Meeting my gaze, he pulls my hand between his and holds it tight. “I sent Felix to the restaurant tonight.”
My heart does a flip, his words filtering in a little at a time. It registers first—and somehow foremost—that he knows Felix was at the restaurant. It clicks that he knew I dunked my cell phone in a pitcher full of water, so he checked the tapes, but there are no cameras in the restroom.
Then the other crucial part of what he just said sinks in, and I am lost. “Wait, what? You sent Felix? Felix is a cop. A cop who hates you, specifically.”
Rafe nods patiently. “He was a cop. I wasn’t lying about that. He did hate me, didn’t lie about that, either. The part I lied about was not being able to get to him before he fled after Skylar’s party. We picked him up at the restaurant. He knew he was in deep shit. While he doesn’t like me, and he wasn’t in a position to work for me and remain on the local police force… well, he was in a position to take his get-out-of-jail-free card, some of my money, and peace out to Ibiza or some shit.”
I point my finger at him, trying to wrap my head around everything he’s telling me. “Don’t steal my drunk girl lines. What the fuck are you saying to me right now? You set me up?”
“Yes. Well, I tested your loyalty. Those were the words I would have used. It’s not my move, but it has proven effective in other situations, so I… borrowed it. My version was less emotionally torturous and I was actually rooting for you to pass, so maybe I could get some brownie points.”
My eyes widen. “Brownie points for lying to me for weeks, scaring the bejeezus out of me, tapping my phone, making me feel horrible for not helping Felix—should I go on? I can.”
“Okay, maybe no brownie points,” he allows. “I know it wasn’t a nice thing to put you through, but I needed to know for sure that when it came down to it, you would stay on my side and not flip. I believed in you, Virginia. I did. I didn’t want to believe… but after Rex and Adrian found those tapes in your apartment, I had to know I hadn’t been fooled again. I believed you would pass the test and stay on my side, but I had to know beyond a shadow of a doubt what you would do if the opportunity arose. I’m sorry.”
My mind is in overdrive as I try to keep up, to organize all my confusion and prioritize the most important. “So, Felix is not in trouble?”
Rafe shakes his head. “Felix agreed to help me, so he gets a nice payoff instead of a dirt nap. He’s going to relocate to a beach and be just fine. I figured that would make you happy,” he adds, watching my face.
“It does, but I can’t believe Felix agreed to help you trick me. He hates you and likes me.”
“He does,” Rafe agrees. “But he likes breathing more than he likes you, and hates dying more than he hates me, and out of all the options I gave him, there was only one that gave all of us what we wanted.”
Shoving him in the arm, I say, “Everyone but me, you mean.”
“You get everything you want, you just couldn’t be privy to the knowledge until now,” he tells me. “No one was permanently hurt. You still love me, right? Felix is alive and well, isn’t he? He’s not a cop anymore, but he can tend bar on a beach in Cabo or wherever the fuck. On the upside of not immediately shooting him in the face, getting Felix to talk was helpful. He assures me he was the only undercover guy they had on me—though we’ll have to be more diligent about that, going forward. You can help me out with that.”
“Oh, can I?”
Digging one of his rarer moves out of his arsenal, the one he saves for when he really needs to turn my knees to jelly, Rafe shoots me a puppy dog look that sucks me back to the first time he wielded it. My heart swells, my tummy tightens, and then the rogue leans in and steps it up a notch.
“You want to keep your husband safe, don’t you?” he asks, his tone smooth and sure. His hand lands on my knee, then slides slowly up under my pretty white dress as he caresses my thigh. His scent wafts around me, pulling me under. He slides a long, elegant finger inside me and I let my head fall back against the booth cushion as he caresses me with his words. “You are my best friend, Virginia. You’re not the woman I ever expected myself to fall in love with, but isn’t it just like you to know what I need before I do?” He smiles at that, and I can’t help smiling back. “Marriage wasn’t in my plans, but I am so happy I married you. I could not have picked a more perfect woman to spend my life with. I can’t promise I’ll ever be a perfect husband, but I promise I’ll always do my best to make you happy.”
I sigh, shifting as he toys with my pussy. I loop one arm around his neck to hold him close, and brush a soft kiss across his lips. “You do make me happy.”
“And I want you to be able to trust me,” he adds. “I swear I won’t manipulate you like this again. I had to this time, but I don’t like that shit, I really don’t. That’s how you treat opponents, not partners. Well, it’s how I treat opponents, not partners.”
I smile, pushing my fingers through his hair. “I’m your partner, huh?”
“Always.” He withdraws his finger from between my legs, then brings it to his mouth. I blush, biting down on my lip, but this time I know it’s coming when he licks me off his finger.
“Still better than any dessert I ever brought you?” I ask lightly.
“Without question.”
Sighing, I pull his mouth against mine. Like always, he takes over the kiss I started, dominating my mouth and intoxicating me with his hands in my hair and all over my body. My blood stirs and I spread my legs, pulling him between them. Thankfully there’s a lot of room in the booth. It’s a tight fit, but Rafe draws off my panties and climbs on top of me.
I feel dangerous and daring as he unzips his pants. “Are you really going to fuck me right here?”
“Should’ve done it a long time ago,” he says simply.
He comes down on top of me and smothers my smile with his lips. I gasp as he pushes inside me, then wrap my legs around him and pull him deeper.
Between kisses and pants, he teases, “Does that mean you forgive me?”
I laugh a little, but then he thrusts hard and I have to catch my breath, reaching for the booth above me to hang on. “I do.”
Rafe fucks me faster this time than he does when we are in bed at night. I cling to his broad shoulders and come apart beneath his powerful body. Afterward, he gathers me close, kissing me and tangling his hand in my hair. “I love you, Virginia,” he tells me.