Page 7 of Assassin's Prey
She thought it was easy? When it felt like tearing my guts out every time? But the pain was worth it if it kept her safe. It wasn’t easy; it was necessary.
I gripped her arms, my fingers biting into her flesh harder than they should, but I couldn’t stop them. Couldn’t stop the heartbeat banging in my throat and the blood pooling low in my gut, screaming at me to subdue her, take her, force her to see that she would never walk out of my life. “You’re not leaving. You’re staying with me until we get this shit figured out. You’re going to be safe.”
“My body, maybe. You’ve already destroyed my heart.”
The words pierced me, the stabbing pain making me want to curl up and protect my vulnerable underbelly. Too late. She’d already gutted me.
“I won’t leave my life behind to skulk in the shadows, waiting around for you to notice me,” she was saying.
I barked a laugh through the agony ripping me apart. “You breathe and I notice you. I can’t stop noticing you. I take one look and my dick is rock-hard and my entire body hones in on one thing: you. Getting you beneath me.” I shook her as if it was her fault, because it was. All her fault. “I can’t breathe for wanting you.” One step and our bodies came together. Her nipples were hard, poking through the cotton of her bra and my dress shirt. She didn’t want to leave any more than I wanted her to.
Abby licked her lips, turned her head away from me. “I’m not talking about sex.”
“I am.” It was all I knew. The only way to share myself with her. And right now I needed it just as much as I needed my next lungful of air.
The kiss I took then didn’t feel like love. It felt like conquering. Overpowering. I pried her lips open with my own, and when my tongue invaded her mouth, she shuddered—not with fear or pain, but with need. I knew because her teeth unclenched and she let me in, a whimper of defeat echoing between our lips. I plundered and invaded, every crack and crevice, until her head was bent back like a broken reed and her eyes were dazed with hunger. Only then did I bury my face in the hollow of her neck. When I bit down on her shoulder, she startled against me.
“You’re not leaving,” I growled around her flesh.
“Yes, I am.”
I nipped the tender line of her shoulder, my fingers tightening on her once more—a threat, a promise. “No, you’re not. You’re coming with me.”
She shook her head as much as she could with my face in the way, my teeth gliding along her skin. “Whether I want to or not? For how long, Levi?”
Forever.“For as long as I say.”
That sick little chuckle again. “And what about what I say?”
“Doesn’t matter.” I could change what she said, whether she chose to acknowledge that fact or not. We both knew it.
I felt her inhale, readying to fight me again. Her chance was cut off by a knock on the door.
I stepped back and stared her down. “Come.”
The door opened. The steps hesitated before moving around to where I could see the intruder. Remi.
“Sorry to interrupt, but there’s a development you need to know about.”
Nothing could be as important as the battle of wills going on right here in this bedroom. The battle for the future. “What?” I barked.
“Lance Heinz is dead.”
And God help me, but satisfaction settled low in my gut even as the last bit of light died out of Abby’s soulful eyes.
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Chapter Four
She reminded me of a wounded kitten every time I looked at her. Like I’d threatened to step on her with my big bad boots instead of fighting for her life, for us, the only way I knew how.
With Heinz’s death, at least she couldn’t argue about safety. She’d agreed to stay with us for a few days, which was why she was upstairs right now, packing a suitcase while I prowled through the downstairs rooms of her house. I wouldn’t go up there. If I did, I’d fuck her until she could do nothing but chant my name to the rhythm of my cock thrusting inside her, forgetting everything but me. Forgetting that she wanted to leave me.
That wouldn’t get her to safety. But tonight, when I had her back at base? She’d learn her lesson.
And yet, with every glance, every step, hell, every inhale as I walked the darkened rooms, I found reason after reason why we shouldn’t be together. Why I would ruin her life.
I truly was an animal, because I couldn’t stop. Even now, soaking in the peace of the home she’d built for herself. A place where every corner smelled like vanilla and flowers, as if Abby had just walked by, her presence lingering around me. Every edge was softened with fabric and padding and care. So much fucking care. The colors were warm, the furniture deeply cushioned. The kind you sank into and never wanted to leave, with fluffy blankets over the backs that felt like silk against your skin. The kind normal men might cuddle under with their wife while she read a book and he watched the latest football game on the flat-screen TV. The kind my parents had taken the time to share on a cold winter’s day.
