Page 230 of Sweet Dominion

My breath caught in my throat.

His eyes were watering, on the brink of spilling over and my chest clenched, twisting with something I couldn’t even name.

My voice came out softer than I intended, barely a whisper. “Lei. . .I-I’ll be fine.”

He dropped his head, yet his grip was still firm on my arms like he couldn’t look at me. His body was shaking too. Tension radiated from every inch of him.

I could feel it all—the fear, the desperation, the weight of everything we had been through pressing down on him, on us.

Goddamn it, Leo.

Lei wasn’t just afraid.

He was terrified.

His voice came out shaky. “I can’t. . .let you leave. . .with him tonight.”

“You have to.”

“He might kill you.”

“He won’t. He wants a grandson named after him and I promised him I would do that. I’m the future, Lei. I fit into his plan.”

“Correct.”

“So. . .you understand?”

“Yes, but then, there’s the other thing that we have to consider.”

“What?”

He lifted his view to me and those tears were so close to spilling over his eyelids. “I can’t be without you. . .not even for one night.”

“Lei—”

“You’re my everything, Moni. I can’t. . .I won’t survive.”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut. Lei—the man who could stare down large groups of armed men without flinching—was trembling.

My heart pounded.

I knew he loved me but, seeing him like this—it was breaking my heart.

Lei looked back down. His hands tightened on my waist, as if he feared I would disappear if he let go. “We have to figure something else out. You’re not leaving the East with my father tonight. I don’t give a fuck about anything else.”

“Baby, stop.” I cupped his face, forcing him to look at me.

His jaw clenched.

“Lei, nothing’s going to happen. I’ll be fine. You have to trust me.”

“I can’t trust any of this.” His voice broke and a shiver ran through him. “You don’t know what he’s capable of—”

“Well. . .I’ve been paying attention and I think I do have an idea of what Leo is capable of.”

“He’s unpredictable—”

“I know—”

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