She could.

Because of those jackals in her life, she just wouldn't.

"I'll make you safe, Liv."

She shook her head.

"Not safe," she repeated.

He gathered her even closer, pulling her up so they were eye to eye. "We get there, we get to that place, we want kids, I'll make it safe."

"They can't have anything to use to get to me," she told him and finished, "or you."

"They won't factor in the equation."

"Nick-"

"Livvie, honest to G.o.d, don't want to sound like a conceited a.s.shole, but I know I'm not hard to look at and you're f.u.c.kin' beautiful. It might have taken me a while to demonstrate I had a brain in my head, but I eventually did. I'm not dumb and you're far from stupid. We get to that place, we gotta have kids. It's our duty to this earth to give it that beauty."

In the light eking around the curtains, he saw her lips part, she pressed closer for a moment, only to move slightly away.

He pulled her close again.

"I don't want a child of mine to become me," she said.

"There's nothing wrong with you," he stated, steel in each word.

"You know what I mean, Nick," she replied, each word soft and edged in pain.

"I know what you mean and that's just not gonna happen."

"And maybe my mom thought that before she had Georgia and me, gave up and took off," she noted.

"And maybe your mom is a stupid, weak, useless b.i.t.c.h," he returned. "What's not a maybe is you're not."

"Nick."

His name was all she said.

So he kept at her.

"We get there...and just so you know, baby, that's where I'm heading us and I like where we're going...I can't say I'll take you to the mountains so you can disappear. I got a business. I gotta see to that business. And that business is in the city. What I can say is, I'll get you a place up there we can visit. And when we're at home, wherever we're makin' that home, I'll make you safe. And if we get to that place, we're making a family. When we do that, I'll make them safe. You'll live free and easy. They'll live free and easy. That's what I can say. And we keep on, we get to where we're headed, you gotta do what you promised along the way and believe."

"Believe," she said like she was rolling that word around her mouth, and even if he'd asked that of her before, and she'd promised she'd give it to him, she looked like she still wasn't sure how it tasted.

f.u.c.k, but that family of hers did a number on her.

"Believe," he said firmly.

He watched her press the side of her head in the pillow and her tone was one of surprise like she'd just noticed something.

"You like where we're going?"

He beat back a laugh and instead gave her a squeeze, sliding his leg deeper between her thighs.

"Uh, yeah," he pointed out the obvious.

"Our duty to give the earth that beauty?"

That wasn't said with surprise.

It was wonder.

"Yeah, baby," he replied.

She s.h.i.+fted her hands flat across his skin from his back to his chest.

"I...well, I like you, Nick."

Instantly, his body started shaking with humor he couldn't control.

"Well, that's good," he replied.

She pressed hard into his chest and whispered, "Please don't laugh."

He stopped laughing.

"I like you, Nick," she repeated.

f.u.c.k.

She didn't mean that.

She meant more.

"I like you too, Livvie," he whispered back, rolling into her.

"And I like where we're going," she told him, almost shyly.

f.u.c.k.

He settled on her. "I'm glad, honey."

"I want three babies."

Oh yeah.

His choice, he'd stop at two.

She wanted to give him three, he'd give her that.

He dropped his mouth to hers.

"You want three, we'll have three," he murmured against her lips.

"Think about the mountains, sweetheart," she replied. "I think we both could use some peace."

He was looking at mountain properties on Monday.

He ran his hands down her back, over the irregular skin at the small to her a.s.s. She didn't flinch, didn't move away, didn't have any reaction at all.

He was getting somewhere in a lot of ways.

"I'll think about it," he muttered.

"Good," she whispered.

He let her say the word then he slid his tongue in her mouth.

She slid her fingers in his hair.

When he was done kissing her, he moved to work her throat as he trailed a hand around and up toward her breast.

"I love how easy it is for you to make me believe," she said in his ear.

s.h.i.+t.

He wanted to make love to her again, do it slow, make it last.

She got any sweeter, he was going to have to f.u.c.k her.

"Baby?" he called.

"Yeah?"

He curled his hand around her breast.

"Shut up."

"Okay," she breathed.

He grinned against her skin and rubbed his thumb over her nipple.

One of her hands convulsed in his hair, tugging it. The other one started gliding down his spine.

Olivia shut up.

So Nick took his time and made love to her.

6:56 Sat.u.r.day Evening Nick in a suit, no tie, and Olivia in heels and a little black dress that he liked a f.u.c.kuva lot, walked out of the elevators at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Vegas.

They barely hit the public s.p.a.ce when three guys walking by them slammed into each other as their eyes remained glued to Liv when she and Nick pa.s.sed.

Nick looked from the men down to the woman he held close in his arm.

She was oblivious.

Nick was smiling.

They walked right out the front.

They got in a taxi.

And for the first time, Nick took his woman out to dinner.

11:58 Sat.u.r.day Night Her a.s.s on a velvet couch beside him, but most of her weight pressed up against him in a bar that felt suspended in a coc.o.o.n of crystals, her eyes carefree and happy, Olivia announced, "I need another c.o.c.ktail."

She was beyond tipsy, heading straight to s.h.i.+tfaced.

Nick didn't mention that to his girl.

He looked across the s.p.a.ce, caught the waitress's eye and jerked up his chin.

He felt Liv's hand at his stomach sliding across and he tipped his head down to look at her again.

"Thanks, baby," she whispered.

He didn't reply.

Instead, he drank in that look in her eyes, feeling her pressed tight beside him.

That was his.

He'd earned that.

After he gave himself that moment, he took what he earned, tipped his head down and kissed her.

When he released her mouth and looked back at her face, he knew that wasn't enough.

So the next party that pa.s.sed by, a couple, he stopped them.

"Sorry," he said. "But can you get a picture?"

The guy with his girl looked to Nick, then to Liv, and nodded, taking Nick's phone that he'd engaged the camera and was offering.