“She was worried about you.” I tug on him. “Hey, can I tell you something?”
He stares at me, “Aye?”
“I worry, too. But I trust you know what you’re doing.”
“How is that?”
“I see how you clean your guns. Very methodical. I know methodical.”
Rhys gets serious and holds my face. “I will never hurt you, Fallon. No one will hurt you if I can help it. And if anyone does, they’re dead. Immediately. Throat slit. No bullet in the back of the head like a coward. They will see my face and hear me say your name again and again.”
His words should absolutely terrify me. But they don’t.
A fire stirs low in my belly, and electricity buzzes up my spine. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”
“Right, let’s get home.”
Home…
We reach the lobby, and Rhys holds my hand, striding to the elevator where a car waits for us in the middle bank. We step inside, and I watch the door close.
“Thank you,” I whisper, standing against the back wall.
“You already thanked me,” Rhys says.
I stare into his eyes. “Not just coming with me. For making me not look like a liar. No one ever believed that I had a boyfriend.”
His expression goes unreadable for a beat. “I’m sorry you had to go through that the other years. Trust me, that won’t happen again.”
When he says things like that, my heart does somersaults.
One moment from today replays over and over. Mean Annie, with her fake lashes like butterfly legs, sidled up to Rhys and purred,“If you ever get tired of playing with the weird girl, call me.”
My jaw had actually dropped.
The weird girl.
Also, what an unnecessarily salacious voice for someone wearing a blue knitted dress that smelled like mothballs.
“What a harlot,” I mutter under my breath.
Rhys glances down, amused. “Who?”
“No one,” I cough, embarrassed that he heard me.
Then again, an assassin would have excellent hearing. Tonight, he was polite and lethal at the same time. Everyone at church reacted to him with a respect tinged with fear. I like how safe I feel next to him. If anyone tried to touch me, they would have lost a few fingers.
I haven’t imagined how he would be in bed. I never thought we’d get to that stage. He’s been so busy. But today was different. Today, we crossed over to a new level. We kissed. Sort of.
And we have a whole month of these events. This was the first one, and he already put his lips on me.
We reach my door, and my mind blanks out, thinking he will want to kiss me goodbye. That’s what happens after a date, right?
I see couples kissing in the park. Some sweet. Some use their tongues. That would be a first for me. Rhys has been so patient with me all these years. Maybe he’s waiting for me to make the first move.
“I had a good time, Fallon.”
Laughing, I say, “Really? Even if you didn’t get to kill anyone?”
