Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 36839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 184(@200wpm)___ 147(@250wpm)___ 123(@300wpm)
"If you turn yourself in, I'll still tell them we were sleeping together. You'll have done it for nothing."
"You won't."
"Watch me."
He glowers at me. "I'm doing this for you, Athena."
"And I'm telling you I don't want it. I refuse to watch the man I love destroy himself to save my career. It's insane, Diego!"
He falls still, staring up at me. "You love me."
He says it almost as if he's afraid to hope. It's part question, part prayer…the most vulnerable words to ever come from his lips. If I didn't love him before, the unsteady shake in his voice would have tossed me over the edge. For someone so powerful, someone so damn indomitable to be discomposed by three little words is devastating and beautiful at the same time.
"Yes," I say, my voice clear and firm. "I love you, Diego."
His eyes drift closed on a silent prayer. It's the most peaceful he's ever looked. Until they spring open again approximately four seconds later. Adoration, vast and bright and pure, blazes in obsidian depths, searing me with the strength of his devotion.
"Ah, bella," he groans, moving like lightning. One minute, I'm on top of him. The next, I'm pinned beneath him again, his legs between my thighs, his hands in my hair. "You've really done it now, rabbit."
"D-done what?"
"Sealed your fate." His lips descend on mine, his kiss hungry and raw. His hands move over me, moving at the speed of light as he strips me bare, desperate to get me skin to skin. "You're supposed to run from danger, not fall in love with it."
"Guess I missed that memo," I moan, popping buttons on his shirt in my haste to get it off his perfect body. "You'll have to send it again."
"Fuck the memo. This is all mine now." He runs his hand down my body to indicate what he means. Possession blazes in his eyes as they meet mine. "All mine."
"Not unless we do it my way."
He pauses, eyeing me curiously. "And what is your way, goddess?"
"With us together, not separated by prison walls, no FBI job standing between us. But truly together."
"This is what you want?"
"You're what I want, Diego. However I can get you." What's a lifetime of answering to men like Dennis Respert when I can spend a lifetime loving this infuriating man? They don't even compare. Maybe he was right all along. There was no choice except for this one. Not for him, and not for me, either.
Maybe Dennis was right, too. Maybe I'm not cut out for the FBI. Not because I'm a woman. Not because I belong behind a desk. And not because I'm too dainty to do a man's job. But because my heart is right here with the criminal who owns it.
"I suppose we can do it your way," he says, reaching between us to undo his pants. "But only if you promise me something."
"What?"
He doesn't say anything for a long moment as he kisses his way down my body, pulling one nipple and then the other into his mouth. He lingers for a moment over my belly, and then inches lower, blowing a hot breath over my sex.
Only when my legs are over his shoulders does he speak again.
"Only if you promise to remember that I love you more than life itself while I'm fucking you through the mattress for trying to shoot me."
My heart leaps and plummets at the same time. He loves me. And I am so screwed.
"Yeah, bella. You're in so much fucking trouble now," he growls, dragging me up to his wicked, smiling lips. "If you believe in God, you better start praying."
Dear God…
That's as far as I get. For a long, long time.
Epilogue
Diego
One Year Later
"What the fuck are you doing?"
Athena jumps a foot in the air, spinning around to face me. "Jesus, Diego! You scared me."
"I noticed. What are you doing, bella?"
"Nothing." One thing my wife is not is a good liar. It's still a mystery to me how the hell she graduated from Quantico when she looks guilty every time a lie passes her lips. She's wearing that look right now.
She's also trying to hide something behind her back.
I stomp into the bathroom, determined to find out what it is.
"Touch me and die, Diego Butera," she says, throwing a hand up to halt me.
I cock a brow, smirking. "You really want to play this game again, goddess?"
"No." She glowers at me. "I mean it this time."
All the more reason for me to remind her that her rules mean nothing to me. I break them because I can. Because we both know how much she loves it when I do. I'd kill for her, no questions asked. She's my heart and soul. Everything I do is for her. But no one tells me that I can't touch what belongs to me. Not even my perfect wife.