Chapter 19 Emil
EMIL
Sadie didn’t wait for me to go far before she asked questions.
“Where are we going?”
I couldn’t stop scoping the area, worried that someone could be tailing us, after me or her, or if some other random kind of danger was going to stop us. “A safer location.”
“Where?” she demanded.
I grimaced, peeved at her haughty tone when I was grappling with the newness of being in charge of her safety.
Like this. She was carrying my son or daughter, and suddenly, being in a moving vehicle had never felt so damn scary and vulnerable.
Accidents happened every day. Cars could malfunction.
She could bump her stomach against the seat belt if I stopped too short.
Any number of things could go wrong and—
“Emil. Where are you taking me?”
“Another property.”
“For the love of all that’s holy, if you don’t give me an actual answer—”
“A property,” I repeated, stressed to a new height. “I—We have a new property we acquired. It was purchased and no one has used it yet.”
“A residence? A warehouse? Throw me a bone.”
I glanced at her, frowning. “Why?”
“Because!” She smacked her hand on the armrest. Seeing her mad shouldn’t be so sexy.
“Because I deserve to know. Unless you want to just cut to the chase and tell me I should view this as another round of your kidnapping me, I should be allowed to know the details of this plan. Or not plan. Whatever the hell we are doing.”
“An apartment complex. It’s been empty and needs renovation.” I gave her the rough area of where it was located. “Happy now?”
“No.” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t want you to assume I’m letting you decide everything.”
“I’m not kidnapping you,” I shot back.
“Fine.” She crossed her arms. “Then act like it. Don’t keep everything from me from this moment going forward.”
I sped on, rushing toward the building where I knew she’d be safe and also out of sight from my father.
Assuming she was content to have a location in mind, I exhaled a tense breath and resumed this new brand of worrying about the most ludicrous things I never would’ve considered otherwise.
Sadie was important to me, but this child she carried was one more degree of precious.
I’m going to be a father.
I still hadn’t given myself time to really let it sink in. Too many other things had to be tended to first. Like her filling me in on what happened since I left her in the Caymans.
She wasn’t done, though, peppering me with more pointed, logistical questions.
If the building was secure. If we’d need to stop for food.
If anyone in the Dubinin organization would stop in there or look for me.
It soon felt like an interrogation, one I bit my cheek and tried to endure.
But she wouldn’t stop. Maybe this was her way of worrying.
Perhaps she didn’t trust me or have confidence I could hide us well.
Then again, abandoning her like I had wasn’t the best route to earn her trust.
Once I parked and led her into the empty building, I headed to crank on the heat for the top floor’s unit. We went there next. But as I shut and locked the door after her, I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Are you going to stop snapping at me and arguing with me about every detail about this place?”
She flipped me off as she scoped the apartment, too much like me and without any lowered guard to not to check it for danger.
“Why did you even come to find me if you’re going to complain or fight with me or question every little thing I say or do?”
“Maybe because I’ve never had a partner before.” She gave me a withering stare. “Meet my standards and we’ll be fine.”
“I’ve never had a partner before either,” I growled. “Besides, you’re the one who came to me. Why bother if I’m not going to satisfy whatever the hell you want?” I put my hands on my hips as she sat on a dull-looking brown couch. “What do you want? Huh?”
That summed up the cryptic bond between us. Before, I knew what she had in mind. She wanted to tail me, arrest me, and bring me into the agency she worked for. All in the name of seeing justice done.
Now, after I’d left her, it wasn’t so clear.
She didn’t strike me as a needy or clingy woman who’d protest raising a child on her own.
I didn’t want her to, and I dared her to try to keep this baby from me.
But at the same time, I could tell she wouldn’t balk at being a single, independent mother. She had that gumption, that attitude.
She clasped her hands together, somehow looking even smaller, sheltered in that enormous coat I’d grabbed her for cover.
“I… I don’t even know anymore.”
I dragged a chair over and sat on it, facing her. The urge to take and hold her hands taunted me, but I needed more clarity before losing my control to feel her again.
“It’s just been a mess.”
“Start from the beginning,” I prompted, bracing myself for her to bitch that I was ordering her around again. “Please,” I added.
She sighed, then got right to it. With brief yet pertinent details, she explained how she’d flown home from where I’d left her. Her superiors accused her of selling intel to the Cartel, and since she’d used them as her excuse, I guessed that they’d believed her too well.
“You didn’t tell them that I took you?”
She shook her head and went on. I tried not to dwell on what that could mean, that she’d hide me like that. It sounded like she was just so busy trying to clear her name that I wasn’t even on the radar.
“Is that why the Cartel kept showing up?”
“Yeah.” She told me about how another agent found evidence that orders were given for a tracker to be put on my watch. “They set me up. And not only that, but they also know I’m pregnant.”
Keeping my cool as she told me that Cartel mercenaries were interested in her child wasn’t easy. I fumed, burning up from the inside out with rage. The mere idea of anyone trying to harm her and the new life we’d created lit a storm of wrath I didn’t know how to contain.
“I don’t know if they want this baby as leverage.
Or as a hostage. Or just to…” She blew out a deep breath.
“I just don’t know. Since they fired me, I can’t find much.
That’s why I came to you. To know your opinions about how to face this.
How long any security could last. If you could manage defying your family to want to help me during this period.
” She shrugged, not embarrassed nor proud about putting it on the line like this.
“When I heard about the tracker on my watch, I wondered if it was just a means of spying on me while I spied. Or if my superiors really wanted me dead.”
“If they wanted you dead, you would be.” I hated to say it, and so bluntly, but it was true.
“I agree. Which is why I kept wondering if they were aiming at you and someone was trying to take you out, not me. Or maybe they saw me with you and wanted to take me out because of that association.”
“Your superiors at the agency?”
She nodded, then shook her head. “I guess. Or someone from your family.”
“No.” I shook my head. “No one would have endangered my life just to get a shot at an enemy.”
Calling her an enemy felt so wrong now.
She couldn’t be my enemy. She would be the mother of my child.
“So I wanted to find you and see if you were alive. And all right.” She lowered her gaze, as if shy to admit she cared.
I was touched, truly moved that she’d be concerned. “You worried about me?”
She looked up. I saw in her bright blue eyes that she did.
“You still care for me?”
Tilting her head to the side, she studied me. “You say that like I shouldn’t.”
“You haven’t been entirely amicable since you showed up this morning.” It was a poor attempt at lightening the mood.
Annoyed now, she smirked. “Whereas you are the one who just left me. If anyone should be wondering about who cares more, it’d be me. You left me. You walked away from me.”
I took her hand now. Nothing could hold me back from erasing that troubled look on her face.
“And I regret every second since I did.” Not giving her a chance to argue again, I scooted closer to the edge of my chair, just to be that much closer.
“I am very glad that you are here and with me again, Sadie.”
She stood, shaking her head. “Oh, yeah? For now, you mean. How long will this last? I can’t hide forever. Neither can you.”
I shot to my feet, taking her in my arms before she could move away and pace, which was what it looked like she wanted to do.
Tucking her close was the balm on my soul that I needed. Every inch of contact between us recharged me. Her presence calmed me. “We are here and safe.” I edged back to see her face, hating how stressed and tired she still looked. “I need time to figure out how to handle this.”
She winced.
“We need time to figure this out.”
“Well, I was fired. I’ve got all the time in the world,” she sassed dryly.
“Good. Then you’re available to let me do this.” I framed her face and dipped down until I could kiss her. Slowly, then with her melting at my touch, harder. With hunger.
She moaned, reaching up to cling to me. I growled, savoring the utter elation of having her again, filling that hole in my heart.
I couldn’t predict the future and there were too many obstacles and unknowns to contend with, but right now, she was here and I wasn’t giving her up. Never again.
“I missed you,” I said between panted breaths when we parted for air.
“I missed you more,” she admitted, tugging at my clothes. “I’m still so freaking mad at you.”
I grinned, helping her get my clothes off at the same time I worked on hers.
“So mad that you just stranded me like that.”
I silenced her with a harder kiss, hurrying to reunite with her in the one way she seemed made for. Like a perfect fit, she seemed to be on this earth just to align with me.
“And when I realized it wouldn’t just be the two of us…”
I smiled as I picked her up and brought her to the couch. My pants sagged at my ankles. Her pants trailed behind at one of her shoes. That huge coat fluttered to the floor. One long tug on her T-shirt revealed more of her, but this would have to be it.
I needed her too badly.
I lusted for her with every fiber of my being.
As I sat, I made sure she stayed on my lap, straddling me.
Her wet pussy rubbed along my erection, and I gripped her hips.
“We will talk,” I promised.
She nodded as she lifted up to line herself with me. “After,” she agreed hastily, just as rushed to fuck.
“After,” I said, bracing for the sweet perfection of her sinking down on me and gloving me so snug. Inch by inch, she impaled herself on me. We moaned in unison as she lowered all the way, pulling me into her tight, slick heat.
“Oh, fuck.” I welcomed her quick rolling thrusts as she bounced on my dick. “You’re still my good girl.”
“Mmm.” She hummed in agreement before kissing me.
Mine. However long it took us to argue and battle our way to any agreement and truce, it would be worth it. Because in the end, she would be my good girl. My partner. Just mine.
“Ride me, Sadie.” I threaded my fingers through her short, glossy hair, gripping it tightly. “Ride me and come for me like a good girl.”
She panted, moving faster as she chased that high. And it came all too soon. Our reunion wasn’t a long and slow one. Because under the clench of her pussy around my dick, she triggered me to come as well.
I pulled her head toward me and silenced the roar that built in my chest by sealing my lips over hers. Desperate to ensure I’d shot every drop of my cum deep inside her, I held her close and vowed to never, ever let her think I’d walk away again.
We would argue. She’d be difficult. But like this, we would always reach a middle ground of heeding this unstoppable desire that locked us together.
Coming down from the high of my orgasm, I wondered if maybe it was love, after all.