her grippingmyflexing hips between her toned thighs?

All I know is that if there’s a better way to start a day than with us fucking after sleeping together in our bed, where we belong, I don’t want to know about it.

I meet her thrust for thrust, addicted to the snug slickness of her sweet little pussy. My groans are getting ridiculous at this point. I’m at my tipping point, my balls contracted and ready to go with an orgasm for the record books. I feel the strain of holding myself back in all my bunched muscles. But I’m not fucking coming. Not until she comes first. That’s the only way we roll around here.

Suddenly she cries out, all high-pitched, shocked ecstasy, her expression twisting with the delight of it. Another glorious visual seared in my memory banks forever. And that’s all I need. I let go, shooting off in an uncontrolled fit of spasms like a firework crocheting across the room. When my bucking beneath her threatens to toss her to the floor, I wrap my arms around her waist and pull her close, reveling in the vibrancy of her body against mine. The warmth. The strength. That thrilling scent of her lilies-of-the-valley fragrance. Her croons of satisfaction as she nuzzles my neck.

It’s a moment of unsurpassed joy. Enough to choke me with it. Because I camesoclose to losing all this forever. Actually, who am I fooling? I’m still close to losing all this forever. Trapped in this purgatory waiting for the police to make their next move, I know happiness, but I don’t know peace. Maybe I’ll never know it.

But I have this moment with Tamsyn. That’s enough for now. So when she wearily raises her head, brushes her hair out of her face and smiles that glorious smile at me, all sunshine and sparkling diamonds in her brown eyes, I smile back. And then we laugh together, wrecked and relieved to once again be here like this. Where we belong.

It’s the perfect moment. Until my godforsaken phone buzzes on the nightstand.

I scowl but reach for it anyway. There’s too much going on these days for me to ignore calls. “Sorry,” I tell her as she eases off me and settles next to me, propping her head on her hand. “It’s my investigator.”

“Wait, what? You hired an investigator?”

“To look into Ravenna’s last couple of days and help me prove I didn’t do it. And to find Windwood.”

“Well, talk to him,” she says quickly, looking hopeful now. “Take it.”

“Yeah?” I bark by way of greeting.

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