Page 11 of Tell Me

My fingers twitched with the need to touch her, and I clenched them shut. Now, though, I did take a step toward her, and then another, until I was standing right behind her. Close enough to lean forward and let my breath brush the back of her neck. “Would you prefer if I called myself your lover?” I whispered.

I watched as the goosebumps spread from her neck up to her chin, my own flesh prickling with the same desire. God, being this close to her again was going to drive me insane. I couldn’t tell whether my blood was rushing too close to the surface of my skin or pooling in my cock, but either way I was hard and chilled at the same time. Hot and cold. Needy and enraged in equal measure.

Just like I’d always been when it came to Brooks.

Which was only one of the reasons I’d sent my men to nab her the moment I heard she was in town.

This brought me back from the edge of need and I stepped back, forcing myself to remember that there were other people here. My men, who had no idea what had passed between Brooks and me ten years ago, and who saw only the Landry heiress in front of us.

It wasn’t going to do me any good for them to realize the depths of the feelings we’d once harbored.

“What are you doing here, Brooks?” I asked quietly. “I thought you’d decided against New Orleans and all it had to offer.”

At this, she finally turned to look at me, her chin lifted and her eyes challenging. “I did. But my friends in New York need help. I came here to collect on a promise, Lucien. Are you man enough to pay up?”

A promise.

My mind flew back to the nights we’d spent together when we were little more than children. Eighteen-year-olds whose hands were being forced... and who were desperately in love with each other. I’d loved Brooks since I was twelve and had never bothered to try to hide it, no matter how many times my father—and hers—threatened to have my back skinned for it. We’d been born on opposite sides of the city, born to men who hated each other and did everything they could to kill each other. But from the moment I saw her, out with her cousin and her mother and shopping in one of our districts, I’d known she was the one for me.

Sure, she was a Landry and I was a Boudreaux. But my father had told me early on that I could have whatever I wanted—take it, if necessary—and I hadn’t seen any reason not to apply that to the sassy blond daughter of my father’s enemy.

When I learned that my father had made a deal with Dominick Landry that included combining some of our rackets with his, and that the virtual handshake to seal the contract would be my wedding to Brooklyn Landry, I’d been out of my mind with excitement.

And the first thing I’d done was go find her and start courting her.

The second thing I’d done?

A promise that I would sell my soul—or anything else I had on hand—to help her if she ever needed it.

Of course, that was before we fell in love and actually started to figure each other out. It was also before she realized who her father was and decided she didn’t want anything else to do with him.

Or New Orleans.

Or me.

9

BROOKS

What. The. Fuck.

The shiver growing in my belly moved quickly up my body and then back down, leaving flames in its wake, and I closed my eyes and fought it. Tried very hard to imagine myself out of this place and into any other situation.

Hell, I’d be happier if I suddenly appeared in the middle of a gun fight in the wild west. A battle between lions and elephants in the middle of Africa. A mob war on the streets of...

Shit. I’d already been in that last one. That was why I was here.

When I opened my eyes, though, I was also still here, in someone’s underground crypt in New Orleans, surrounded by Daniel Boniface and his men, and the guy they all worked for. I’d already known Daniel was a Boudreaux. He had been since we were kids, and I didn’t think that would ever change.

I’d just hoped he was working on some freelance thing where he kidnapped girls he shouldn’t have been able to touch and then held them for ransom, waiting for their families to pony up the dough to bust them out of the situation.

Not that I would have loved that. I didn’t like being a pawn in anyone’s game. But it would have been a lot easier to take Daniel out on his own.

Getting Lucien Boudreaux in the deal was.... a complication. And that was putting it mildly.

Still, I knew Lucien well enough to know it was never a good idea to let him see you scared. And he might just be useful to me.

“So?” I asked calmly. “What about that promise?”

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