I’m staring at Barty, trying and failing to understand this lunacy. He had to have known that I’d kill him for this. But he did it anyway?
“It’s alright.” He taps my hand. “Many great…scientists…have died…for their cause.”
His body jerks once more before his hand drops to the floor with a loud thud.
Bartholomew Shaw takes a shallow breath, and with his exhale, the light fades from his previously smiling eyes. Leaving behind an empty vessel.
“Iris,” Adriano whispers as he crouches before me, removing the gag from my mouth. “It’s okay, baby. You’re safe.”
“You’re…bleeding,” I choke out. Tremors rack my body, making my teeth chatter.
“It’s nothing.” He pulls up his pant leg and slips a small blade from a sheath at his ankle. “Did he hurt you?” he asks as he cuts the bonds around my feet, then my chest, and finally my wrists. “Are you okay? Is…”—he looks up, those pools of icy-blue connect with me—“is the baby alright?”
I suck in a lungful of air.
Oh God! He believes the baby isn’t his.
And he didn’t even find out about the pregnancy from me.Inever told him.
“Adriano—”
“Please tell me you’re okay. Or, I swear to God, I’m going to lose it.”
I lean toward him, cupping his face with my palms. “I’m fine. But you’re bleeding too much. We need to get you to the—”
His mouth slams against mine, stealing my air. He kisses me with the ferocity of a man who has experienced a lifetime’s worth of hunger. It leaves me dizzy. Consumes my soul, heats up my center, unleashes a heady rush of sensation in every part of me. This is more than a kiss, and I never want it to end.
“I’m so sorry.” His voice breaks as he murmurs into my mouth. “All of this is my fault.” His hand cups my chin as he rains kisses all over my face. My nose, my forehead, my eyes. “I should have… I should have done so, so many things.” He’s holding me impossibly close, as if afraid I might pull away. “Christ, baby. I was so fucking scared. Never been so scared in my life. I thought… I thought I was going to lose you. That…he’d take you from me.”
His lips are on mine again. His hand is sliding into my hair as he deepens the kiss. He tastes like dawn breaking over the ocean. And something darker. Something I could have for the rest of my life and not get enough of.
“Can’t live without you, Little Iris. Can’t survive even a single day. You’re my air. My sun. My lifeline. I’m drowning without you. I need you. I love you. Love you so damn much.” He leans back slightly, and those vibrant-blue depths lock on mine. “I know, I’m not the kind of man you deserve. I’m not…nice. Or honorable. The list of sins you can lay at my feet is too damn long. But…could you try? Could you, maybe, try to love me back? Even a little? I’ll take anything you’re willing to give.”
More tears burst from my eyes as I kiss him with everything in me.
Silly, silly man.
“Adriano—”
Suddenly, he rears back. His face a mask of sheer determination. “But you must understand… I have to kill him.I’m sorry. You’ll probably hate me for it, but… I have to. I can’t risk…” His hand trembles as he reaches out and places his palm on my stomach. “I can’t risk the father of your child claiming our baby for himself. He needs to be neutralized. Erased.”
I run the back of my knuckles along his cheek, caressing his grim face.
“It’s you,” I whisper. “There was never anyone else. I only love you. As both—my husband…and my silent guest.”
Time seems to stand still as he just stares at me. Speechless. His face perfectly still, as if frozen in ice. But then, he blinks. The vein on his forehead starts pulsing. However, the rest of him appears to have forgotten how to function. He holds his breath—his chest neither rising nor falling—as he looks down to where his hand is spread across my stomach. His lower lip trembles as he gazes at it in shock. He remains like that, unmoving, for a long, silent minute.
I’ve never witnessed a person come apart at the seams in complete silence before. But I think I am seeing it now.
“Adriano—”
“We need to get to the hospital,” he rasps, his eyes still looking a bit hazy.
“Yes,” I sigh in relief. He’s bleeding. Losing a lot of blood.
“Full checkup.” He nods. “The bloodwork.”
“Yeah, okay. We should go now.”
