My fingertips grazed her hip.
A shock raced up my arm.
Need and lust and gluttony.
I breathed her in.
Cocoa and cream.
She peeked back at me, everything in her demeanor shifting in a flash.
Sadness flooding in.
“Then why am I the one being condemned?”
Those eyes were wide. Flush with vulnerability.
Something ferocious clawed through my stomach, chest tightening as I was slammed with the same thing as I had been that first night.
Her fear.
My fingers found their way into the drape of her dark, dark hair. I weaved them all the way in to tickle along the crease of her neck.
She sighed a needy sound, her head dropping that way, like she was granting me the keys to a land that I could never conquer.
Still, I leaned in and inhaled deep. My words were a growl as unchained possessiveness singed my senses. “And who is condemning you? Who hurt you, Mia? Your brother said you’d been through hell and back.”
Considering I was already headed there myself, I might as well take down a bastard or two on my way.
“I’m pretty sure the last thing you want to hear are my problems.”
“Try me,” I grunted.
Needed to know. This twisted protectiveness rising up. The feeling that I wanted to cover her whole.
“Why, so you can use it against me?”
“No. So, I can know what the fuck it was your brother was implying. Don’t like being kept in the dark.”
So, I could know exactly who was going to die. Just like I’d told her that night, I’d be glad to hunt the motherfucker down.
She laughed a disbelieving sound. “I’m not close to being your problem.”
My mouth was at her ear. “You feel like a problem to me.”
Awareness spun.
Need and possession. Muscles twitching with the demand to make her mine. To get lost in her skin and this body and those eyes.
Knew I wouldn’t make it back if I did.
It didn’t change a thing because I was pressing her. “Tell me.”
She shivered.
“Tell me, princess, what’s so bad in your life that your brother thinks he needs to lock you up in his castle?” The words came out like blades, like the anger didn’t know where else to go.
She whirled on me.
Pissed.
I seemed to have that effect on people.
“Fine,” she spat. “You want to know what happened? My best friend was murdered. And I had to stand there and watch it. Helpless. Horrified. The whole time wondering if he was going to turn that gun on me. That’s what happened.”
Fuck.
Rage grated my teeth. “Who? Tell me goddamn who. Just give me a name.”
She blew out a cynical breath. “If I had a name, things would be a whole lot easier, wouldn’t they? I wouldn’t be running scared. Wouldn’t lay awake at night terrified for the safety of my children. I wouldn’t be jumping at every noise or having panic attacks when some jerk gets too close to me.”
It would have been better if she had the same reaction to me.
If she stepped away when I curled my palm around the side of her neck.
But she just stood there with her pulse ravaging. Those eyes wild.
Vulnerable and resolute.
I had the overwhelming urge to wrap her up and hide her away.
Erase any threat.
Destroy any danger.
“Tell me,” I demanded. “Tell me what the fuck happened to you.”
I was a fool to think I had the right. A fool to think I could take on this responsibility. But there was no chance I could walk out of that room without knowing what she’d suffered.
Shivers raced across her flesh, and her throat trembled as she swallowed. “Her name was Lana. We had this little gallery. We’d dreamed of opening it since we were in college, bringing our two arts together. We’d had the best day. Sold three paintings and a sculpture.”
Anguish flashed across Mia’s face.
Stricken.
“We’d had a glass of champagne to celebrate in the back. We . . . we were locking up . . .”
Fury bloomed in my blood, and my hand twitched on her neck. “A man came in. He was wearing a mask. He demanded that I give him anything of value. I went behind the counter, and instead of getting out the cash, I pressed the panic button. I should have just done what he’d told me. I should have. If I could go back. God, if I could go back, I would do it all over.”
Moisture gathered in Mia’s eyes. “He just . . . gave me this look when I did. Like he was happy I’d done it. Then he pulled the trigger.”
Motherfucker.
“They said they thought it was random, Leif. A robbery gone bad. Her blood spilled for a few hundred dollars.”
The last broke on a sob.
Fury raced, and every muscle in my body twitched for retribution. “Motherfucker needs to die.”
Shivers raced across her flesh, a flashfire of horror. “He found me. The night of the gala. And I don’t even know who he is or what he wants, but he found me. He was there.”
Malice spiked in my blood, the words a curse as I realized what this had become. “And now you’re here.”
She sniffled, trying to hold it together while I stood there and interrogated her like she was the one to blame. “And now I’m here. Where you are.” Her voice shifted in some kind of plea.
I couldn’t stop the feeling that I was a second from coming unglued.
Disjointed, and there was a piece of me being regenerated in her.
“I wonder if the reason we feel this way around each other is because you know exactly what that feels like. Dying inside because you miss someone so much. Because you wish you could go back and change it and there isn’t a damn thing you can do. I feel it coming off of you, Leif. I feel it. How is that possible that I can feel you this way?”
She curled her fingers in my shirt. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
I wanted to push her back. Hold her close.
Fuck. This girl made me insane.
Old agony throbbed. An ache so intense I was sure I was getting ready to blow.
Combust.
“Or maybe you’re so used to the pain, that’s the only thing you know how to look for,” I told her.
Clearly, she’d experienced more than her fair share. Girl written in the strength exposed by her scars.
The corner of her mouth trembled. Rejection in what I’d said. What she didn’t get was I was doing her a favor.
“Is that what you want, to hurt me?”
There she was, back to asking me the same question she’d demanded the first time our paths had crossed.
Problem was, Fate and Karma were old friends and they were laughing their asses off while they were frolicking around in the pool behind us.
“Only thing I know how to do, Mia.”
“But I bet it would feel good, wouldn’t it? If we let go? If I let myself fall, would you be there to catch me? Just for a little while?” Her hands cinched tighter.
A rumble of a laugh rolled around in my chest.
Wicked little angel.
This girl was disorder. Sweet to the bone and sexy to the core.
I bet if anyone asked anything from her, she’d give it. But she wasn’t ashamed to ask for what she wanted for herself, either.
“Believe me, baby, a few minutes of bliss is never worth the pain that comes with the aftermath. And you obviously have too much to live for to be taking those kinds of chances on me.”