I still couldn’t believe what had just happened with my father.
I didn’t think I’d ever felt more exhilarated.
More hopeful.
More alive.
Logan slammed it shut and locked the hidden door, too.
It closed us off to the smoky, opaque shadows that swam through the secret room. My attention raced to take it in. It held a game table and a couch and a small bar at the back. The décor oozed of 1920’s decadence.
Logan strode out in front of me, as if he couldn’t sit still. He roughed an agitated hand through his black hair as he paced.
His spirit was held in a lethal storm.
“What is this place?” I wheezed, chaos whipping through my being.
My breath hitched when he finally whirled around, the sight of his face clipping off my question.
The man was so obscenely gorgeous in the tailored suit he wore.
So magnetic my heart jolted toward him.
Those eyes flashed as they raved over my body.
Copper and green.
Stony.
Malachite.
Yet, still the farthest from opaque.
They were feral.
Angered and awed and everything in between.
“You did it for me.” Agony hurtled out with the hardened words.
“You did it for me.” Reverent torment. It underscored his disbelief and this vibrant anger that pounded through the room. “You promised your father you would never see me again if he spared my life? That’s why you married Jarek?”
My soul shook, and I pressed my hands to my chest. “I had no other choice.”
I knew until right then he never had really understood what I’d meant.
Every muscle in his body rippled with severity, edged in strength and rage.
“No, Aster, you could have chosenyou.”
“And exist in a world where I knew you didn’t? Know that your love for me had been your end? Never, Logan. Never.” The confession wept through the room.
“What did he do to you?” Rage sprang from his spirit and burned from his tongue.
My eyes squeezed closed. “I don’t want him here right now, Logan. I don’t want him anywhere near us.”
Because for the first time…for the first time…Logan and I had a future. A chance. A possibility. The hope of life and a…family.
My heart pounded, and my eyes fluttered open when he murmured my name.