Page 54 of Locked In Ice

It was a historic house.There were plenty of creaks and groans that came with the place, that was just part of the package.But she knewthatcreak in particular.A slightly hollow sound, one that tapered at the end like a moan.That was the creak that came from the seventh step on the staircase.

Her eyes opened.Her head turned on the pillow.She kept her phone on the table beside the bed.And her gun in the nightstand drawer.The phone was charging, and she angled it up to see the screen.

Two a.m.

She could let him go.Maybe that was what she should do.Let Lane head out on another of his night walks.Only this time, she wouldn’t follow him.He could wander into the darkness.He’d come back, she knew he would.

But Ophelia could still hear the echo of pain in his voice when he told her about his mother’s last breath.And maybe he’d been right.Maybe they were a great deal alike.

She could remember Joseph’s last breath.That faint exhale haunted her.

Something bad happened to us both.Made us darker than we ever expected to be.

Ophelia tossed aside her covers.Before she could second or even third guess herself, she darted across the room, yanked open her bedroom door, and walked out into—

Well, into him.She collided with a big, powerful body.A body she knew intimately.Lane’s hands flew up and locked around her upper arms even as her hands pressed against his hard abs.

“Lane!”

“I was…checking on you.”

She yanked back her hands.

He didn’t remove his.Well, they did ease down her arms.A careful caress.Thenhe let her go.

She could see him clearly because she’d left on the small lamp that rested on the decorative table near the stairs.

I always keep a few lights on.Some habits would never die.

“I was worried you might not be sleeping well,” Lane said in his deep, rough voice.“Digging up the past might have led to nightmares.”He drove a hand through his tousled hair.“And as we’ve already established, you and I don’t exactly have good dreams on a regular day.Much less the clusterfuck that we recently experienced.”

Something else they had in common.No good dreams for them.Too many nightmares.“I’m fine.”But it warmed her that he’d been worried.And this is why you aren’t the big, bad beast, Lane.If you were the villain, you wouldn’t give a damn how I feel.

“How’d you know I was coming to you?”

“I…” She stopped.“I didn’t know you were coming to my bedroom.”Ophelia pointed to the stairs.“Seventh one creaks.I heard it when you were coming down.And, like I said, I didn’t know you were coming to my room.I thought you were going out on another walk.”

His head tilted as he studied her.“And you were planning to stop me?”

She pulled in a deep breath.Slowly let it out.“I was coming to say that there are other ways to work off stress.”Did she put that delicately enough?Hopefully.“You don’t have to walk alone into the dark.”

His face hardened.His jaw.His mouth.His eyes.“What other ways did you have in mind?”

Seriously?Was he going to make her say the words?So much for putting things delicately.“Lane, I want—”

His mouth took hers.Swooped down and claimed her lips and she didn’t have to say the words.She didn’t have to say anything else because he was kissing her with need and drugging passion.Just what she wanted.What her body craved.

Her body brushed against his.Her hands skated over him.Her fingers darted over the jagged scar that marked his side.

He jerked back.“Ophelia.”

“Lane.”Her breath came too fast.Her hands were still on him.Still…going down.Heading for the top of the sweatpants he wore.Just those, nothing else.He’d been wearing those sweatpants when she spoke with him upstairs.

When all of their secrets had come tumbling out.Every last savage and bloody detail.

“I’m not going to fuck you to relieve stress.”Anger hummed in Lane’s words.

She swallowed.Nodded.

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