The Saint (Fifth Republic, #3)

by Penelope Sky

“Because you were dead, Fleur. Because when I got there, you were fucking dead…”

“I should just shut my fucking mouth right now. But you were right to leave me. As long as you live in my world, you’ll always be a part of it, which means you could be a victim of it…as we just learned.” He looked away. “You were right to want a law-abiding citizen with a nine-to-five. You were right to fucking run from me.” He swallowed and let out a sigh. “If I were a better man, I would do the right thing and walk away…but I fucking can’t.” His eyes watered momentarily. “I can’t fucking do it.”

“Even if you tried to leave me, I wouldn’t let you.” His eyes came back to mine, still angry and broken but steeped in emotion. “Because I never want to be apart from you.”

“Life goes on for everyone else, but not for me, not when my life is bound to yours.”

“I’ve seen some bad things. Done worse things. But that was the single most horrifying moment of my life.”

“You’re my woman. You’re my responsibility.” “I don’t want to be a responsibility.” “It’s a privilege to have you as a responsibility.”

“I fucking love you, so how am I not supposed to worry?” I raised my voice more than I should, but my frustration got the best of me. His smile was brighter than the sun on a summer day. He relaxed in the chair, arms across his chest, staring me down with blue eyes that were both soft and amused at the same time. His mood had completely changed, and I didn’t know why. “What?” “How many times are you going to tell me you love me before you realize what you’re saying?” He cocked his head, that smile still wide on his mouth.

have the power to hurt you, but you have the power to bring me to my knees, to make me fall stupidly and desperately in love when I thought I was incapable of feeling a damn thing. Now I have something I love more than anything, something I must protect like my life depends on it, because it does. I’m wrapped around your finger, trapped under your thumb, so hopelessly in love with you that I would burn this city if you ever left me.” He slid his hand farther into my hair and cradled my face. “But I know you won’t, not when I’ll never give you a reason to. Not when I’ll suffocate you with my love and desire. When I’ll never make you question what you mean to me, when I’ll never make you wonder where I am or who I’m with, when your call is the one I’ll always take. When a minute doesn’t pass before your text gets a reply.”

“I love you.” It was the first time he’d said it to me, and he said it so calmly and so sincerely, like there was no doubt in his heart. “You’re the first, the last, and the only.”