Page 74 of When He Hunts

But weren’t they way past the point of the situation between them being just a job?

“You’ll have a new life. One that doesn’t include a hitman. You’ll be better off without me.”

Her hair slid against her cheek as she watched him. “Are you trying to convince me or yourself?”

“Luna…”

“Because I happen to like you, Ronan.” No, way more than that. She just needed to woman up and say the words. “I think I’m falling in love with you.” There. Done. She’d never been in love, so she wasn’t exactly an expert on the emotion but…

I’m happy when he’s near. I feel safe when he’s close. I want to hold his hand and have a million adventures. I want to see him when the darkness lifts, and he can smile like he really means it.

But Ronan shook his head. “You don’t even know me.” He turned away.

Anger had her jumping from the bed. Bringing the sheet with her, wrapping it around her because this was not a naked kind of conversation. Especially not with him pretty much being completely dressed and her being stark bare. “I know you.” Certainty. She hopped after him. “I’m starting to think I might know you better than you know yourself.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “You know what youhopeI am. Some idealized version of me.”

“What does that even mean?” When a woman told a man that she was falling for him, a different response was expected. Any response other than this rejection that chilled her to the bone.

“Go to bed, Luna.”

“I just gotoutof bed, Ronan!”

His hands fisted at his sides. “I usually have perfect control.”

“Well, give yourself a cookie. Make it a chocolate chip because those are the best ones.”

He whirled toward her. Frowned.

“Life is messy, Ronan. It’s not about perfect control. Actually, I think it’s about losing control and letting yourself feel real emotions. About not boxing yourself away and being afraid to care.” She surged toward him. Kept right on holding her precious sheet. “I’ve been afraid for most of my life. Afraid first that I’d die long before I could reach my eighteenth birthday. Afraid I’d never graduate high school. Or fall in love. Afraid I’d die before I could get married. Before I could have a family.” A heave of her breath. “I was busy being afraid, and it never hit me that I could lose my mother. The woman who was my core. Until the day I found her having a stroke. Then everything realigned, but you know what I did? I went right back to being afraid even after I lost her. I was hiding. Playing things safe. And then…”

Well, okay, maybe not the best example to add...

“Then you tried something new and got a hit placed on your head.” He quirked a brow. “Didn’t work out so well, huh?”

“Then I met this gorgeous, dangerous man who kissed me like he couldn’t breathe without tasting me on a New Orleans street.” She waited, practically daring him to deny the charge.

His nostrils flared. He did not deny her charge.

“He protected me, even while trying to make me believe he was the worst thing I’d ever faced.” She wanted to reach for him. “But he didn’t get it. I’d known death since I was a kid. This man—he wasn’t death. He was hope for me. He made me feel alive. He gave me pleasure and laughter, and he put me on a stage because he knew that was what I wanted. He gave me one of my dreams. Yet he thinks he’s some bad bastard.”

“Iam.”

She stepped forward. Their bodies nearly brushed. “Not to me. You’re the hero to me. And I am falling for you.”

His gaze searched hers. “You shouldn’t.”

“Too bad. I am. I’m not asking you to love me back.” Though, yes, fine, that would be fantastic. Her chin notched up. “I’m asking you to stop seeing yourself as the devil.”

“I killed a man when I was fifteen years old.”

Her mouth opened, but no words came out.

One of his hands rose and skimmed over the scar near his lower lip. “My dad made the mistake of getting involved with bad people. Hell, he spent most of his life doing that shit. Petty thefts led to higher stakes. More connections with the wrong crowd. Borrowing money from people he shouldn’t.Stealingfrom the wrong person.”

She closed her mouth.

“He was going to be a lesson. Used as an example for others. A hit was put on him. On his whole family.”

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