Page 73 of When He Protects

His eyes gleamed down at her. “For the record, I’m not leaving you. Even if you are on a video fucking him. Though I will rip him apart. Count on it. I’ll make him bleed and beg, and I’ll enjoy every second of that time.”

Her breath choked out. “Aren’t you the bloodthirsty one?”

“Yes.”

Just that. A firm yes.

His fingers were still curled around her wrist. “Did you think you were going to distract me so you could swipe the drive?”

It had been worth a shot. “You were the one who put me on the desk and started kissing me. I was just using the proximity to my advantage.”

His thumb slid along her inner wrist. Right over the rushing pulse. “And what would you have done if you had gotten your silken hand on the drive?”

“Tried to destroy it before you could stop me.” In her mind—after securing the drive in her fast fingers—she’d envisioned herself rolling across the desk. Slamming the drive into an open drawer. Hopefully smashing it into lots of little pieces.

“You truly don’t want me to see what’s on the drive?”

She truly didn’t. “If you see it, then there will be no saving you.”Us.

A line appeared between his brows. “Why would you want to save me?”

“Because you saved me once upon a time. And whether you believe me or not, I did think that you’d get out of this whole protection detail business with me in one piece. Then you could go about your life. But if you see that drive—if you see what I think is on it—then there will be no going back for you.” Absolute brutal honesty. She had nothing else to give him.

“You’re protectingme?”

“Feels weird, yes? To me, too.”

His fingers slid along her inner wrist once more. Her pulse skittered.

“Don’t look at what’s on the drive.” A plea from her. No, more than that. “I’mbeggingyou. Some things in this world can’t be unseen.”

“Areyouon the drive?”

“My world is on that drive.”

His gaze searched hers.

“There’s a reason Jorlan had the drive hidden in his personal safe. It was his protection. Without it, he’s vulnerable, and he knows it. That’s why he is going to try so hard to get it back. Jorlan doesn’t want me. He wants what’s on the drive.”

“He has a backup. Surely. If the contents are that important, there are other copies. There have to be.”

Mocking laughter escaped her. “You don’t put things like this on the cloud for any hacker to stumble upon. You put them in your safest space, and you make sure the drive doesn’t get stolen. But then, unfortunately for you, a masterthief just walks herself across a narrow ledge and takes what her greedy heart wants.”

“Your heart isn’t greedy.” Certainty.

Not when it came to Tyler, it wasn’t. The man was her weakness, and she knew it. She’d tried to show him how she really felt in a thousand ways. But…some dreams just never came true. “Don’t watch what’s on the drive. Please.”

He shook his head. “I have to watch, and then, you know I’ll have to turn over the drive to Gray and his people.”

Begging hadn’t helped before, either. It wouldn’t help now. “I haven’t seen the footage. I could be wrong about everything. Nothing at all could be on that drive.”

Doubt covered his face. “You want me to believe that you risked your life for nothing?”

“I was on the second story at Jorlan’s place. I know how to fall and how to get back up.” Breezy words. As if a body-shattering fall meant nothing. “Maybe I would have gotten some broken bones, but I wouldn’t have died.”

He let go of her wrist. With slow but determined steps, he moved behind the desk and sat down in the chair. Tyler tugged the laptop toward him.

The baseball hat had fallen off his head. She stared at the cap as it rested against the floor.

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