The Saint (Fifth Republic, #3)

by Penelope Sky

“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.”

“It scares me because…I know this is it. When I married Adrien, I thought it would last forever, but this is so different, I can’t even compare the two. I wasn’t the same person then that I am now—and this is who I’m supposed to be.”

“I love you so much—” within a single breath, the tears were in my eyes, blurring my vision “—that it fucking scares me. I drowned in a coffin, and I still want to stay. I’ve watched men try to kill you, men who would have killed me if they’d succeeded with you, and I still can’t imagine my life with anyone else. This is not the life that I wanted—but I don’t fucking care because you’re the man I want.”

“I 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.”

determined. “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.” “Bastien…” I felt my eyes water again before I pressed my forehead to his. “Fuck, I love you.”