“The instant I saw that first set of eyes, I couldn’t help but think about you. How that could’ve been you. How, had we not gotten that ransom video that showed us you were even a victim in the first place, how we probably never would have rolled up on you until it was much too late. With every pulse I checked, I wondered if yours would still be beating when we got back. With every pair of clouded eyes that I turned over and saw, I wondered if that’s what your eyes would’ve looked like if?—”
“Aaaall riiiiight,” she dragged out softly, her hands migrating all around my body.
Oh yeah. I was crying. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how they were just killed for nothing. To cover some fucking tracks.”
“My God, I’m so fucking sor—whoo!”
I went from being held by her to holding her. I sat up, scooped her up, wrangled her into my lap, and held onto her for dear life. I buried my face into her hair, inhaling her scent, committing everything to memory so that I could draw on it for the rest of my life.
For the rest of our lives.
“Be mine, my Liz,” I mumbled into her hair.
She giggled as she tucked against me. “I thought I already was yours.”
“Be mine officially then.”
“Mmmm,” she said playfully before she kissed the crook of my neck, “I suppose I can do that.”
“You suppose?”
“Yeah,” she said with a giggle.
I slowly laid her down, pinning her beneath me. “Oh, you only suppose?”
Her giggles reignited as she wiggled around a bit. “Well, maybe a little more than suppose.”
I leaned down and kissed the tip of her nose. “A little more than ‘suppose’, huh? How much more?”
She slinked her arms around my neck. “How much do you want?”
“All of it.”
She blinked.
I leaned forward until our noses were touching, my arms holding me up over her effortlessly.
“You have my word, Elizabeth, that nothing will happen to you like what happened to those girls. No one is touching you. No one is putting a bullet between your eyes. Nothing is ever going to happen to you again because you’re always going to be safe with me. Do you hear me?”
She nodded softly. “I hear you.”
I lowered myself down onto her, my hands on either side of her head. “There’s just one catch.”
“Just one?”
I nodded. “Only one.”
“What is it?”
I captured her lips in a kiss, but I didn’t once break eye contact. “You don’t leave me.”
“I don’t leave.”
“Yep. You don’t leave. That’s the deal. You’re safe with me so long as you don’t leave.”
Her voice was a reverent whisper. “You really want me to be yours?”
I captured her lips again, only that time, I allowed my eyes to close while I relished the taste of her bubblegum lips.
