Page 5 of When He Hunts

The man in the fancy suit with the dark, rumbly voice had just taken out three attackers. She didn’t think he’d even broken a sweat. And if he hadn’t kicked their asses so incredibly fast, she could have used the opportunity to, oh, say, flee for her life.

Instead, he was spinning whirling back for her. He grabbed her wrist even as she tried to surge away, and in the next moment, she was pinned between his powerful body and the hard bricks of the building behind her.

Her breath shuddered out.

“Now,” he murmured as his head lowered toward her. “Let me say again, did you miss me?”

A frantic, negative shake of her head.

He inhaled. “You smell like flowers.”

What was happening? And she smelled likeroses.With a side dose of champagne because that was her body lotion. The lotion she’d worn forever and, yes, she’d taken it with her when she fled from Atlanta. “I did not miss you,” Luna blurted.

“Too bad.” One hand still held her wrist. The other had lifted to press against bricks near her body. He completely caged her. Swallowed her with his size. He’d just knocked out three men like it was nothing. And now it was just the two of them.

“What are you going to do with me?” she asked. Did her voice break? Yes, it did.

“I think I’m gonna kiss you.” He seemed surprised by his own words. He even blinked. Then shook his head.

She grabbed the front of his coat—that fancy black coat that made it look like he’d been out at a dinner party before he decided to stop and beat up three men. “Kiss me.Don’tkill me.”

“That a promise you want me to make?” A low rumble.

Somewhere near them, one of her would-be attackers let out a groan. Was he coming back to consciousness? Footsteps thudded a second later, and she knew the guy had fled the scene.

No help is coming. Not unless I can help myself.

“It’s a promise I would very much like, yes,” she rasped.Please, please don’t kill me.

How could she catch him unaware again? Maybe if he did kiss her, she could distract him, knee him in the groin, and run like hell? Would that work? It was certainly worth a shot.

“I’m afraid that’s not a promise I can give,” he replied, though he seemed apologetic. “I was hired to kill you, Luna Black. There’s a big bounty on your head, and, one way or another, you have to die tonight.”

Tears stung her eyes. “I should have been less afraid. Done more.”

He tilted his head as he studied her.

A tear leaked down her cheek. “It’s weird that you think of all the ways you wish you hadlived, right before you die.” But that was exactly what she was doing. Running everything through her mind. Wishing for all the experiences she’d never had.

“Luna…”

“Kiss me.”I’ll live before I die.“Don’t kill me.” A last plea.

His mouth brushed over hers. Carefully, tenderly. Why would her killer kiss her so tenderly? But he did. She was unprepared for the attraction, the sheer lust, that seemed to explode through her body at the touch of his lips against hers. It was a careful kiss. Gentle. It shouldn’t flood need and heat through her entire body, yet it did.

Her mouth opened wider. His tongue thrust past her lips, and the kiss became so much more. Deeper. Rougher. Stronger.

Possessive.

She was holding onto his shoulders, and she didn’t remember grabbing him. She was kissing him as if her very life depended on it, getting swept away by a passion that she’d never felt before, and maybe it was the fear or the adrenaline that had her melting against him even as her heart galloped wildly but she had never, ever felt this way before and she?—

Pain.

A sharp pinprick of pain in her side.

His head lifted. “Sorry, sweet Luna.”

His words barely registered. The heat was fading from her body. Fading far, far too fast. Her eyes struggled to stay open and focus on his face. He was back to sounding all apologetic again, and she feared what he’d done.

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