Page 66 of Diary of a Mafia Princess

“Nyah!”

But then his arms were around me, and I was up off the floor, arms around his neck, holding on to him with everything I had and breathing him in because everything inside me had craved him for so long.

“I’ve got you, baby. It’s okay. I’m going to get you out.”

I had no idea where we were going. Where Luca or Lynx or Carlos were, but I couldn’t care.

Not when I was back in his arms. Back with the man who made me feel safer and more loved than I ever had in my life.

We burst out through a side door of the building, people running all around us, someone screaming that the entire roof was coming down.

None of it mattered anymore. Because I was back where I belonged. I buried my face in his sweaty neck and inhaled the scent of his skin. God, I’d missed that smell.

“Nyah, talk to me, baby. You’ve got a cut on your head that’s bleeding all over me, and I need to know you’re still conscious.”

He put me down, and I whimpered, not wanting him to let me go.

It took me a minute to realize we were in the back of his car, and he was sliding in beside me.

I blinked at him, not one-hundred-percent sure I hadn’t imagined the entire thing. I reached up and touched his face, but my fingers came away warm and coated in his sweat. “Hey.”

He let out a laugh that sounded full of relief. “Hey.”

He leaned in and kissed me, his mouth warm on mine and so familiar it opened up the giant chasm of pain I’d been trying to close ever since my father had dragged me away from him. I grabbed him and hauled him in closer because I needed more of that. More of his lips on mine, more of the sweet sound of his voice. More of him.

I’d had him for such a short time. I just wanted more.

He kissed me again, giving in to what I wanted, but he pulled back all too soon. “Baby, you’re bleeding. Let me look at it.”

I nodded, only because there was blood dripping in my eye.

His gaze shifted to the left a little, inspecting the wound on my head. He grimaced, peering down at it. “I don’t think it’s actually that bad, but head wounds bleed a lot.” He leaned into the front of the car and took out a small first aid kit from the glovebox. He rifled through it, pulling out some saline and gauze and cleaning up my head. He frowned down at his supplies. “I have no butterfly strips, so we’re going to have to make do with a Band-Aid.”

I plucked one from the box on his lap and held it up to him. “There you go, Doctor.”

He smiled as he took it from my fingers and tore off the wrapper. He stuck it so gently to my head that tears filled my eyes.

He noticed and cupped both sides of my face between his hands. “Shit! Did I hurt you?”

I shook my head. “No. You never could.”

His worried gaze flickered all over my face. “Should I take you to the hospital?”

I probably should have said yes. Probably needed to have my head checked by a professional, and I wanted to get the baby checked too. But my first instinct had been to protect the little life growing inside me. And my gut instinct told me I had. That the baby we’d created together was a fighter, apparently as much as his or her father was.

I wanted to question why he’d been in that ring. Why he’d been trading punches, but my heart didn’t want to know the answer. I’d already seen it in the pain on his face.

He’d been fighting because of me. Because of the way I’d broken him when I’d left.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered, the windows fogging up around us with the wet heat of his sweat and our breaths mingling in the small space. “God, I’m so fucking sorry for all of this.”

A sob racked my body, and he put his arms around me, holding me close. He kissed the top of my head. “It’s not your fault.”

And maybe he was talking about that night. But I was talking about it all. Our lives. The fact I’d walked into his, laid claim on his heart, knowing full well my father would come for me and rip it out.

I knew now there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was a pawn in a game that was too big for me to play.

But I’d wanted more time in his arms, in his bed, in his life. Dax was everything that was good and sweet and soft and gentle.