Page 74 of Runaway Hearts: Seduced by Danger

Oh…

Kai lets out an exhale of relief and wraps his arms around me, pulling my back to his chest until we’re fused together. His hug is so tight I can’t move, but it’s oddly comforting.

“Is that good for you?” he murmurs.

He took me on a date.We should be having sex by now.

An icy, stinging pain makes my lungs stop. “Yes.” I clear my throat. “What’s happening?” I ask before my mind can catch up to my mouth.

“Sleep. And cuddles.” Kai’s fingers trail down my arm, soothing the sudden spike of anxiety.

But why!

Guilt nibbles at my confidence. I don’t understand. I feel like I’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to me. That now is the time for him to collect the fruit of his labor, his patience, his restraint.

“But you—”You deserve sex.

My ribs tighten as shame washes over me, and I can’t speak.

Kai senses my discomfort and wraps himself around me even tighter.

It’s not right.

Needing to see his face, I turned into his embrace. But it only makes the pain expand from my chest to my arms. My breaths are fast and shallow.

Kai’s voice cuts through the fog of my thoughts, gentle yet firm. “Marianne, look at me.” He tilts my chin upward, but I can’t meet his eyes. “You don’t owe me a damn thing.”

I don’t deserve this.

Pressure builds behind my eyes and my vision blurs.

I don’t deserve unbound affection.

A spasm in my stomach has me gagging.

Kai holds me through the upheaval, his hand steady on my back. “Don’t go there, Marianne.”

There’s no such thing as free affection. This is a trick. Kai is trying to trick me.

He brings me closer, pressing our foreheads together. His breaths mix with mine, steady and calming. “Everything is all right. We’re safe. We’re together.”

I force a swallow, trying to keep the nausea at bay. “But I—”

“Shh,” he cuts me off, his thumb brushing away a tear that spills over despite my efforts to hold it back. “Just being here with me, trusting me... that’s more than enough.”

Enough?

He doesn’t understand. He can’t see how wrong this feels.

Self-doubt claws at the inside of my skull in a horrifying screech, relentless and unforgiving. I try to pull away, to escape the closeness that’s suddenly too much, but Kai doesn’t let go.

Instead, he tightens his grip, almost as if he senses my resolve crumbling. His lips brush against my temple in a tender gesture that shatters the last of my defenses. “I’ll keep you safe, I promise.”

His words filter through the noise in my head, the relentless self-critique quieting down to a whisper. I stop struggling.

A twitching sensation runs down my spine, and I wiggle myself into him, his leg slinging over mine to lock me in.

It’s hard to believe that he was a stranger just a few days ago, and now, we’re wrapped around each other.

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