Page 44 of Gifts

Exhaling a breath, I look back to the fire. I think I must be losing my mind, because I think I believe him and I’m not even sure why.

“Keelie, say something,” he demands.

“That’s…” What do I say? Apparently being an overseas contract killer is a profession. Holy shit. “Really honest. Is that it or is there more honesty?”

“Besides my kids’ mother divorcing me because I was gone for weeks or more at a time leaving her with two little kids—no.”

I look away. Talk about an information dump.

He leans back in his chair. “She used that as an excuse, though. We weren’t good together.”

I look back. “Why?”

“She didn’t trust me because I was gone so much and that pissed me off. I never so much as looked at another woman when I was married to her, never gave her any reason to believe that. Made me not trust her—the whole thing fell apart. She’s remarried and happy now, we have a working relationship for the kids’ sake, but I don’t want to be with anyone who doesn’t trust me.”

“Oh.” I get the trust thing.

“That’s why I told you what I do. And what I did.”

I nod but tell him the truth. “That’s a lot to take in.”

“Baby.” His voice is low and strong. “We take out the scum of the earth—radicals, kingpins, terrorists.”

I nod again. “Okay.”

“You wanted honesty.”

I keep nodding.

“I understand why that’s important to you. I don’t go around sharing my work with everyone. Hardly anyone knows what I do, even my kids only know the general overview. When I read your bio, I knew I couldn’t keep it from you—I couldn’t keep anything from you.”

“Um, about that.” I pull in a breath. “Why exactly couldn’t you just ask me about my life?”

He reaches out, taking my hand in both of his and looks me square in the eye. “Knox told me his dad was dead approximately forty-five seconds after I told you I wanted to fuck you after we ate pizza the other night. It threw me for a loop, made me feel all kinds of an ass, and I couldn’t help myself. I needed to know everything about you and I’m not a patient man.”

I try to pull my hand out of his at the mention of him fucking me, but he holds tight. “Let me guess. This is when you sent me the it’s not you, it’s me text?”

He shakes his head and narrows his eyes. “Won’t lie, trying to figure out what’s going on with Emma is overwhelming. I’m worried about her and it’s all on me. Then after what happened to Levi, I didn’t know if I could be what you need right now.”

I feel sort of bad that this pisses me off, but it does. How the hell does he know what I need? I manage to pull my hand from his and don’t even try to keep the bitch out of my voice. “Tell me, Asa. What is it you think I need?”

He exhales one frustrated breath before he moves. I barely have a chance to react when he plucks me up from under my arms and whips me around. I let out a little yelp, but he ignores me and sits in my patio chair where I end up in his lap with my legs draped over the arm.

I push away as hard as I can, but he wraps me up and holds tight.

“What are you doing?” I exclaim.

He gives me a squeeze. “I know what you need.”

I stop pushing and freeze. “You have no idea.”

He raises a brow accepting my dare. “You need a man to earn your trust, be open with you, and tell you the truth. If he makes it that far, you could use someone to help around your fucking house, because it’s more than a full-time job. Then if he passes that, you need that man to be a man around your kids—be an example for Knox and show Saylor how a man should treat a woman. The list is long, but if you want me to continue, I’ll describe what you really need. It might make you blush and if it doesn’t, I’ll go into even more detail so it will.”

Dammit. He’s right on all counts. Breathing hard, I bite my lip to try to calm myself. If I blush now, I’ll kick my own ass.

“I can tell from your face I got all that right,” he goes on. “I won’t lie. I didn’t know if I could fill those shoes and deal with Emma’s shit. That was my mistake, because all I had to do was look into your blue eyes, with your wet hair falling around your face to know I wanted you and it made me fucking crazy to think some other man might try to be all these things. I gave you the truth. Not much more to know than what I laid out for you tonight—other than I’m not in debt and I don’t gamble. I don’t have to work, but I do. I could live off my investments, but that would bore the shit outta me.”

I shake my head and look away.

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