Sin & Salvation (Demigod of San Francisco #3)(32)

“Right!” Daisy flung a finger at me. “The paperwork for Franny is inside—”

“Henrietta,” Mordecai supplied. Kieran’s smile sparkled.

“—but that doesn’t mean this is actually your house. It’s no one’s house. We can just squat here while all this Valens stuff is going down, and when that is done and we’re the victors, we can reassess.”

“It’s in the magical zone, Daisy,” I said. “You’re not magical.”

“I have an I.D. that says I am,” she replied smugly.

“That’s why I had Zorn put in—”

“No.” I moved my hand from Daisy to Kieran, silencing them both. “It’s dangerous here. If Valens’s people find her here, they can kill her outright. At least there are laws Valens has to follow in the dual-society zone.”

“Valens doesn’t have to follow laws anywhere,” Kieran said, his humor dissipating. “He sent that woman after Bria yesterday, and it won’t be long before he sends someone better. If he goes after you, Alexis, I’ll be the only thing standing in his way. I need you here so I can protect you. This is the best compromise I could make. You’ll be safer here. You all will.”

“Even if they check me out, my paper matches my lifestyle,” I said, ready to fight until the last on this one.

“They won’t just look at your papers, baby,” Kieran said softly, anxiety tightening his eyes. “They’ll want to peel you apart and see what you know. They’ll do it with pain.” His body tightened, and I could see him struggling under the weight of that thought.

I surveyed the enormous structure in front of me. “But this…” I shook my head and took a step back. “Why not a shanty on the other side of town? This is too much.”

“A shanty?” Daisy asked in disgust.

“It’s not yours,” Mordecai said. “We’ll just stay here for a while, use the back way to come and go until the battle is finished, and then we’ll go back to our incredibly cramped home in a not great part of town. This massive improvement is just temporary.”

Kieran leaned into me, warmth radiating off his body and soaking into mine.

“If you stay here, I can stay with you. Or you can stay at my place,” he said, his stormy eyes inviting.

“Foul play,” I murmured, my gaze roaming his incredibly handsome face. Heat flash-boiled my blood and my body vibrated with desire. I could barely breathe. “But won’t your dad think something’s up if you move out? Won’t he check out your neighbors?” My voice had turned sultry, dripping with my aching need.

He took a step to close the distance, his body inches from mine. Electricity singed me as it passed between us.

“Neither of those things are an issue anymore.” His sweet breath fell across my face. I wanted those lush, shapely lips on mine. “He’s on the cusp of connecting Bria to me, I can feel it. It will all unfurl from there. Quickly.” His pause was slight, but anxiety dumped into my body through our connection. “We’re out of time.”

He was worried but not letting it show on his face. Our fate, whether we would live or die, waited on the horizon, just out of sight.

“Which is why you need to make new friends,” I heard Daisy say, but I couldn’t focus—not on her, the obvious danger we were all in, the horribly shortened timeline, or the enormity of this gift.

All I could focus on was Kieran’s eyes delving into mine, urging me to take his hand and let him lead me into the house he’d bought for me. To let him take care of me and the kids. To let him provide for us as he so desperately wanted to.

Silence fell around us. Souls pulsed in bodies. The delicious sea breeze caressed my hair.

Kieran’s stormy eyes dared me to say yes.





14





Kieran





The phone vibrated in Kieran’s pocket, but he ignored it. It was probably Henry calling to update him on the status of the business license for Lionel Curtsy, a fictitious man who’d just inherited a nice sum of money and planned to start a used car dealership specializing in passenger cargo vehicles. Old school buses, vans, trucks—all things Lionel would be purchasing for the business venture to come.

Kieran would then need to come up with more manpower to fill all those vehicles. Sadly, a made-up name couldn’t help him there.

He pushed the interruption from his mind. He’d deal with it later. Right now, he could only focus on the woman standing in front of him with open, honest, and frightened eyes, scared to take this plunge with him.

He couldn’t blame her. He’d felt his own fears all day long, in between surges of nervousness and desire. But the second she had walked up to him, eyes alight with fire and intelligence and passion, his fears had melted. All of his misgivings about the magnitude of this offer had drifted away.

She was his. She’d initiated the connection by joining their souls. She’d cemented it by thwarting his attempts to send her away. She’d nailed it down by turning away her ex-boyfriend at the bar.

Despite his fear that he wasn’t good enough, he did want her heart. He wanted it with everything in him. He couldn’t resist her, and it wouldn’t take long for her to realize that she couldn’t resist him, either.