Page 106 of The Hunted
He felt that tug in his low stomach, the one that was always around when it came to her. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and hold her close. He wanted to look at her and see only the Reaper, but those eyes of hers kept drawing him in.
Maybe he was a sucker, but all he could see was Silva.
“Was it real?” he repeated. He slowed his breathing, willing his body to listen to everything her lips wouldn’t utter. If she told him none of it had been real, he’d tuck his tail between his legs and lick his wounds, but not before he put her in the ground.
The two of them couldn’t survive if one didn’t relent.
“What will make it hurt less.” Her hand shook.
“The truth,” he whispered. He wrapped his hand around her wrist and tugged it away from his body. He let her hold on to the knife as he went for her hips and plucked her off the ground to straddle his lap. Even now he couldn’t stop touching her or needing to be close to her.
“Tell me, princess. Put us both out of our miseries.” He wrapped his hand around her two braids and give them a slight tug.
Her smile was sad. She traced the bridge of his nose. “You loved when my hair was in braids. I hated it because I knew what that meant for me. But you thought it was the coolest thing. You liked my hair in general. I don’t know where you’d been before you came to that foster home, but you’d fall asleep playing with my hair. When I ignored you because I was mad at you for some silly thing, you’d always tug my hair to say sorry.”
She dropped her head to his. Her body shook in his arms and he held her closer. “You were everything to me. You protected me in ways that ended up hurting you, and then when we were finally free,” her breath hitched, “you fucking left me. You let her take you and left me there to rot.”
Her fists hit his shoulder and he grunted. He was softening toward her.
Like you were ever going to come out here and actually kill her.
He’d take whatever she needed to dish out.
“I hated you for so long. My life was hell after that day. It was sheer fucking luck I found you all those years ago. I honestly didn’t think I would remember you if I saw you as an adult.” She had dropped the knife.
She leaned back, her eyes were closed and fingers traced over the edges of his face. He leaned into her touch, getting lost to the way she traced over his features like she was memorizing them.
“But the instant you gazed in my direction it was like looking at an older version of the kid I used to know.” She opened her eyes and draped her hands over his shoulder. “I forgot what town we were both in, but I watched you order coffee and the way you watched the crowd. It was the same way you did it when you were younger. I couldn’t believe it was you. I followed you for a couple of days, watched your routine, and got mad at the life you built for yourself. How well you turned out. I wanted to hurt you.”
She sighed. “And then when I watched you kill that priest who got off on a technicality for what he did to those little boys, I knew exactly how to extract my revenge. But I didn’t account for one thing.”
“And what’s that?” Santino whispered, watching the emotions scatter across her face. He held perfectly still, hoping beyond hope he’d hear what he wanted. The way she fit against his body as they sat in the middle of the woods seemed to right his world. He felt at peace for the first time in a long time, and he worried his need for survival wouldn’t flare to life when she was the one who held the knife at his throat.
You want her.
He did. Silva was everything he could have ever hoped for.
Silva’s eyes locked with his. The brown one turning into a warm honey that filled him with a deep need for her. The blue one shone so brightly, he leaned closer to her, desperate for whatever scraps she would offer him.
“I didn’t expect to fall for you, Santino,” she whispered. “You turned out to be everything I didn’t know I could have. I feel safe with you, protected and free.”
Santino’s hold on her tightened. “Can I kiss you, princess?”
She nodded. “Please.”
Santino dove in like a man starved. He had a fear that he’d never get to experience this again. He’d never get to feel her nails dig into his flesh or hear the little whimper she made when she was trying to get closer to him. He feared he’d never get the taste of her on his tongue again or feel the way her teeth sank into his lower lip.
She was everything to him and more.
And I get to keep her.
“I want to fuck you out here, princess,” he groaned against her mouth. “I want to hear your pretty screams get lost to the night. But,” he nipped at her, trailing kisses down her jaw and to her neck, “we have a stray to take care of, and there’s the other killer we need to worry about.”
They were still no closer to figuring out why that VIC had been targeted and by who. Neither he nor Silva had been responsible, but that didn’t leave Santino many options on who else it could be.
Silva let out a lip trill. “If we must. I would much rather spend my time here in the woods with you, but we do have to take care of Amra. I don’t think we need to worry about the other killer just yet, but we need to be careful.”
“We?” he kissed her nose. “I like the sound of that, princess. Just chill with the knives.” He plucked her off his lap to help her stand on her feet. He followed suit, loving the small laugh she let out.
