The couch.
The coffee.
Oh, my God.
My heart stopped. “This…it’s similar to the café in Milan where I tried to kiss you when we first met.”
He nodded. “Exactly.”
I frowned, even as my heart thundered with love. “Why…why did you bring me here?”
He patted the couch, sinking into the soft cushions.
I followed, our knees touching as we faced each other. The softness of the settee cradled me as Jethro stroked my ring, his face alive and pensive. “That night I told you so many lies and hid so much from myself. I wanted you so much. I wanted to run the other way, to hide you, to never return to Hawksridge. But I didn’t. I let a lifetime of conditioning control me, and I made the worst mistake of my life.”
Looking around the tiny café—at the grandmother feeding a teacake to her granddaughter and the barista serving a couple—he added, “I’ve known you for months, Nila, and I haven’t once taken you out on a proper date. Never been to see a movie or eaten at a restaurant.”
My entire soul overflowed with affection. “You’re saying you want to do that?”
“Of course.” His back straightened. “I want to explore the world with you. I want to show you off and let people know I might’ve planted evidence saying you ran away with me at the start of this mess—that the media believed we’d had an affair well before we did—but now, it’s true, and I value you enough not to keep you all to myself.”
His golden eyes darkened to bronze. “You’re no longer indebted. You’re free to go wherever and whenever you wish; I want to be by your side for every experience you find. I want to be the reason you smile every day and the man you hold every night.”
Quick flashes of the doctored photographs and Flaw’s handwritten note to the press the night Jethro stole me entered my mind. I no longer suffered any hurt or annoyance because, in the end, that was life’s plan. To give me to Jethro so I could steal him in return.
My voice stayed soft, inviting. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, I’ll be beside you no matter what you want to do. If you want to return to sewing, I’ll be there holding the fabric. If you want to travel and help me with diamonds, I’ll be there carrying your bags. As long as we’re together, Nila. I don’t care where we are.”
My heart galloped with longing and love and overflowing lust. “Kite…” Leaning closer, my eyes latched onto his mouth. “As far as I’m concerned, you come first. I might not be indebted anymore, but I have no intention of running far from you. I don’t care what we do as long as we do it together.”
He relaxed a little. “I’ll never get tired of hearing that.”
“Never get tired that I love you or that I won’t run?”
His smile turned into a sinful invitation. “If you run from me, I have the means to chase you. I’d find you and make you mine again.”
My legs twitched as my belly fluttered.
Inching closer to me, Jethro ran the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. “Now, if you don’t mind, I believe I need to do something that I should’ve done that first night.”
My breathing stopped. “What should you have done?”
His breath fanned over my lips. “Kissed you. You owe me the kiss you so naively offered me moments after we met.”
“Naively?” My heart pounded as my core grew wet. The tension between us swirled and sparked. “Don’t you mean stupidly? I remember you calling me that a few times.”
His hand cupped my cheek; his thumb skimming from my lip to my ear. “Like I said. I told a lot of lies that night.” His eyes drifted to my mouth. “May I? May I take back that first wrong and make it right?”
I couldn’t breathe.
I nodded.
“Fuck.” His body fell forward, his mouth met mine.
I parted for him, welcoming his taste and control. Scooting closer, his arms banded around me, his knees bruised mine, and the coffee shop faded into obscurity.
I moaned into his mouth, melting into his embrace. I’d never been kissed so deeply or so selflessly. He poured the past and present down my throat, rewriting history and revoking everything that’d happened. In his arms, I only remembered how happy I was and not about the sadness still clinging to us.
My diamond ring weighed on my finger. My diamond bracelet decorated my wrist. And my diamond collar locked me forever as his. So much had happened. So much pain and debts and death.
But this.
A simple kiss in a simple coffee shop in a simple world.
This made it all worth it.
This made it all priceless.
His tongue danced with mine, slowly pulling away from me, leaving me needy and desperate for more.
Letting me go, Jethro reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of parchment. “It’s fair to warn you, Needle, that after that kiss I’m fucking rock hard and need you more than I can stand. I doubt I’ll have the self-control to order a coffee or watch you eat a piece of cake without needing to be inside you, so I’m going to show you this before I yank you out of this place and find a dark place so I can fuck you. Then, when the violence in my blood is sated, I’ll reward you by making love to you and showing how my love can both be a punishment and a play.”
My mouth fell open. His torrent lapped around me, licking my nipples with promise. “We can leave now. This very second.”