Page 44 of Catch Me When I Fall

Suddenly, my chin was in his grip again, and I let out a small gasp as our gazes collided.

He leaned down, his lips barely a breath away from mine. “Stop fucking crying,” he ordered, his voice gentle.

I pressed my lips together. “Stop making me cry,” I begged on a croak. He knew what I was begging for.

He closed his eyes as he backed away from my face, still holding my chin as he bent his head, mumbling something under his breath. When he looked back up, his eyes scanned my face, and my cheeks heated. I’d never had a man look at me like the way he was in this moment. I wanted him to always look at me like this. His fingers stretched as his thumb rubbed the edge of my jaw softly, his touch burning me, sending waves of desire through my body.

“Tell me your name,” I rasped.

“You don’t need to know it,” he returned, his voice still gentle.

I blinked. “Why not?”

Slowly, his hand fell away from me. “Because I’m not going to take you,” he said finally.

My lips parted as my chest caved in. “W-what?”

Chapter 12

Grayson

I needed to get out of here.

I needed to get as far away from her as possible, before I did something dangerous and very very stupid.

Everything I assumed about my mark was wrong.

Now, she was standing before me wanting to know my name.

She could never know my name. She could never know anything about me. If I gave her my name, I’d be a fool. If a gave her my name, she would have a piece of me.

She could never have any part of me.

I needed to let her go.

“W-what?” she stammered, her baby blue eyes wide and shining with the tears I’d caused.

If I looked at them for one more second, I was going to shoot myself in the fucking foot.

She had so much fucking power over me.

She didn’t realize it, and I didn’t understand it.

No person, let alone a fucking woman, had ever affected me this much.

Women were important to the world, to be sure, but they weren’t important to me—not like that, anyways. I didn’t have time for them and the thought of a relationship made me want to jump on a grenade. I’d never been good at relationships. The last woman I’d committed to told me I was a lost cause, addicted to Red Snake Investigations and nothing more. She blamed me for wasting a year of her life. She was waiting for a ring, and I never planned on giving her one.

Now, the only time I’d spent with a woman was usually in her bed, and she’d be too busy screaming for me to even think about a fucking relationship. I’d get off, she’d get off multiple times, and then we’d go our separate ways. Nothing more. Nothing less.

“You aren’t making me leave?”

Hale’s sweet voice brought me out of my thoughts, and my gut clenched at the sight of yet another tear rolling down her cheek. She needed to stop fucking crying before I lost my ever-loving mind.

Pretty sure you’ve already lost it, asshole.

My jaw tightened as I looked away from her, my eyes going to the back door in her kitchen. She needed a new lock on that door, then another added to the front door, a chain, not to fucking mention a security system.

“I’m going to call my client and tell him you’re okay,” I explained, trying to think about how I could set this house up to where she’d be safe from any harm instead of looking at her beautiful, goddess-like face again.

---