Page 56 of No Saint

I wasn’t sorry.

“Is this what it’s like for you all the time?” She finally meets my eyes.

“No.”

“So, it’s just now then? Out of the blue circumstances which have seen this house shot at twice now?” She backs up and shakes her head.

“Don’t be afraid of me, Amelia.”

She scoffs, “Good night, Gabriel.”

23

His bloody appearance didn’t frighten me.

It should have but it didn’t.

But I was running again. Shutting it down,again.

This war I was having with myself was by far the hardest I’d ever experienced. Every decision I’d made so far in my life I was sure of, from getting away from my stepfather, to having Lincoln, I was sure but now… I felt as if the walls that I used to keep myself safe were disabled and off balance.

And it was him.

How can a man who could give such comfort when I was terrified, who could kiss like a man filled with so much passion and desire, be the same man standing in front of the windows, a storm at his back while covered in the blood of a man – or men – he had just likely tortured.

He looked like the devil, and he tasted like sin so perhaps it was fitting.

But I had gone searching for him for a reason and I was turning away from it.

I stop on the stairs, feeling his eyes on my spine.

Hedidn’t frighten me as much as he used to, no, what frightened me was how I reacted to his presence. How my body lit up and my heart jumped into my throat. I wanted to taste his lips again but I couldn’t, I wanted to feel his desire for me between my legs and chase the pleasure I know he could give.

I was used to not getting what I wanted but I could have something.

After the events of today, of the fear that consumed me and the memories of my past, I deserved to have something that was just mine and if I couldn’t allow myself to havehim,then I could have this.

“Amelia?”

The way my name rolls from his tongue sends a shiver down my spine, that mixed accent setting off a riot of butterflies in my stomach that made me want to press my thighs together.

“I thought about your offer.” I keep my back to him so my face doesn’t betray me, “I’d like to do it. If it’s still available.”

“It is,” he confirms, “I’ll organize it for you.”

“Thank you.”

I start my walk back up the stairs, feeling the slickness of sweat in my palm.

“Leonessa,” Gabriel calls once again, stopping me.

I glance over my shoulder, finding him now at the base of the stairs, looking up to me, “I won’t forget that kiss.”

“You should,” I swallow.

He steps up, “I won’t.”

He looks at me with such passion I feel myself catch on fire, so I do the one thing I’m good at, I run and I don’t stop until I’m locked in my room, my back pressed to the door.

---