“Dario?”
I spin around, eyes widening as I take in the form of the woman standing in the doorway of my bathroom. We stare at each other for seconds that feel like hours. And then I sag as my breath releases in a rush.
She’s here.
As if sensing the fight leaving me, she crosses the room in fast strides. And then her arms are winding around my waist as she throws herself against my chest. There’s a flare of pain but I ignore it.
She’s back.
“Oh, my God, Dario!” she sobs into my chest. I lift my arms to gather her against me, barely registering the small gasp she gives with the force of my embrace.
“You came…” I say, burying my face into her hair. Fuck…I can’t remember a time I’ve needed anyone so desperately. “You came back.” My voice is so damn hoarse. I thought I’d lost her for good.
After leaving the warehouse, Raoul and I had made a bolt for cover. The first thing I’d done as soon as we had comms, was to call the team at the bunker. They told me someone had come for her…Mateo had been there. And I had no fucking idea of what that could mean.
In the hours since then, I’ve agonized over what would happen next. Then again, there has been so much to agonize over. But her most of all. Should I find her? Let her be free?
Now, holding her in my arms, feeling her sweet curves pressed against me…it’s like I can breathe again.
She pulls away and stares up into my face. “Mateo told me what happened,” she murmurs. Hearing his name on her lips makes me go tense, but I say nothing. “I can’t even begin to imagine. His investigation – how betrayed you must feel. Your mother…?”
I shake my head, not wanting to speak about it. I want to drown in her. Forget everything else. But she’s stepping away, her eyes roving over me.
“Oh, my God!” she chokes out. The wound on my arm is bleeding freely again. And to make matters worse, some more of the goddamn stitches on my chest have burst loose.
“Shit,” I mutter.
“Dario!” she says sharply. “You need help! Let me get you to a hospital…a doctor!”
I shake my head abruptly. “No hospitals. No doctors,” I reply. Aside from not wanting to have to report yet another a gunshot injury, I don’t know how far things may have gone with Mateo’s investigation. For all I know, I may be a wanted man right now. She sighs in exasperation, and then I grin. It’s forced, but I give it my best shot. “Help me, Sister Lovvie,” I murmur, extending my arm.
Her fingers curl around my bicep, tracing the swirl of tattoo ink that’s now marred by the jagged edges of the wound there. She huffs out a breath, then reaches for the first aid kit on the bathroom counter.
“You’re impossible, you know that?” she says. Her voice is gruff, but I can feel the tenderness beneath it. She scoops away the bloody gauze and swabs I’d been trying to doctor myself with, sweeping them into the small trashbin nearby.
“You like me that way, admit it,” I reply, watching as she delves into the kit and begins removing fresh materials from within. Her eyes are wide and earnest when they meet mine.
“I like you any way I can have you,” she says, then quickly looks back down again as she cleans the gash deftly. Within minutes, she’s taped the flesh together with a string of Steri-strips and is wrapping my arm. Her brows pull together in a frown as she turns her attention to my chest. “There’s not much more I can do about this,” she murmurs, tracing my chest with the back of her knuckles.
I snap a hand up and hold her fingers over my breastbone, where my heart is pounding. I’m still mulling over her words. There’d been a time when I could have cared less about what she wants or doesn’t. But now, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt. I want her to want me. Not because she’s been forced to, or feels she owes me a debt. I want this sweet, beautiful woman to look at the man in front of her – without the family name and all the bullshit – and simplywant me.
“I’m so sorry,” she breathes out when I think the tension is about to shatter us. “For leaving. For…everything. I didn’t meant to…I didn’t—”
I cut her off, feeling her lips parting beneath mine as I drop my head and claim her mouth. She melts against me and it’s as if she becomes part of me. By the time I break the kiss, we’re both gasping for air.
“Never apologize,” I say hoarsely. “You have nothing to be sorry about. I’m the one who—”
“But the diamonds…your mother’s necklace,” she says. I feel my brow furrow. “I thought that was why you were so angry. Why you took me to that place…” She trails off as she sees me shaking my head.
“Nikki, I didn’t do that to punish you – I was terrified of what would happen while you were out of my sight. They were coming for you. I had to take you someplace safe. And the necklace…” I shake my head again. “Whatever happens between us, I gave that to you. It’s yours.I’myours, Nikki Love. If you’ll have me.”
I feel her shuddering against me, and then her hand is sliding around the back of my neck, drawing my face down. Tears are streaming down her cheeks as our lips clash together.
“Oh God,” she groans against my lips. “Oh God, oh God…”
I draw back slightly so we can lock eyes again. “I love you, Nikki…mi amore puro… So sweet. So pure. I don’t—” I don’t finish my sentence because her lips are pressed against mine again. As her arms twine around my neck, I reach for her waist, slide my hand down her ass to her thigh. When I hook her knee up over my hip, she doesn’t resist as I lift her up against me. And then I’m striding into the bedroom, her legs wrapped around my waist, joined at the lips.
I set her back onto the bed, standing and staring down at her for a moment.
