This Time I Choose Mr. Mafia novel · Chapter 19 of 32

Chapter 19: Believe Me

"Beside you," I said. "Not behind you. Not in a car around the corner."

"Beside me."

"Promise."

"I promised you something once already," he said. "In your father's study. Remember what it was?"

I did.

Stay alive.

It was the first thing I'd asked him for, and I hadn't known why I was asking.

"Say it again," I said. "Now that you know."

He bent his head and put his mouth against my forehead.

"I'll stay alive," he said. "And so will you. That's the deal now. Both of us, or it doesn't count."

I took his face in my hands and kissed him.

It wasn't like the courthouse, or the alley, or the railing on Wacker Drive.

It was slower, and it hurt, and I didn't want it to stop.

He lifted me off my feet.

I wrapped my legs around his waist, and he carried me out of the study and up the stairs.

He didn't put me down until we were inside his bedroom.

The lamp was on low, throwing gold across the dark bed.

I slid down his body and my bare feet hit the floor.

My hands went to his shirt.

I undid the buttons one by one, slow, because my fingers were shaking.

He stood still and let me.

Like I was the one in charge of this part.

When the shirt fell open I stopped.

The scar ran pale along his left ribs, exactly where I'd stitched him in my storeroom at twenty-two.

I'd touched it a dozen times since that alley.

Tonight it meant something else.

I bent and put my mouth on it.

He made a sound, something caught in his chest.

"Odessa."

My name, like a wound.

I kissed along the scar, slow, following the line my own stitches had made four years ago.

His hand came up and fisted in my hair, not pulling, just holding.

"You kept this," I said against his skin.

"You kept me."

I straightened and pushed the shirt off his shoulders.

← Chapter 18 · All chapters · Chapter 20 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend