“Right now we go back inside and get warm,” Leon said after the kiss. “I need to thaw you out by the fire. I think your lips are turning blue.”
“Is that why you keep kissing them?”
“I always said you’re a smart girl. And you’ll need to be naked for the heat to do its best work. But don’t worry, I’ll pay special attention to each and every inch of your body.”
“And after we enjoy that?” I asked, blinking innocently.
“I’ll get on the phone with Declan. We’ll need his help to pull this off. First with the crypto conversion and then with fake IDs and papers. And Ryan for an untraceable car. We’ll tell them the plan, but I want to break the news in person.”
Fear suddenly gripped me when I thought of his mother. “Will you tell her who my father is?”
He grew somber. He sighed out a long breath and ran a hand through his hair. “I hate lying. I think we need to.”
“Will she hate me?” I asked softly.
Why was I asking? Of course she would. My father had ordered one of her sons killed, and now I was going to cost her another. The guilt had me rethinking whether this was the right idea or simply me being reckless and selfish.
He read my emotions and pulled me close, hugging me tightly. “She won’t hate you. She’s not the hating kind.”
I buried my face against him, wanting to believe his words. But she was a mother. What mother could forgive someone who stole the life of a son, much less a family that had cost her two?
“Trust me,” he said. “It will be okay.”
I closed my eyes, then nodded. I would trust him. She was his mother. He knew her as well as anyone. She had been so kind to me that it would break my heart if she hated me. But I also knew that wouldn’t dissuade Leon. He was a man who went his own way.
“Take me inside and make me warm,” I begged him. I would face all the problems and challenges later. With Leon at my side, I could do it. But right now, I only wanted him to show me how much he loved me.
He did exactly that, and I knew that whatever might come, he would be mine, and I would be his. And that was enough.
EPILOGUE
LEON
Most guys in the life ended up dead or in prison.
But sometimes you won. It was rare, but when youdidwin, you didn’t question it. You grabbed it with both hands, and you ran like hell, never looking back.
There wasn’t a day that went by that I didn’t feel luckier than the devil and twice as grateful for the woman in my life.
I was waiting for Sofia in St Stephen’s Green, a park outside Dublin’s Royal College of Surgeons. Her last class for the week would be over soon. If I ever carried a cell phone, I might’ve checked the time, but I didn’t trust them anymore. Sofia had one, but then again, she was a med student, and a cell phone was a given for the calendar alone. But for me? I’d gone dark and low-tech. I liked it that way.
It was a mild spring day in Dublin. No rain for once. It was sixty-two degrees and sunny. I needed to start thinking of temperatures in Celsius, but old habits were hard to break. We were renting a flat a few blocks from the school. The place was pricey because of the location, not because it was any great shakes. I walked Sofia to school and back every day—her own personal bodyguard. She’d chat about her friends and her classes, her tough tests and med school gossip. It made me happy to hear her talk. Why? Because she was happy.
I spotted Sofia walking into the park. She was shading her eyes against the glare, looking for me, but I saw her first and headed straight for her. God, she looked stunning. She wore a flowing skirt that came to her knees, sandals, and a white and yellow top that didn’t show a bunch of skin but couldn’t hide her curves.
Maybe she felt me admiring her because she turned my way. Her eyes found mine, and she smiled that smile that damn near melted my heart every time. She looked excited, so that meant good news.
Sofia hurried the rest of the way to meet me, moving in that graceful and alluring way that caught and held a man’s attention. She was beautiful enough to turn heads, but she only had eyes for me. Didn’t I say I was lucky?
When we were close, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her soundly. With a kiss like that, a stranger might’ve believed we hadn’t seen each other for months. But this incredible woman deserved to know how much I cherished her. I wasn’t big on words, so I showed it in other ways. Every other guy could eat his heart out. Sofia was mine. I was hers. It was that damn simple.
“How was your test?” I asked when we were done locking lips.
She beamed at me. “Good.”
Good? I was obviously a bad influence. She was getting as terse as me. “So you passed? Maybe managed to pull out a C minus?”
She punched me lightly on the shoulder. The left one with the bullet-graze scar. It had long since healed, but she was sending a message. “Passed? I’d bet money on me scoring high.”
