Still staring at me, he gives me the bald truth. “I did it because he was my first hired hit. To this day, I have no idea what he did. My family was just beginning to get into organized crime. I was really,reallygood at shooting. We needed the money, and I’d found a way to get it, alotof it, quickly.”
Wow.
Shit.
I lick my lips and swallow, trying to get up the courage again. “How many?” I whisper.
“I’ve lost count.”
I stare at him.
I’ve forgotten we’re still joined together. He’s still in me.
It feels strangely right.
He was a hired assassin. He killed for money because his family needed it.
“I never miss,” he says quietly. “Ever. If I shoot to kill, my target dies.”
He’s given me a glimpse into the deepest, darkest part of his soul no one but me ever sees.
“Now do you want to run?” he asks me.
I don’t want to give him anything but honesty. “A part of me? Yes. But a bigger part of me wants to stay.”
His brow softens with the hint of a smile. “You think you can fix me?”
I give him a smile back. “I don’t think I need to.”
He continues his story.
“We wanted control. People put their faith in bullshit lies and promises, but in the end, we know the people they trust are untrustworthy. Politicians line their own pockets. My family at least owns who we are.”
I nod. “Right,” I whisper. “I get it. I understand.”
Maybe he never needs to know who I truly am. Maybe he’ll understand that my affiliation with the man who’s rejected me my entire life has nothing to do with who I am today.
“Let’s get to bed,” he says, looking over his shoulder. “The sun is beginning to rise.”
“Are you actually going to sleep this time?” I tease. I stand and rinse myself off, then take the plush towel he hands me. I let him help me out of the tub so I don’t slip, then slide into a fluffy white robe waiting for me on a hook. “Oh my God, I’d pay you a million dollars to wear one of your own.”
He snorts. “I’m gonnatryto sleep, and if one of those damn things actually fits me, I’ll payyoua million dollars.”
“Deal.”
He literally rips the seam on the first arm of the robe he tries to put on and sighs. I sometimes forget he isn’t the size of an average human.
“I guess I owe you a million dollars,” I say with a grimace.
With a shrug, he makes me an offer. “We can settle this debt with a kiss.”
I tie my robe and smile at him. “Whoa. I’m impressed. A kiss from me is wortha million dollars?”
“No, baby,” he says with that fire in his eyes I’ve come to crave. “No one can put a price on a kiss from you.”
I think I melt a little then.
I sidle up to him and lay my hand against his cheek.
