Page 56 of Assassin's Obsession

Her body tenses and I slam my hands down onto her thighs just in time to stop her from doing me damage with a well-aimed knee. "None of that now. You want me to remove the rest of your bindings, don't you,piccola gatta?"

My spitting little cat.

She honest-to-god hisses, but subsides. "Yes."

Plans for my demise burn brightly in her eyes while she waits for me to cut her hoodie off of her.

Lightness bubbles through the dark haze of need for violence that is my constant companion, dissipating it so much I can feel an emotion I have only recently become familiar with.

Delight.

Since that first night I watched Candi dance, I have learned what it means to feel both that. And joy.

Thinking about her warms the cold places in my soul, but I only ever feel actual joy and fucking delight when we are together.

I pull the jeans away from her body, bemused by what I find underneath them. I thought the shorts were a kind of underwear. But there's no waistband I can see.

"Stop staring at my bodysuit."

"But how do you go to the bathroom?" The black Lycra that covers the tops of her thighs and goes up her torso under her t-shirt and hoodie has no access for that basic function.

"I don't need to pee on the train and I take it off when I get home."

My combat readiness trained mind puts the pieces together instantly. And the reason for her wearing the bodysuit fills me with fury.

"If someone attacked me, they couldn't just yank my jeans off and…" She pauses before finally saying. "Hurt me."

By hurt she means force penetrative sex on her. Rape.

But wearing her bodysuit means an attacker would have to completely undress her to do it. Which takes time a lot of opportunists wouldn't risk. Unless the asshole had a knife to cut access.

Just the thought of anyone pulling a knife on her in threat makes a red haze of rage cloud my vision.

Cazzo. "That never would have happened," I grit out. "My men have been watching over you when I can't since the first night I saw you."

"Well, I didn't know that, did I? And also, you do realize how creepy that sounds, don't you?"

"Being protected is not creepy." It's necessary, especially in our world.

Whether she realizes it, or not. Though the bodysuit she wears under her clothes says she's very aware of the danger she faces on the streets of New York.

Knowing why she feels a particular need to protect herself like that ratchets my fury up to homicidal levels. If her former foster father wasn't already dead, I would have killed him the minute I found out what happened.

"Uh, you look angry." For the first time tonight, I hear fear in Candi's voice.

That snaps my focus back into place faster than anything else could. "My wrath is for anyone who would try to harm you, Candi.Inever will."

"Me being here against my will says otherwise." One perfectly sculpted brow lifts in challenge.

I shrug. "Circumstances did not allow me to woo you as I planned."

"Woo? What am I, a Victorian maiden?"

"If you were, I'd be in trouble. I'm no one's idea of a gentleman." Not even by modern standards.

"Yeah, well, guys who consider themselves gentlemen sat by and did nothing when Ronnie tried to use my body to get off."

Chapter 17

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