Page 10 of The Moments You Were Mine
She yanked it away with enough force that it caused her to slide backward on the barstool she was perched on. She would have landed on her pretty little ass if I hadn’t steadied her with both hands on her waist. The touch burned. It tore through me like a goddamn grenade going off.
As soon as she was stable, I jerked my hands away.
She raised a shot glass, tossed it back, and slammed it onto the bar with an expertise that didn’t sit any better with me than her being in this dive.
“I’m not going anywhere,” she said. The husky, honeyed timbre of her voice sent shockwaves spiraling through me. “I plan to stay here until I’m nice and toasty, and then I’m going to find some Navy boy to take me to bed so he can lose me in the morning.”
My entire body stiffened. Shoulders. Back. Groin. I ground my teeth together, leaned closer so our noses were almost touching, and said, “No.”
Her eyes widened, gaze dropping to my mouth before slowly easing back up. The fire I saw there matched the one in me, and it surprised the shit out of me, even when it shouldn’t. Even when I’d seen that fire before and done everything I could to squelch it.
“Last time I checked, you weren’t my boss or my dad. You can’t tell me no,” she huffed, tossing those thick waves behind her shoulder. I wanted to fill my hands with those golden locks. I wanted to yank them back and taste—
I swallowed hard and said, “Rafe would hate you being here.”
She snorted. “Dad would hate all my plans for tonight, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”
I whipped out my phone and swiped through the contacts. I’d almost hit her dad’s number when she surprised me again by jerking the phone from my fingers.
“Don’t you dare!”
I’d expected her to be pissed at my high-handedness, and she was, but there was also a hitch in her voice that had me narrowing my eyes to really take her in. It wasn’t the short black skirt, her long, toned legs, or even the swell of her breasts showcased in a tight T-shirt that halted my gaze. Instead, it was the red rimming her eyes and the puffiness of her cheeks.
She’d been crying.
Someone had hurt her.
And that thought had every feral instinct in my body reacting. I was a trained killer. I knew exactly how to get rid of a body in a way no one would ever find it, and whoever had made Fallon Marquess-Harrington cry was going to pay the price.
I suspected I knew exactly who it was, but I had to get her to confirm it. To do that, I had to sit down next to her. I had to talk to her and watch those full lips twist and those dark lashes flutter. I had to stay close to the one person I’d been running from for years.
The one person who could make me forget all my promises to my dad, her dad, and myself.
I flagged the bartender and ordered a beer for me and water for her. When she requested another shot, I shook my head at the man over her head and then slid onto the stool next to her.
“Where are your friends, Fallon?”
Her lids closed for a second. “If I had to guess, they’re all at the bonfire.”
“And why aren’t you with them?”
The bartender put down my pint and her water, and she emitted a little growl of displeasure. Before I could stop her, she reached for my beer, raised the glass to those pretty lips, and chugged at least half the contents.
While it wasn’t the first time I’d seen her drink, it was the first time I’d ever seen her attempting to get drunk, and it increased the sour taste in my mouth. At the beach parties she’d invited me to over the last three years, she’d been focused onsurfing during the day and dancing by the bonfire at night, rather than downing alcohol like many of the college students hanging out with her.
Watching her in those moments, seeing her celebrate life with a lightness and freedom she’d never had at the ranch, it was the first time I’d felt the deep friendship we’d had as kids twist into something more. Something I’d never thought I’d have a problem ignoring when our five-year age difference had always felt more like twenty.
As a teen, I’d been aware of her crush on me well before our fathers had made me promise to ignore it. I certainly hadn’t been tempted back then. I’d been laser-focused on the Naval Academy and being one of the handful of cadets selected to go straight into Basic Underwater Demolition/Seal training upon graduation.
But as adults, standing next to Fallon as she tugged herself out of a wetsuit, leaving nothing more than a bikini and bare skin in its wake, I’d been struck with a landslide of emotions. Desire had been only the tip of them. Seeing her use those lean muscles to wrangle the waves with the same ease she’d tamed the horses back on the ranch had flooded me with images of a future I’d never allow to come true, even if I hadn’t had the promise to our fathers hanging over me.
For her first few years at the University of San Diego, it had been easy for me to convince Fallon to come away with me when I’d left the beach party. But this last year, since she’d started dating that loser, JJ, I’d had to leave her there, partying with her college friends. I’d go home to my tiny rental cottage and lie awake, fretting like some goddamn parent, until I received her text telling me she was home safe and sound.
I told myself it was the reason thoughts of her clung to me on my missions with an ache that left me nearly doubled over at times. It was simply unease about whether she’d make it home safely each time she partied with her friends. It was simply years of ingrained duty.
Which was ridiculous because she was an adult and no longer my responsibility. The truth was, she would say she’dneverbeen my responsibility, that she’d grown up taking care of herself, and to some degree, she was right. Still, she was always the first person I texted when I returned from an assignment, and my gut remained clenched until she responded.
Right now, my Fallon protector instincts were in full swing as I took in her sexy little outfit, slurred speech, and the fogginess in her eyes.
