“I can do it again, if that’s what you prefer,” I cut him off.
He scowls. “I was just going to ask him to go fuck himself.”
“You were going to list the different ways in which you’d dismember him if he acted sassy with you. Or me.”
He gives me a proper two-second glare. “That, too, yeah.”
I laugh. “You’resolucky I love you.”
He grins. “As if you have a choice.” He kicks aside a wooden stool that’s in front of him, then places the pack of ice cubes, and my clutch on an empty counter space. Bracketing my waist, he lifts me up and sits me down next to them.
“Chivalrous,” I quip, letting my legs dangle in the air.
“Shut your face.” He crouches before me, then raises the hem of my dress before wiggling it at me. “Hold this.”
I do, then suck in a breath when the rough callouses of his hand brush my calf as he cups it and brings my leg forward. Unhooking the clip, he slides my white heel off my foot, then places it on the floor beside him. He repeats the process on the other leg, but this time, a small smile plays across his lips as he surveys the heels, running his fingers over the iridescent satin bow that’s attached to the very front of it.
“Cute,” he remarks, then places it next to the other heel before standing. “Gimme your hands.”
I know I shouldn’t feel so dazed, but goddammit, I’m dazed. And it’s not because of the champagne I’d drunk earlier; it’s simply because of how smitten I am over Dorran. Every once in a while, he’ll do something that’ll make me realize that I still have so much to learn about him, despite being with him for two years. There’s layers to him that are soft, and then there are parts of him that are so raw and vulnerable that they tug at the deepest strings of my being. He’s told me before that he’s lucky to have me, but really, it’s the other way around. But I won’t tell him that, obviously, because I know he’ll do everything in his power to negate it until I either agree with him, or give up on the topic entirely. Oh, the joys of loving this man.
He spreads my thighs and shifts between them, then glances at my now-exposed gun before bringing his gaze to me. “Why didn’t you use the Glock on him?”
I sigh. “Because it would have created a state of panic and commotion among the guests. And if I’d missed, it’d be for nothing, and we’d fail to finish the job we’re here to do tonight.”
“Fuck the job, Cigs,” he says. “You come first. You’llalwayscome first.”
“Iknow. But this isn’t aboutme, Dor. It’s about yourreputation, and for me,thatis something that’ll always come first.”
He works his jaw as he looks at me. “I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you how much I don’t care about my reputation where your safety is involved, do you?”
“No. But I hope you know that it goes without saying that I don’t care about myself when it comes to upholding your reputation.”
“I can argue with you over this the entire night,” he challenges.
“I know. But we’ve got shit to do, Ledger, so your arguing willunfortunatelyhave to wait.”
He cracks a wicked smile at me. “Fuck you.”
“Fuck you right back,sir.”
He chuckles, then grabs the ice cubes. Turning my wrists, he stares at them for a long beat, then grits his teeth before placing the pack of cubes on it.
I hiss, both at the cold sensation, and at the dull pain that shoots through my wrists when the ice touches the dusk-colored imprints on the inside of it.
“I’m sorry,” Dorran says as he looks at me. “Does it hurt too bad?”
“Not really, no,” I tell him honestly. “It’s bearable, I promise.”
He nods, seeming a little distraught, then alternates pressing the ice pack on each of my wrists. “I can’t believe I let something like this happen,” he whispers. “Especially after what you went through with Miranda and Riley back in Riverside. If anything, I should be more careful now, more…I dunno,smart.”
“Hey.” When he doesn’t meet my eyes, and continues to stare at my wrists, I cup the side of his jaw and lift his face to mine.
“Haroon isdead,” I state. “You fucking killed him for what he did, just like you ended my mom for how she treated me. Just like I drove a rod into Riley’s chest for trying to take from me what I didn’t wanna give him. It’s done, Dor. It’sdone.”
“But it isn’t enough, Cigs,” he says, then shifts the pack to the other wrist. “Death will never be enough for people like them.”
“What else can we possibly do, then? Death is the highest level of punishment we can offer. There’s nothing greater than taking a person’s life in order to strip them of their reign of tyranny.”
