Page 54 of Stay for Me

“I did today.”

I gave him a half smile.

“Next time your past storms into your life, I’ll be there to drag it right back out,” he vowed.

My eyes flicked over to the cruiser. “I don’t think anyone else from my past is going to come out here,” I mumbled, knowing my parents didn’t have the guts.

They refused to see how far I’d come, how well I was doing.

Chase’s mouth flattened, his brows furrowing. I knew he was holding his tongue because of the cowboy standing beside me. Mags didn’t know anything about me, really. Yes, he knew about Lucas, and a few years ago, he’d overheard a conversation between my mother and me. It wasn’t a good one. In fact, it was the most verbally abusive conversation I’d ever had with her.

Other than that, I was almost a stranger to the cowboy, just like he was to me.

After a few beats of silence, Chase looked to Mags, who stood behind me, the heat of his body radiating into my back. “You good?” he prompted.

The cowboy’s words were straight and to the point. “Be better if you got that fucker out of my sight.”

Chase grumbled something else under his breath before looking back to me. “See you tomorrow, Diana.”

“See you, Chase.”

As I watched Chase walk away, I wondered where my phone and gun were, but I didn’t get the chance to ask until the police cruiser was backing out of the driveway.

“Where’s my phone and gun?” I asked, doing my best to not react to Mags’ touch as his grip loosened and his thumb began stroking the side of my neck.

“With me.”

I tried not to let those two words seep into my soul as I rasped, “May I have them back, please?”

“You gonna be stupid like that again?”

Excuse me?

I jerked and tried to step out of his hold, but his grip tightened once more.

In a flash, he banded his arm around my front, tight around my midsection, and yanked me back against him. I gasped softly, our bodies flushed now, my hands instinctively going to his strong forearm, my fingers curling around the corded muscles. My chest began to heave, and I felt his facial hair brush against the shell of my ear as the hand at the back of my neck snaked around to the front, holding me in place.

Gentle but firm.

“When a man like that shows up at your door and tries to get into your house, you shoot him,” he growled, his breath sliding across my skin. “When a man likemeshows up and wants to shoot him,you fuckin’ let me.”

My chest collapsed.

“When a man likemetells you not to look at a piece of shit like your ex,you fuckin’ obey.”

“I—”

“Quiet.”

His arm shifted back then, allowing him to splay his hand over my soft stomach, his fingers pressing in. He turned his head, trailing his nose across my hair, inhaling deeply. My eyes fluttered closed, my body doing everything it could to savor this moment, the feel of him against me, his hard chest against my back, his hand around my neck, his fingers against my pulse.

I hated how well we fit together, how perfect he felt against me, because I knew, down to the bottom of my lonely soul, I knew when he let me go, my heart would break all over again.

“When a man like me wants to kill for you, Firefly, you fuckin’ let him,” he murmured, the jagged edges of his voice tearing me apart. “Do you hear me?”

I sucked in a breath as he forced my head back, letting it fall onto his shoulder. His mouth was against my ear again, his breath harsh against it. “Answer me,” he ordered, his fingers flexing on my throat.

I nodded, unable to say anything else, keeping my hands on him arm. He pressed into my stomach, forcing the rest of my body to press harder against him. I felt it then, his desire.

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