My arms close around his neck and he catches me soundly. I look up into eyes of fire and golden sunlight. The numbness that consumed me peels away until it feels like I’m standing in the sun.
“Cadey.”
“What are you doing here?”
He glances around and his shoulders stiffen slightly. “Come with me.”
I stumble behind him as he leads me away from the information desk. We weave through the crowd, moving briskly.
“What are we running from?” I ask, panting as I keep up.
“Our tail.” He grunts.
“Did your dad send someone to spy on me? How long have they been watching?” My face pales.
“It’s not just my dad.” He shakes his head. Messy blond hair curls under his ears, damp with rain. “It’s a long story.”
We fast-walk through the airport. His grip on me is like granite. Everything about him is hard-concrete, from head to toe. From skin to soul.
Did he really declare his love for me over the airport PA?
Dutch Cross?
Ruler of Redwood Prep?
More cheesy than heroes at the end of a romantic comedy?
My lips curl up.
He glances over his shoulder and his eyebrows furrow. “What’s so funny?”
“Everything with you has to be intense, doesn’t it?”
His nose scrunches. He doesn’t understand.
I don’t either.
A light, bubbling feeling is spreading through my body. Whatever danger Dutch is sensing, the sensation inside me is ten times more lethal. It’s consuming. Blinding. The kind of resolution that made Romeo and Juliette choose a tragic ending.
A kind of violent, all-or-nothing, take me to hell and back kind of commitment.
The curse of love.
Now, it’s settling around me.
A tight hug.
No resistance.
Dutch leads me to the entrance of the VIP section.
“Mr. Cross.” Someone unclips a velvet rope.
He drags me inside without acknowledging him.
Once the door closes, I step around in a slow circle, my eyes wide.
“Is there a hotel in the airport?” I gawk, temporarily distracted by the sofas, counters lined with snacks, and massage chairs.
“It’s a private lounge.” He sweeps the curtains closed and locks the door.
I watch him prowl the room and shivers run down my spine. Love didn’t soften him the way it softened me. He’s still moving darkness. Hard edges. Shadows shifting through his eyes. He’s still the cruel leader of The Kings.
But he’s also…
What is it?
He’s also… mine.
All of him—the good, the bad, and the… well, Dutch Cross is many things, but definitely not ‘ugly’.
What are you getting yourself into, Cadey?
“There are some things I need to clarify.” Dutch growls, turning to look at me with those sharp eyes. “And I need you to listen because I mean every word.”
I nod.
“My mom told me about my grandmother’s will recently, but I wanted to marry you long before that. The night I came to your apartment, I’d already decided that my future belonged to you.”
I open my mouth.
He keeps talking. “And that blonde girl from Jinx’s app?”
“It was Breeze.”
“I—” He stops and looks at me with a question in his eyes.
“She texted me this morning and clarified what those pictures were.”
‘I don’t want you to think I went after your man. I don’t approve of him, but I certainly wouldn’t steal him from my best friend.’
He juts his chin down. Prowls in the other direction. “I’ve been trying to get you pregnant.”
I flinch.
He stops and stares at me. “I want you to have my children, but not at the cost of losing you.”
“So you’re giving up on the will?”
“If that’s what I have to do.” His face darkens. It’s like looking into a rumbling storm cloud, lightning flashing inside a hurricane. “You’re mine, Cadey. Always have been. Always will be and nothing can change that. No one can change that. Not my dad. Not my brothers. Not… even if I find out you’re pregnant with Hunter’s child, I’d still lay my life down for you and the baby.”
My eyebrows hike. “What?”
Dutch studies my face. Suddenly, he crosses the room to me. Hard fingers squeeze my waist. “Listen up and listen well, Cadence. I told you once that I’ll love who you love and I’ll hate who you hate. If one day, you’re pregnant and it’s Hunter’s baby, I’ll love him like it’s my own damn blood.”
I blink up at him in shock. “Dutch, what are you talking about?”
“I mean that.” He grabs my face gently and holds my head up. “We can have children or we can hold off. You can tell me right here, right now, that you never want kids, ever. Or you can tell me that Hunter’s… that you two…”
Dutch thinks I slept with Hunter last night.
Feeling especially cruel and wanting to test him, I say, “Would you really take care of the baby if it was Hunter’s?”
There’s not a second of hesitation. Not a glimmer of unease.
Dutch gathers me by the small of my back and growls darkly, “I’d rather have you and some other guy’s baby than not have you at all.”
“What about your dad?”
The muscles in his face go taut.
“He’s not going to just… let us be together. He sent me away. He made me think you were a drug dealer. If you and I… if things change—”
Dutch’s eyes glint with danger. He bites out, “I won’t let anyone take you away from me.” Rough hands cup my cheek. “You’re my drug, Cadey. I’m addicted to you. I’d do anything to have you. The more of you I taste, the more I want.” His thumb slides over my cheek. “I’ve never loved like this before. Nothing else matters but you. And I have no intentions of hurting you again.”
My hands cover his.
“Tell me,” he demands, an edge of violence to his voice. “Tell me I haven’t lost you.”
“I showed up, didn’t I?”
His eyes narrow. “I want to hear it.”
I lick my lips and stare up into a face that used to feature in my nightmares. A face that morphed into my secret dream.
“I wanted to hate you. You’re annoying. You’re pushy. You’re absolutely unreasonable.”
His eyes narrow slightly.
“But,” I push up on my tiptoes, “I don’t hate you. I never really did.”
“Then what is it, Cadey?”
Those words. They’re so big. So absolute.
At least for me.
I lick my lips and whisper, “I love you, Dutch.”
His smile is decidedly more wicked as he steps into me. “Again.”
“No.”
He advances. A predator on the savannah. And I’m the clueless gazelle who doesn’t even realize she’s prey.
I inch back.
Not that I get far.
Dutch pushes me into the wall and pens me in with an arm on either side. “Again, Cadey.”
“You heard me the first time,” I whisper, my fingers sliding over his broad shoulders.
He leans in close, his face up against mine. My eyes fall shut automatically. Emotions arc through me like burning asteroids plummeting toward earth.
“Scared already?”
“We’re not going to be that cheesy couple who says ‘I love you’ every second. That’s gross,” I murmur.
Dutch’s breath whispers across my lips and I shiver.
“We are going to be that gross couple,” he grinds out. “It’s…”
My eyes open. “Inevitable?”
Amber eyes burn into mine. The edge of his mouth twists up in a cruel sort of smirk.
“So much to learn,” he mumbles.
And then his mouth descends.
His lips are hot, scalding. So is his tongue as it strokes mine to a rhythm that obliterates every thought. His hands rove my body with an incessant demand. More, he’s saying without ever tearing his mouth off my face.
I kiss him back with everything in me, a whirlwind of passion drumming up from the depths of my soul.
Dutch called me his drug.
But I think he’s mine.
My desire.
My need.
My obsession.
His fingers roam lower and I think he’s going to unbutton my jeans but, instead, he palms my stomach and pushes slightly.
My mouth disconnects from his and I groan in frustration at the distance.
“Marry me,” he growls. “Be my wife, Cadey.”
I don’t think in that moment. I just feel and let it sit.
My choice.
What do I want?
And Dutch waits.
For several seconds, we stand there, staring at each other.
I tilt my head up. “Yes.”
