Page 119 of Under an Endless Moon

Frustration heaved from Otto’s lungs, and he roughed his fingers through the short crop of his brown hair. “Know it. And I’m going to need to let the crew in on what went down. See if we can catch a hint of who might have been sniffing around.”

He seemed reticent to get them involved.

My insides quivered, and a tendril of awareness floated in my periphery. A wall I was butting against but somehow could see through.

Gaze downturned, I quietly asked, “Are you in trouble, Otto?”

Cagey hesitation radiated from him, and I tried to keep the fear out of my being as I looked up at him. At this man who had always meant everything to me. The one I’d had to pretend I didn’t love the way I did. The one who likely had no clue the depths of how deep that love went.

The one who’dtouchedme just hours ago and had ensured that I would never be the same.

Because for the first time in my life—I believed.

I believed I could grow beyond the traumas I’d suffered. Believed I could find the strength within myself to seek my desires and wants and needs. Believed I could finally spread these wings and soar.

Believed that even though the fear might always remain, I could face it.

I just wondered if he would be brave enough to face them with me.

Wistfulness pulled through his harsh features, this gentleness that he’d always encompassed for me seeping out. “I’m going to be just fine, Raven. I promise you.”

A wave of intensity rushed.

Tension binding the tiny room in bows of greed.

Shockwaves of energy banged against the walls and slammed into me on all sides.

His thumb traced the little freckle on the side of my lip, and those bottomless eyes dipped to the spot where he was touching me before they flicked back to meet my stare.

My heart jackhammered.

Kiss me.

Kiss me.

I wanted to beg it, but the words were lost somewhere in the landslide of rocks that rolled around in my throat. Were locked in the maze of obstacles that would always stand between us.

I could smell him. That patchouli and apple mixed with nothing but man. Dirt and the faintest vestiges of my arousal.

A shiver raced, and that anticipation sent butterflies scattering through my body.

But I guessed Otto must have run straight into one of those obstacles because he suddenly cleared his throat. “Gonna give everyone the word and get them over here.”

A blunder of disappointment and confusion left me on a breath,and I forced myself to nod, to stand, to go back to the sink and rinse out the cloth like this man wasn’t destroying me.

I stared at the blood-tinged water that circled the drain before it disappeared, and a stupid freaking tear got loose from my eye.

God, he was going to think I was needy and pathetic.

View me the same way as he always had.

A little girl he needed to protect.

He’d believe I couldn’t handle what’d happened between us. That I couldn’t move on from it like an adult.

But how was I supposed to actually do that?

Move on from it?

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