Page 63 of Bitter Queen (Advantage Play 4)

I look down at the little boy in my lap. “Shaken, but I think he’ll be okay.”

“He looks exhausted.”

“He is exhausted,” I confirm, taking in Will’s boyish features. His eyelashes are so damn long. Lucky little shit. I run my fingers through his brown hair again, then turn to D. “Do you know what happened? Do you know why he’s here? Does anyone else know I’m here?”

“Let’s go chat in the other room.”

“I can’t leave him—”

“Knock, knock,” Regina calls from the doorway. Her heels dig into the ground when she finds us huddled together. “Oh.” Dropping her voice to a whisper, she hooks her thumb over her shoulder and mumbles, “I can come back.”

“Wait,” D orders just as quietly before he turns to me. “What if Regina stays with him? Then you and I can talk in private without the risk of waking him up.”

I look down at Will again. He looks so little in my lap. So innocent. So tired. Licking my lips, I answer, “Okay.” Then I carefully lift his head up and slip out before Regina replaces me on the floor.

“I’ll look after him,” she promises. The determination in her eyes soothes my nerves, but I still find myself frozen in place until the heat from Diece’s palm brands my lower back.

“Thank you,” I breathe. Then Diece guides me back to my room.

As I step over the threshold, he grabs my face and kisses me. It’s hard and desperate, filled with so much relief that I almost melt on the floor. When he pulls away, a breath of laughter weaves itself into my voice as I whisper, “What was that for?”

“I just needed to kiss you.”

I smile against his lips, then rise onto my tiptoes and press a second kiss to his mouth. This one is softer, gentler, but laced with just as much emotion as the first.

When he pulls away a second time, he presses his forehead against mine and squeezes his eyes shut.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, sensing the hurricane in his soul.

“Nothing.”

Trying to lighten the mood, I tease, “Liar.”

“Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize.” His five o’clock shadow tickles my palm as I cup his cheek. “What’s going on?”

As if in pain, he closes his eyes and leans into me. “I just…I wish I could protect you.”

“You do protect me.”

“I mean from your past,” he clarifies before opening his eyes. The emotion that swirls in their depths is staggering. The guilt he feels for something he couldn’t control. It makes me want to cry, and hug him, and beg him to keep me forever. But this isn’t a fairy-tale. And he isn’t an average Prince Charming.

“In another life, I’d make us hide away at Matteo’s estate forever,” he murmurs, reading me like an open book.

“But you’re a Romano,” I finish for him. “And you’d never be satisfied with that kind of life. I’ve given you the impression I’m broken. And in a way, I have been. But after seeing Will, I know that I can’t stay broken. You were right. I can’t let myself live in fear. I have to be stronger than that. And I need you to believe in me. To let me prove that I am stronger than that.”

“You’re the strongest person I know,” he whispers.

“Not yet. But I will be. Now, tell me what you know about Will.”

23

Q

Diece tells me every minute detail about Will and Sei and Burlone and Johnson and freaking Reed until my head is spinning. But it’s Sei’s name that makes my gut clench and my muscles tighten with anxiety and fear. Once he’s finished, I feel like a boa constrictor is wrapped around my torso, squeezing the life out of me, but I can’t ignore it. That will only make the wound fester.

With my head in my hands, I clarify, “So, he really is out there.”

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