"Can people die during the...switch?"
"Death would be easier." He felt emotionally and physically tired. A feeling he was unaccustomed to. "I need more time, Grace. I want to trust you with what I've told you. I want to show you how I feel about you."
"But that's what you want. What about what I want? This is my life. Every day that I'm gone, my sister suffers, thinking I'm dead."
"I can't let you go."
"Can't or won't?" she asked.
"Both." He slid off the counter and approached her.
She leaned into him. He held her, rocked at finally having her back in his arms.
"I won't risk something happening to you, and I can't have law enforcement involved." He tilted her face. "You have to understand who I am. If it got out that I'm enhanced and spent almost half my life within a project that created killers, I would have no life. I've killed one man in front of you. That alone would have the police throwing me in a cell without asking any questions."
"But if I told them—"
"I don't know what this is between us, Grace. Nobody trained me to feel the emotions I'm going through while being with you. I can't imagine not having you here. I don't want you to go."
"But my sister."
"After this is over. We'll figure a way for you to contact her, and you can give her a different story than the truth." He bent his knees to keep her gaze. "Hell, we can elope, and you can tell her that you ran away with me, and now you're starting a life here."
"She'll never believe me." Grace frowned. "Is this just a part of the story, or do you really feel that way about me?"
"It's not even close to how I feel about you. The thought of not having you in my life makes me lose my mind." He pressed his lips against her mouth and murmured, "I've never loved anyone before and never been loved. But if I had to describe what I think it would feel like, it would be how my body reacts when I'm with you."
"This is impossible." She closed her eyes and shuddered. "What are we going to do?"
"Take one day at a time until I can figure everything out." He kissed her hard and then straightened. "When this is over, and you're safe, I will love you for the rest of my life."
He tilted her face. That's all he had in him. How could he put into words how he felt about her? He tried hard not to put the burden on her, but she was keeping him alive. Because of her, he wanted a tomorrow with her.
"Don't shut me out," he said.
Her gaze softened. "You've made me crazy even entertaining the idea of waiting for you. My sister is never going to forgive me."
"She will."
She sighed. "I wish I was as positive."
"She'll forgive you because she loves you."
He kissed her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, opening her mouth to him. He held on to the hope that she was feeling the same way. When it came to sex, there was no doubt that they matched in every single way.
She screamed into his mouth, pulled away, breathing hard. "You're making me insane. I don't know what to do or believe."
"Then, you're going to wait?"
" I hope I don't lose everything, but..." Her gaze softened. "I'm falling in love with you, and no matter how many times I tell myself that this is a nightmare and I'll wake up soon, being with you feels so right. I know I belong with you."
She amazed him with her fucking beauty. He'd never been on the receiving end of someone thinking about him, wanting to be with him. His cock swelled and pounded with the need to be with her, leaving him trembling inside enough it seemed as if his bones would shatter.
He wouldn't let her regret her decision. Somehow, he was going to come out of this with the ability to have her in his life. He'd stay clean. He'd make his life safe for her.
There was no need for her to know the kind of man he used to be.
Chapter Twenty Eight
Keenan kneeled at Grace's feet, peeling her panties down her legs. She held onto his shoulders, caught in a whirlwind. Had she really agreed to stay until the trouble plaguing Avery Falls Motorcycle Club was over?
Her sister was going to kill her.
It would take her the rest of her life to make it up to Amelia for putting her through hell, thinking she was missing, or worse, dead.
But she couldn't lose Keenan.
Nothing about their relationship was normal. Keenan wasn't a normal man. After stewing over what he'd told her last night, she'd tried to come up with excuses for what she'd witnessed in the pole building.
His enhancements were unbelievable. But she'd seen him too many times do extraordinary things while in her presence for her not to believe him. Maybe if she'd paid closer attention instead of always trying to escape, she would've picked up on the little clues earlier.
He licked a path up the inside of her thigh. Her legs trembled under the assault. Already flying high, knowing he wanted her and fearing the situation would come between them, forcing them apart, she wanted to prove to him that she was strong enough to stay by his side.
While there was nothing remarkable about her, and she tended to close herself off to men who showed her attention, she glowed from the inside out with him.
He made her feel special and wanted, even needed. That was something other men had never made her feel.
As he'd volunteered more information about what he and his club members were going through, her heart broke for him. He was broken, having lost a big chunk of his life because of what others had done to him.
She couldn't imagine the trials he'd lived through and how many scars she couldn't see.
It was easy for her to compare the weeks during which Keenan had kidnapped her and the years he was captive in a project that changed his whole life and made him into someone new. He was a strong man, not only in the physical sense but to hold it together without losing his mind while someone else controlled everything and changed him was astounding.
Keenan rose to his feet. She rubbed her breasts against the front of him and wrapped her arms around his neck, stretching up on her toes. The adrenaline flowing through her was hard to contain. She needed reassurance that she was doing the right thing because she had doubts that they'd survive.
Keenan rubbed his hands over her hips. "I need inside of you."
Why did those sweet admissions that seldom slipped past his lips make her feel hot and cold at the same time?
She kissed him. "I'm not stopping you."
His grip tightened on her curves, holding her tight, trapping the evidence of how much he wanted her between them. "I need it hard, Grace. I need to bury myself in you."
She stepped back, turned on by the promise and hearing the neediness in his voice. Then, smiling, she slowly circled away from him and looked over her shoulder.
Keenan's upper body leaned to the side as his gaze tracked her spine, and he ogled her ass. A heated intensity burned her skin, making her sex wet with need.
Licking his bottom lip, he straightened and reached for a condom on the dresser. Slowly, carefully, he rolled on the protection. Emotions clogged her throat, forcing her to straighten her neck and look away.