"It's not just anything." His voice was firm. Certain. "You're everything, Aria. I love you. And I'm going to keep you. No matter what it takes."
"Kai, you don't understand what you're saying. Love is..."
I didn't get to finish.
Pounding on the door made us both freeze.
"Kai! Luca is looking for you. He's coming down this hallway right now. You've got maybe thirty seconds."
Marco's voice. Urgent. Warning.
Panic flooded through me. I scrambled out of bed, searching frantically for my nightgown.
Kai was faster. He grabbed it, helped me into it, his hands steady while mine shook.
"Bathroom. There's a door that connects to the guest room next door. Go. Now."
He pulled me against him one more time. His mouth found mine in a brief, searing contact that promised this wasn't over.
Then he pushed me toward the bathroom.
I ran. Found the connecting door. Slipped through into an empty guest room just as I heard Luca's voice in the hallway.
My heart hammered so hard I thought it might break through my ribs.
I made it back to my own room somehow. Collapsed on my bed, shaking.
Kai loved me.
He'd said it. Meant it. I could see the truth of it in his eyes. And I thought... God, I thought I loved him too.
Which was the most terrifying realization of my life.
Because loving him meant accepting all of him. The protector and the killer. The man who held me and the man who pulled triggers without hesitation.
Could I do that? Could I love a monster?
Or maybe the real question was: could I stop?
Chapter Fourteen
KAI
I'd never said the words "I love you" to anyone before. Not romantically, anyway. Sure, I'd told Lia I loved her, but that was different. Sibling love. The kind that was obligatory and comfortable and safe.
This was something else entirely.
The words had come out so easily with Aria. Natural. Like they'd been sitting in my chest waiting for the right moment to escape. And when I'd finally said them, watching her face in the morning light, I'd felt this strange combination of terror and relief.
Terror because I'd just handed her a weapon that could destroy me completely. Relief because pretending I didn't feel it had been exhausting.
But she hadn't said it back.
She'd frozen. Stuttered something about sex and circumstance and confused feelings. Then scrambled out of my bed when Marco warned us about Luca.
I understood. Our situation was complicated as hell. We were trapped in an impossible scenario where love was probably the stupidest thing either of us could feel. And she was eighteen, for fuck'ssake. Barely an adult. Still figuring out who she was outside of what her family had trained her to be.
But understanding didn't stop the small ache in my chest when she'd looked at me with those wide, panicked eyes and basically said everything except "I love you too."
