Page 98 of Forbidden Fate

“Nothing in my life is simple right now.” She covers my hands—still on her cheeks—with her own. “We can figure out something similar to what Vinnie did for Daniela. He married her to get her out of Colombia.”

My jaw drops.

Actually drops.

For several seconds, I can’t speak.

Robin’s eyes go huge.

“Not like that,” she says. “A marriage of convenience. For immigration purposes. Or legal purposes. Or whatever purposes apply. I’m not an expert.”

I stare at her.

Her cheeks color. “You can close your mouth now.”

I bring my lips together.

This is serious. Dangerous. Absurd.

But Robin Bellamy just turned pink while suggesting we might get married, and some reckless part of me wants to believe it might mean more.

I let my hands fall from her face because if I keep touching her, I’ll say something to ruin everything.

“A marriage of convenience,” I say.

“Exactly.”

“You’re offering to marry a man you have known for forty-eight hours. A man who took you and brought you to Colombia.” I run my hand down my face. “I’m a goddamned criminal, Robin.”

She opens her mouth.

Closes it.

Then frowns.

She looks toward the window. “It does sound insane.”

“A little,” I agree.

Insane doesn’t begin to cover it.

In forty-eight hours, Robin Bellamy has ruined me.

No.

Not ruined.

Changed.

My entire life has flipped upside down in two days. The man I was before I drugged her and took her from Adriana’s house. That man knew where he belonged, even if belonging there had made him sick. That man understood orders. Loyalty. Survival. Silence.

This man?

This man is crouched on the floor in a faded yellow sitting room, imagining a future in a country that may not want him, beside a woman who should never trust him, because she just offered him a way out before he could bring himself to ask.

All because of her.

All because Robin looked at me with fire in her eyes and made it impossible to keep pretending I was only following orders.