I have a feeling we’ll have our girl back sooner than later.”
When Bella’s gaze shifts to me, gone is the carefree expression she had moments ago. This one is hesitant, hopeful, and maybe even a little scared. Or who knows, maybe scared to hope.
I pick up my beer and move to the group, listening to Annie grill her daughter about their time apart, what she’s been doing for work, and if she’s safe.
All too quickly, time passes and Bella and I are standing on the pier watching her family disappear into the night on the boat back to St. Thomas. It was a hard goodbye to watch, even for me, and I’ve never met her family before. Seeing tears on Bella’s face for the second time since we’ve been here might as well be a turning knife in my gut.
The salty wind whips her long hair around her face but she doesn’t take her eyes off the black horizon until the lights disintegrate into the night.
I reach over and take her hand. “Let’s get back to the condo. It’s late and we leave early.”
She doesn’t utter a word on the walk back to the street.
The silence continues in the taxi.
She doesn’t afford me a glance, even though her grip on my hand is as intense as her mood.
I toss the driver a handful of twenties because we barely roll to a stop before Bella is out of the car and rushing to the building, as if a fire were blazing on her heels. The elevator doors almost shut me off from her by the time I catch up.
“What the hell?” I growl. “What did I do now?”
It’s late and the building might as well be giving me the same silent treatment as Bella. Feels like we’re on an expressway to heaven as we shoot to our floor without stopping. I lose her blue eyes when they fall shut and she drags both hands through her windblown hair like she wants to rip it from its roots.
My irritation is escalating as quick as this damn elevator. She shakes her head, and when her lips part, she looks like she’s about to throw me another curveball, but the tone of the elevator breaks her off. She makes a move for the door but I shift in front of her and hold it, caging her in the small box.
“No, dammit. Tell me what the fuck’s going on?”
Her face falls. “Move. I need off this lift. I need—”
“No. You need to tell me what I did. Why you’re pissed at me when you looked the happiest I’ve ever seen you with your family only an hour ago. Tonight was not easy to arrange.”
She puts a hand to my abs and pushes. “Cole, let me out.”
I don’t budge. “Not a chance. You turning into the ice queen is pissing me off. It’s not you. It’s not the woman I met years ago and it sure as hell isn’t the woman I fell in love with. Spar, fight—hell, fucking scream at me. Do your worst. You’re not the silent treatment type of woman, Bella. I fell in love with you as much as for what you are as for what you aren’t. You’re one of a kind and made for me. Come at me and give me your worst, I can handle it.”
I’m selfish and I know it. I’d bet my life on the fact I want her more than she wants her career. I’m willing to make any concession needed, as long as she’s mine in the end.
And I’m ready to reach the end, dammit.
Her hand on my abs tightens into a grip on my tee so tight, my already stiff frown deepens. But then she uses the grip to pull herself up.
And I finally get what I want. What I’ve wanted for weeks—no, what I’ve wanted since before I begged her to come home with me, even if it meant her hiding out in the States forever.
She closes the space separating us and her mouth lands on mine.
A kiss.
Something I refused to give her until she was ready.
I open my mouth—greedy and hungry—taking what only she can give me. I hold the elevator door with one hand but my other dips into her hair, plastering her mouth to mine. Now that I have her, there’s no damn way I’m letting her go or allowing any regrets to fuck up my plans.
Or my life. I’ve fucked it up well enough on my own and I’m