Free His Absolute Proposal: An Illicit Billionaire Love Story (Elise, #3) by Cerys du Lys

something.  I was getting tired of it, tired of the talking and tired of sitting here, waiting, tired of being anxious and nervous.  Maybe I didn't seem it, and maybe Lucent didn't, either, but I didn't know how he could be so calm.  We were... we were in trouble.  This was not a good predicament.  None of it.
    We had a stay of execution, a brief respite, but we were stuck with the blade of a guillotine hovering above us.
    But then finally, a conclusion.  An answer.  A way.
    "We'll leave immediately," Lucent said.
    "What about breakfast?" Jessika asked.  "Can't you at least stay for a little while?  Ten or fifteen minutes won't hurt, will it?"
    "I don't mean to be the one to tell you this, ma'am, but I've really got to step back outside soon before my partner comes looking for me," Dean said.  "If I don't, he'll radio something in, and they'll have more people here within five minutes.  As soon as I step outside and call it in myself, it'll be about five minutes, too.  That's really all the time you have."
    Five minutes.  A final decision.  A potentially life-altering moment in time.
    This was what I'd been contemplating before, wasn't it?  This was one of those moments, where you looked back in hindsight after living through it, and you wondered if a small change might make your life better.  Perhaps not better, but different.  A hopeful future, a slight alteration.
    I didn't think I could change my mind, though.  I would follow Lucent anywhere.  I wanted to be with him.  I couldn't stop myself; I couldn't help it.  I just... I needed... I needed something , even if I wasn't exactly sure what that was.  I didn't think Lucent knew, either.
    We owned a piece of each other, a tiny fraction of our souls shared between us, and without it we became lost.  I was his lock and he was my key.  I knew we could exist separate of one another, but what was the point?  A lock without a key was a cold, lonely, and isolated thing, forever trapped.  A key without a lock served no purpose, held no meaning.
    I didn't want to be trapped.  I didn't want Lucent to be lost and without purpose.
    We only had five minutes to make a decision, but there was only one choice I could possibly make.  I just hoped it was the correct one.  It didn't make sense, and it held no logic, but it seemed right.
    ***
    B efore Dean left, he gave Lucent something to help him on his way.  It was a slim wallet with a couple of credit cards and some false identification.  I shouldn't have been surprised, but I kind of was.
    Now, I was Josephine Dunst, potential future wife of Max Hollowell.  These were the same fake names that Jessika and Asher used to hide from the press when they'd eloped almost a year ago.  Their marriage seemed happy and beautiful, so I took that as a sign of good things to come.
    Dean left, and then it was just us.  Sort of.  Something happened.  A sharp crack, then a crash, the sound of someone falling to the ground outside the living room window of Jessika's apartment.  Asher sprang into action, cursing under his breath.  Lucent moved towards me, protective, placing his hand on my thigh.  I gasped and inched closer to him, touching the side of my arm to his.
    "Paparazzi," Asher said.
    Well, this was it.  We didn't even have five minutes anymore.  Perhaps five seconds, but maybe even less.
    My heart raced, frantic, but it wasn't fright so much as exhilaration.  I didn't want to be excited about something that I should be nervous and anxious about, but how could I not?  Adrenaline soared through me and I felt oddly alive and powerful.  I felt like I could run—like Lucent and I could flee on foot—and that nothing could catch us.  We were unstoppable, inseparable.  We were...
    We were leaving.  We were going somewhere else.  I wouldn't be able to see my friends or my family.  I wouldn't wake up and go to work at Landseer Tower, knowing that I'd see Jessika there.  I wouldn't be able to talk to her