I shake my head. I can’t eat right now, but I don’t want to draw attention to it. Langston will drive me crazy worrying about me.
“I wish there was more Enzo and I could do. Are you sure you don’t want us to go with you?”
“You’re doing enough staying here and watching Phoenix. Really, you have no idea how much your help means to me.”
Kai hugs me. “We are going to get them back. And when we do, we aren’t ever going to let them go again.”
“I know.”
Pain radiates through my body, but I don’t let Kai know.
She steps back and holds out a silver mask. I take it from her, a familiar pang shooting through me from the last time I wore a mask like this.
We hear footsteps, and Kai steps back to allow Langston through.
“I’ll just be downstairs if you need me,” Kai says before leaving.
Then it’s just Langston and me.
“Wow,” he says as his eyes roam up and down my body. He takes in every curve, every inch of exposed skin, every contour of my face.
For a moment, all I feel is the heat of his eyes gracing my skin. I forget about how scared I am and how my stomach roars with pain and anxiety. For a moment, I feel wanted, desired, lured.
Langston must feel the change, too. Wordlessly, he takes two steps toward me, grabs
my neck, and crushes his lips over mine. The kiss is needy and desperate. His tongue pushes into my mouth without asking for permission, without giving me time to think that I shouldn’t be feeling any sort of pleasure when my kids’ lives are at risk.
The kiss continues despite the tiny whispers of reason floating in my head, telling me I shouldn’t enjoy this. All I deserve to feel is pain.
Langston’s tongue disagrees with the thoughts in my head. He pushes them out with each stroke of his tongue until the thoughts flutter away. Finally, when the thoughts have vanished, does he stop the kiss.
“That’s why you will make a great mother,” he says.
“What?”
“Because you won’t even let yourself enjoy a kiss. Your entire thoughts are on the kids. You love them without having met them. That’s why you are going to make a great mom.”
I take a deep breath. Now isn’t the time to argue with him.
My eyes take him in for the first time. He’s wearing a tux that I know he rented, yet somehow fits him like a glove. I can see his hardened muscles beneath the black fabric of his jacket and pants. His erection pushes against the zipper. My eyes shoot back up to his face, so he doesn’t get the wrong idea and think I want to fuck him. But that’s a mistake, too. His hair is tousled, and his face is clean-shaven, making me drool over the sharpness of his jaw. I know I can’t go near his eyes. His eyes are a danger zone I’ll get lost in.
He pushes his hands into my hair, not caring that he’s messing up the curls I spent hours perfecting. He kisses me again—slower, gentler, reminding me that I’m his.
“Whatever it takes,” he says, pulling my lips into his mouth once more.
“Whatever it takes,” I say, agreeing to his promise.
Then, he locks his fingers with mine and leads me out of the house to the waiting car. We climb in the back, and one of Kai’s employees climbs into the front. Langston holds my hand the entire thirty-minute drive to the club, but that doesn’t ease the butterflies in my stomach.
The car eases to a stop.
“Look at me,” Langston says.
I turn and look at him. He holds up my mask and fastens it around my face. “You’re the fiercest, most beautiful, badass woman in there. Nothing will stop you.”
“And you’re the strongest, most handsome, cruel man in there. Nothing will stop you.”
His eyes darken. “I hate you.” There is a bite in his words that is meant to stir a reaction.