“I might have spoken about you once or twice,” he muses and gives me the tiniest of smirks. “I haven’t shut up about you since I broke it off, and I only got worse after I saw you in that bar.”
“And here, I was thinking you were some strong, macho detective who had a thing for dirty talk and fighting off the bad guys to save damsels in distress?” I ask, raising one eyebrow with my questioning nature. “Instead, you’re just a hopeless romantic.”
“Hey!” he replies, his tone an octave higher.
“You give me a loaded fucking gun every damn time, Maverick,” I retort with a small giggle.
“And yet you only graze me each time. What’s up with that, Sweetheart?” he asks, shooting me a look full of sarcasm.
I slap him playfully, but stop when my phone rings out with an incoming text.
“My phone,” I comment, motioning to my bag. “I have to get it. Especially after last night.”
He sits up slightly. “I thought it was all figured out?”
“It is,” I tell him and move out of his hold. Jumping off the bed only long enough to grab my bag and find my phone. I look at it and sigh. “My father’s going away,” I comment throwing my phone back into the bag. “Apparently there’s some business he needs to attend to back in our homeland.”
“So does that mean I get some of your unadulterated time?” he asks, pondering on the fact I’ll be without the metaphorical ball and chain that is my father. “I mean, without Abbiati missions stepping in, that is.”
“I planned on playing your nurse maid,” I quip, giggling with my playful intent. “If you’ll have me.”
“I only ever wanted you with me,” he remarks, his comment an earnest, heartfelt confession.
And for once, I feel free. It’s what it’s always like with Zane around. I feel a liberation I’ve been searching so long for, and I feel at ease. I don’t feel twisted with conflict and worried by the woes of tomorrow. I feel wanted and loved and like nothing will ever matter again.
My grandfather always used to preach one thing – There is a devil within all of us, but it is our choice whether to tame it or let it tame us. I fear I’ve overstepped the mark with this, and my devil is running free just waiting for the final pieces of me. But then Zane touches me and I’m calmed by just his touch alone. I know I am able to live with my tame devil when he’s by my side. Without him, I feel I enter the freefall to hell.
“Hey,” he comments, reaching for me. “Where did you drift off to?”
“Nowhere,” I tell him and smile. “I was just thinking about how you make me feel and how unreal it feels to me.”
“This isn’t unreal,” he states, sitting up so he can shift toward me. “This, what we have, is forever. I know that because otherwise you wouldn’t have come back to me. I don’t care how it happened, but it did, and I am not letting you go ever.”
“Nothing in this life is forever,” I tell him, and my eyes begin to water. “I learned that when I was only little, Zane. I know better than to believe in stupid dreams.”
“Then stop dreaming and believe in what we have.” Zane’s retort comes across almost hard and unforgiving, but it’s full of conviction and makes me look at him. “Stop thinking about tomorrow and live in the fucking here and now – with me.”
“How do you propose that?” I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.
He gives me a coy smirk. “Move in with me.”
It takes a lot to make me speechless; a raw, unprecedented action leaves me speechless, my father opting to sell me makes me speechless, my entire life leaves me speechless. What Zane just said leaves me breathless.
“Well?” he prods, worrying masking his face. “What do you say?” He then shrugs. “You want to look after me, oh nurse maid of mine, well I suggest you do so right from my bed with me.”
“Okay,” I reply, my response delivered with tender, sweet giddiness.
What this man does to me is something I want for life.
“Okay?” he asks me as if I’ve lied to him.
I grin wildly at him. “Okay, Mr. Maverick, I’ll move in with you.”
“Fuck, yes!” he whispers excitedly and falls down against his pillows. He then looks at me playfully. “Want to go and bat your lashes and see when I’ll get my discharge papers?”
“Are you just using me as an escape route?” I ask him, standing up only to look down at him with my hands on my hip.
“That and I want some time alone with you,” he says, grinning like a fool at the idea. “I know how to corrupt you and make you realize that a life away from the Abbiati cult is just what you want.”
I shake my head and start to leave the room, only calling over my shoulder with one last thing. “I expect domesticated bliss.”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’ll be having breakfast in bed almost every day,” he shouts out behind me.
I look back just in time to see him stick his tongue out to add motion to his comment, and for the first time in days, I begin to laugh hysterically. I might be filled with sufficient amounts of love and desire for him, but he makes me happy.