"Well, good. I’m glad you know that." Her nose crinkled some more. "I shouldn’t want you to be proud of me. Shouldn’t need that." She cleared her throat. "But I like it." For a second, disgust laced her features, and I knew it was aimed inwardly.
I wasn’t sure why I was so careful with my words, I just was. "Shouldn’t we always want people to think we’ve done well?"
"We shouldn’t," she disagreed with a small shrug. "But it is what it is."
I frowned. "What does that mean?"
"It means..." She heaved a sigh. "Never mind. Is everything okay?"
Unappreciative of her answer, I limped forward, not even thinking of my fucking leg, just needing to cage her in. To get her answer. To know where her mind was at.
As I approached, her eyes flared wide. Not in fear. The pupils dilated, swallowing up the pretty brown irises that reminded me of mahogany.
With that one involuntary gesture, I found myself at the limits of my control. Her beauty did that to me. She wasn’t the girl-next-door kind of hot, wasn't a supermodel. Savannah had curves on top of curves, but her face was exquisite. Porcelain skin, arched brows that framed her features, a delicate nose and lips that were a dusky pink I wanted to lick.
Everything about her was tactile.
Which was why she was so fucking dangerous to me.
On the outside, she looked harmless. On the inside, she possessed a rapier sharp intelligence that’d slice me in two if I didn’t watch out.
"What, Savannah? What does it mean?" I demanded.
"This isn’t fair," she groused. "I’m not firing on all cylinders!"
I smirked at her. "That puts me at an advantage then. I’ll take that considering I know how much of a shark you are regularly."
Something flashed in her eyes. "I’m not a shark."
"Yes, you are," I countered. "Don’t think because you fool every other dumb fuck out there, you ever fooled me. I can scent a predator when I’m near one." I reached up and tapped her nose. "Now, what does ‘it is what it is’ mean?"
She rolled her lips inward, like she was trying to watch her words before she blurted out, "I’m weird with you."
"Weird?" I scowled. "You’re not weird."
"That’s sweet of you to say but you’re not inside my head."
"No. I’m not." I tipped my chin. "Care to share what’s going on inside it?"
"Not particularly." She pulled a face. "Not tonight. Tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow I’ll tell you everything."
I couldn’t stop myself from laughing. "What? When you’re less shaken?" A kinder man would have backed off. I wasn’t kind. I hummed. "That wasn’t a request, Savannah."
"No? Well, it sure as hell sounded like one. One I choose to refuse."
"What if I won’t let you refuse to answer, hmm?" When did I get so close? So close that I could smell her perfume, one that reminded me of peaches, so close that I could see the individual lines of the grazes on her chin and jaw.
She squirmed again. "Stop it."
"Stop what?" I rumbled.
Her hand wafted in the very minute amount of space between us. Less than two feet? "This. Stop it. Back up."
"I don’t think you want me to," I rasped, leaning forward.
All of a sudden, she had her back to the wall and I had my forearms on either side of her head. The relief was immediate on my knee, the pressure shifting, but I wasn’t thinking about that. Just about pinning her in place.
Savannah needed that.
Otherwise she’d squirm free.
A growl escaped her. "What’s going on with you?" she attempted to deflect. "Why are you so angry?"
I scowled. "I’m not angry with you."
Her expression cleared in an instant, and I noticed the tiniest corner of her bottom lip was sucked between her teeth. "I didn’t—" She heaved a sigh. "Okay, not with me. What, then?"
"I don’t matter," I rasped. "What you went through tonight—that’s why I’m mad. You shouldn’t have had to deal with that on your own. Where the fuck were your security, Savannah? I know your father insists you have them."
She scowled. "What use would they have been? He got into my apartment, Aidan. How were my guards supposed to get to me before that bastard slit my throat?"
Rage throttled me, filling me with a tension that was unlike my usual temper. It was selfless, not selfish. Revolving around her because she was right.
She was fucking right.
As her truth resonated, I rasped, "Okay, that settles it. You’re going to stay with us. No one apart from Lodestar would fucking dare creep into our penthouses. At least that way you’ll be safe."
Her eyes measured mine. "Fine."
I blinked. "Fine. Fine?" Jesus, that meant she was terrified and just not showing it. I’d never known a woman reply that fucking fast without even bitching about independence and all that other shit.
My hands dropped down, sliding along her arms until I reached her wrists which I cupped. "I’ll keep you safe. You don’t have to be scared."
Her gaze darted to my chest. "I have a lot of exposés left to reveal," she murmured softly. "It could take weeks."
Weeks with Savannah?
Christ, she’d drive me insane.
Absolutely fucking insane.
She was chaotic and invasive. Always asking questions. Relentless when she was on the hunt for answers. She was so fucking beautiful it hurt.
This rehab shit was hard enough without that sweet kind of torture hovering around me too.
So why the fuck did I say: "You’ll stay for however long it takes, Savannah. Do you hear me?"
Nine
Savannah
I should have argued.
I knew I should.
I should have said, ‘Hey, motherfucker, I’m a big girl. I managed to stop some assassin dude with a mop and a coffee table book. I can do it again.’
Not only did I not want to risk it, but I really didn’t want to.
Did you want to guess how many times I’d seen the bastard since the last meeting we’d had together?
Zero.
Zero times.
Nought.
0.
Nil.
ZERO.
That should have been impossible in New York when we ran in the same circles, when I’d seen his brothers and his family several times at boring galas and fundraisers…
Which told me he’d actively avoided me.
Which told me I got under his skin.
Not in the whole parasitic kind of way. In a ‘I have to avoid her because if I don’t, things will deteriorate fast.’
And when I said deteriorate, I totally meant ‘we’d end up fucking so hard that no mattress in the city would be safe.’
No mattresses would be safe. Not in a ten-mile vicinity, that was for damn sure.
Have you ever just looked at someone and thought about their dick sliding inside you?
That was what Aidan did to me.
To this day, when I jilled off, I used him as inspiration.
I used his face to get me off because that and his hands were the only things I’d ever really seen.