Page 301 of Vicious Temptation

My hand slides around the back of her neck. “Chama, I'm so sorry.”

“I still love you.” Her voice shakes, but she doesn’t look away. “I fucking hate what you did to me, and I don’t know how to forgive you yet. Maybe I’ll be angry for a long time, but I still love you, Thiago.”

I close my eyes as her words hit every broken part of me at once. “If we get out of here, I’ll spend however long it takes earning back everything I destroyed.”

“When we get out.” She leans into me, and I wrap both arms around her as the fire closes in around us.

“I love you, Remi Cain.”

Her face presses into my neck. “I love you too.”

I hold her tighter, knowing there’s still so much I need her to know, but there’s no time.

The fire is spreading, leaving only a few feet between us and the flames. Heat scorches my back, and I turn until my body is between Remi and the worst of it.

She feels me move and tries to pull away. “What are you doing?”

Before I can answer, burning debris falls behind me, and pain sears across my back as a small patch of my shirt ignites.

Her hands fly toward me. “Oh, my God. Thiago, you’re burning.”

I catch her wrists before she can reach around me. “Don’t touch it.”

“Then let me put it out!”

“With what?”

The question stops her because there’s nothing left around us but concrete, smoke, and fire.

“No.” She grabs my shirt and tries to pull me away from the flames. “We’ll move. We’ll find somewhere else.”

“There is nowhere else.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Remi.”

“No.” She shakes her head harder. “I’m not sitting here and waiting to fucking die.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

“Then move with me. Do something!” Her desperation nearly breaks what little control I have left. I pull her back against my chest and turn farther away from the flames, taking as much of the heat as I can.

“There's nowhere to go.”

Her arms lock around me. “I’m scared,” she cries, her words so small against my chest that I almost don’t hear them. “I don’t want to die.”

“I don’t either. I need more time with you.” My voice wobbles. “I wanted mornings with you, baby. I wanted to cook dinner with you, bicker over music in the truck with stock tires, grow old beside you, and spend the rest of my life finding new reasons to make you laugh.”

She’s openly weeping now, and the sound tears me apart.

“I’m sorry,” I say, kissing her hair.

Another wave of heat rolls over my back, and I curl myself around her as much as my battered body allows.

“It’s so hot.”

“I won’t let the flames touch you.”