Page 80 of Assassin's Obsession

"Whatever. My peers said it." Huffy, she tries to grab the towel from me. "I can dry myself."

"But I want to do it."

Candi's hands settles on her hips and she glares up at me. "You can't always have your own way."

"Agreed. A healthy relationship is about give and take."

"You sound like you read that in a book."

I shrug. "I did."

"You read a book about how to get along with people?"

"I read a book about how to get along withyou."

Who the fuck cares if I get along with other people? Some men with stunted emotions like mine are so good at pretending, they charm everyone. An assassin doesn't need to charm anyone and I don't try. Not even Candi.

I want…no, Ineedher to accept me as I am. When she said that watching me skewer that guy's hand didn't upset her, I thought my heart would burst out of my chest with the joy I only feel with her.

"If you'd actually approached me in the last year, instead of creepily watching me from afar, that might be romantic."

Note to self: orgasms make Candi snarky.

"I was protecting you."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…watching over me." She snags a towel and starts drying my torso. "I got the memo the first time. It still would have been more romantic if you'd I don't know,talkedto me."

I give myself a moment to revel in having her take care of me like this. It's not something I expected, but I like it.

"It wasn't safe for you for me to single you out like that." Forcing myself to give up the feel of her rubbing the towel over my skin, I kneel down to dry her legs.

She's a lot more careful than I am wicking the moisture from my hair, before sliding it down to rub over my shoulders. "Sure, because talking to me is so dangerous. I'm pretty sure you cutting the hands off of men who touch me singled me out."

"Not in the same way. That could be dismissed as one of my idiosyncrasies. Everyone in the Family knows I like to play with knives."

"That's one way of putting it." I don't have to see her roll her eyes with that tone in her voice.

"I don't flirt, Candi. I fuck women and I walk away. I don't talk to them." I look up at her, my palm resting against her now dry inner thigh. "If I had talked to you, my enemies would have known I have a weakness."

She narrows her eyes, like she's trying to read me. "Are you going to walk away after we have sex?"

"No." I'll tell her as many times as she needs to hear it. "You are my one and only. I'm yours."

"I get a say about that."

"You get all the say about whether you accept or reject me, but there will be no other man for you." If she fell in love with someone else, I want to think I would let her have her happiness.

But I am me. Chances are, I'd take him out.

The kill list I have to amend now that I know none of her boyfriends touched her is proof of that.

"That's not creepy at all."

"You don't sound scared by my brand of creepy," I observe.

She doesn't look it either.

"Nothing about you scares me." There's nothing but sincerity in her tone.

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