Page 40 of Dangerous

“He always taught us that you stick with family, no matter what. Always. Turns out, that doesn’t count if you disobey him in any way. He gave his own son over to thepolice, Mira. Mybrother.It’s… it’s the deepest betrayal. I was so angry. I waited outside my father’s house… at night. I had a gun. I…”

I put a hand on the forearm he had wrapped around my waist, offering him what comfort I could as he fought himself to finally share what had made him desperate enough to seek me out.

“I wanted to kill him,” he whispered. “I was going to kill him. I would have, if I hadn’t seen Louis and Liam through the window. They were visiting him—I didn’t know. I’ve killed before, but I’ve neverwantedto as badly as I did that night. It scared me. It still scares me.”

“Do you still want to kill him?” I asked, giving his arm a gentle stroke to ease the roughness in his voice.

He paused for a moment, as if to mull over his answer. “I don’t know. I don’t think so. But I hate him, Mira. I hate him so much, and it’s not meant to be like that. He’s my father, and if I don’t love him, then I need to at least respect him. Trust his leadership. And I thought I did—until…”

“Until he showed you you can’t.”

Blaine inhaled deeply, his hot breath tickling my ear. “Yes.”

“There comes a time in all our lives when we have to take a step back and decide if the path we’re on is one we have freely chosen, or if we are blindly following because it is what is expected of us,” I said, twining my fingers with his. His hand was so much bigger than mine, it practically spanned the whole side of my stomach.

Blaine gave my fingers a small squeeze but didn’t move his hand from my grasp. “Is that shrink-Mira speaking, then?”

I smiled at his slightly sardonic tone. “Yeah. It is. My point is, you are experiencing this anger because everything you have been taught was right turned out not to be the One Truth. It’s an understandable reaction. You have had your entire foundation pulled from under you. Of course you’re angry. And scared. But rather than turn that anger at your father, perhaps it’s time to choose your own Truth now. Find your own path.”

“I can’t do what you did. I can’t leave my family. I love my brothers, my crew…” The way he paused made it sound like he’d stopped before finishing the sentence, but he didn’t continue.

“You don’t have to. But you can choose not to let your father have the same power over you anymore.”

He snorted, and I gave his fingers a squeeze to let him know I wasn’t done.

“I know how it goes, he’s the Big Boss. His word is law. But he can’t control your emotions if you don’t let him. And—you now see him for what he really is. That gives you a lot of power in how you choose to act on his commands.”

He was quiet for a long time, and I thought he wasn’t going to say anything else. But just as my eyes started to drift shut, he spoke again.

“You’re a pretty smart bird, aren’t you?” he hummed against my ear. His lips brushed against my lobe, raising pleasant goosebumps down the back of my neck.

I chuckled. “Sure. As long as I just need to dispense advice, rather than follow it myself.”

“I’m not so sure… I don’t know anyone who would have the strength to do what you did, Mira.”

Something in his tone made my cheeks warm. It was… admiration, unsoiled by the sarcasm I could have expected from him. When he released my fingers to press his hand against my stomach on top of my scars, my breath turned shaky and my pulse sped up.

Carefully, as if he were trying not to spook a frightened animal, he eased my top up until it rested under my breasts, and raised up on one elbow so he could trace the scars with a fingertip. “Is this why you stopped me? On the stairs? You didn’t want me to see?”

I swallowed thickly at the reminder of what had happened between us when he’d chased me up the stairs and pinned me to the floor. He was so close now, and though the gentleness with which he was touching me was in sharp contrast to that night, it was no less effective in making my body hum with mounting desire. I didn’t know how to respond, so I just looked at his handsome face as he brushed over my scars, his eyes following the movements of his finger from underneath hooded lids.

“They are battle scars, Mira. Proof of how strong you are. They just make you even more beautiful.”

When I didn’t answer, he flicked his gaze from my stomach to my face, his gray eyes locking with mine. There was unmistakable heat in them, but it seemed different this time. Less aggressive, even though the intensity still made my stomach flip and my body tingle with awareness.

Slowly, Blaine leaned down toward me. My heart picked up speed again, drumming wildly behind my ribs. Anticipation warred with anxiety over what was happening between us and how everything seemed to have changed in the span of a day. But mostly, I just wanted him to kiss me. Needed him to, though I didn’t know why. All I knew was that I might die if he didn’t.

He shifted on the bed above and behind me until his lips were inches from mine. I looked up at him, faintly aware that I was breathing heavily, and nearly came undone from the look of pureneedin his intense gaze.

“Say you want me to,” he whispered, and his breath made electricity spark off every nerve in my body.

I reached up and tangled my fingers in his black, tousled hair. It was silky soft and so completely at odds with his hard body hovering above me.

“I do.”

Blaine kissed me, his soft lips descending on mine with urgent need.

I clenched my fingers in his hair and kissed him back with a desperation I hadn’t known I possessed. It was as if the hollow place in my chest I’d carried around for so many years was ripped wide open, and for every time our frantic lips met, it soothed the waves of loneliness and pain I’d been too scared to face. Until today. With him.

---