Page 2 of Lose Me In The Shadows

And then time and space disappeared again, until there was no Conor, or Micah.

Or Luke.

2

Then

Kara had terrible climbing form.

Luke stood, belay rope in hand, watching the woman Conor and Micah were obsessed with try to make her way up the climbing wall.

She’d started out great. Luke watched as she climbed, using her legs to propel herself halfway up the wall, toehold by toehold, like she knew where each was instinctively. She kept her body tight to the wall, ass and thighs in a pair of tight leggings so threadbare Luke could see each muscle in her ass contracting and felt each of those contractions in his cock.

But now she was halfway up the wall and had pushed too hard too early. She was hanging too tight to the wall, arms straining, legs not doing the work they needed to, back curved like a cat instead of straight like a snake.

He resisted yelling encouragement and advice, because her first words to the instructor belaying her had been, “I hate climb-splainers. I like to figure out things for myself.”

Besides, he wasn’t supposed to talk to her, or call attention to himself.I won’t interact with her, he’d told Micah.I’ll just make sure she’s safe.

The instructor wasn’t restraining himself, however. He was shouting up at her to press her body closer to the climbing wall, to use her legs and give her arms a rest.

“I’ve got you!” the asshole kept yelling. Whether she couldn’t hear him over the music blasting through the speakers in the walls of the climbing gym, or was purposely ignoring him, Luke didn’t know. But it was painful to watch. A good belaying team had chemistry, were in sync with each other, the same way Luke made sure he had the right chemistry with the people he shared his more intense sexual tendencies with. Trust. There was no trust there; that was the issue.

“Kara! Kara, take a break—why don’t you come down and try again later?” the instructor said, annoyed and ready to give up on the woman. He was a shitty instructor anyway, too busy watching Kara’s, to be fair, excellent ass, to realize that—shit—Kara was frozen in place. Luke moved closer to the wall. Her face was pale, and she looked like she was barely breathing.

As a medic, Luke knew a thing or two about panic attacks—especially how to spot them, even from several feet below.

Had Conor or Micah ever mentioned anything about Kara having panic attacks? Micah, at least, might have seen something when he was tailing her.

After Conor’s two-night stand with Kara, Micah had been worried about Conor’s obsession with the woman, and what it would do to Conor—and their trio. When Conor got called off on a mission with another SEAL team, Micah had hatched a secret plan: offer to tail Kara for Conor and make sure she was safe, all so he could find information about the woman that would put Conor off her forever. Of course, that had failed after Micah’sownone night stand with Kara had left him fucked up. After Micah confessed to Luke, Luke offered to take over. He had hoped that lying to Conor would be worth it, if only to keep his friends safe from Kryptonite Pussy (his nickname for Kara Blum). But the more he’d watched her, the more he’d learned, the less sure he became that she was the manipulative siren they thought her to be—just a vulnerable yet daring woman trying to find her own way.

And right now, she needed his help.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Luke called up to her. “Any chance you’re afraid of heights?”

“I’m not afraid of anything,” she called down to him, voice weak.

Before he could think twice about the no-contact promise he’d made to Micah, or the fact that Conor would never forgive him for getting close to the woman he was obsessed with, Luke dropped the belay rope he was holding and started to climb.

“Hey!” the instructor yelled. “You can’t go up there without gear and a partner!”

Luke ignored him, barely breaking a sweat as he made his way to Kara.

He was usually a rule follower—it was what made his time in the Navy so easy before he joined up with the SEALs—but he didn’t need some jackass instructor telling him what to do when the woman he was supposed to be protecting looked like she was about to faint.

“Hey sweetheart, you okay?” He’d stopped to the right and a little below her.

“You really shouldn’t be up here,” she said in reply, not even looking at him. Her words came out on a gasp.

“You looked like you were having fun up here, thought I’d join you.”

“Real funny,” she muttered.

He ignored this. “Any chance you’re afraid of heights?”

She shook her head, the movement jerky.

Was she lying?

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