Page 62 of The Strength Of A Woman

A small smile flashes across his lips.

“Sure, Boss. The room will be ready momentarily.”

He walks out while I shift my eyes to Leilani, who stares at me, perplexed.

“You won’t be leaving this house for the foreseeable future. Everywhere you want to go, you go with me. Every negotiation related to your life and future happens through me. Anyone who needs to talk to you will talk to me first.”

Relief and renewed hope bloom in her eyes.

“What about my friend Rory? Can I talk to her?’

“You can talk to her, but you can’t see her.”

“What about the party in Taormina?”

“You go there with me. You let me do the talking, and everything else.”

Her smile fades in the clutches of worry.

“What do you plan to do?”

“Right now? Nothing. We’ll go along with their plan, and when the time comes, you’ll learn what I plan to do.”

“You won’t touch Julian then?”

“Not now.”

“And everyone else?” she asks.

“Remains to be seen.”

She stares at me, her mouth agape.

“Anything else?” I ask.

The gentle hills of growing hope are swiftly replaced by a mountain of worry.

“What if something happens to you?”

“Nothing will happen to me. You don’t need to worry about me.”

She stays wordless for a moment before she snaps out of her daze and walks to me.

Her eyes are warm again and fearless.

Her arm is soft when she winds it around my neck.

Her chest is warm and jiggling when she presses herself against me.

She pushes up onto her toes and reaches my lips.

Yet she slides them slightly to the left and breathes over my cheek.

“I have no words to express my gratitude. Even if these two weeks are the last of my life, they’ll be the best of my life, too. Thank you.”

She loops her other arm around my neck, and I press my hand to the small of her back when she leaves a kiss on my cheek.

A kiss that has the power to unravel me.