Page 16 of Deal with the Devil

I'm seven weeks out of an engagement. I’d been with Antonio for two years. Before Antonio, I’d had three serious boyfriends. I'm not the kind of girl that feels flutters and falls into beds.

I take my time to get to know a man, but this man—he's the kind of man I've always been wary of.

I've always held myself apart from men like Kane, because he's the kind of man that could make me the kind of woman that wants to fall into beds. That wants to give into the flutter of my heart, that yearns to feel the freedom of his touch.

But again, I'm seven weeks post broken engagement. I have no business thinking of a man.Any man.

Considering the crap I went through last night, I'm not physically capable of being with a man. Especially not a man like Kane, who I imagine could thoroughly ruin me in bed.

“You good?” He steadies me with big hands on my hips. Hands that feel good there. Too good.

Hells bells.

I nod, bobbing my head quickly. Too quickly. A little nervously, if I’m being honest.

I'm alone out here with him, far enough from civilization that I can’t imagine, if I screamed, anyone would come.

I've just been attacked by a man sent with specific instructions to hurt me—by my fiancé—my ex-fiancé.

I shouldn't be so stupidas to put myself in the wilderness with a man I don't know. A man very clearly powerful enough to hurt me very badly.As if I haven't been hurt enough already.

“I'm good.” I force the words through my sore throat.

We didn't talk at all on the drive. I’d sensed him watching me, sensed the weight of his gaze. The concern. But I hadn't had the strength to look away from the window, from the scenery that passed me by.

I hadn't been able to look away, because if I did, if I looked at him, I'd have to face the fact that I have failed miserably in my adult life. I have failed so miserably that this is where I am, on the run from a man who should have loved me enough not to hurt me—with a man I don't know. A man I've had two encounters with. Both times, I can’t say I’ve painted myself, or my life decisions, in a stellar light.

I don’t know this man from Adam. I don’t know his last name or what he does for work. I don’t have his address or his phone number.

Nobody knows where I am.

Well, maybe Nurse Candy does. ButIdon't know her. If things took a dangerous, terrible turn, I have to assume that she would take Kane’s side. That she would protect him.

It makes sense. That’s what I would have expected Kate to do—before I caught her on her knees, choking on my fiancé’sdick.

Sour sick turns in my empty belly. I must pale visibly because Kane sways back a bit, brows drawing low.

“Hey,” he croons gently, which is so at odds with the usually rough rumble of his deep voice, I almost laugh. “What’s going on in there?”

I swallow the sick, shaking my head. “Nothing. Just—thinking.”

“About what?”

I can’t help it when my eyes lift to his. It’s involuntary. As though I’m fulfilling a deep need that’s always lived inside me. Looking into those glacier blues just feelsright.

But because I can’t tell him I’d been thinking of my best friend—my soul-sister—sucking off my ex-fiancé while he’dbeenmy fiancé, I tell him, “I feel foolish.”

“Why?” He searches my face, and I shift. The way this man looks at me is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. As though he can see through my clothes and skin to the making of me deep beneath. The ticking of my heart. The glimmer of my soul.

He strips me to the bone without ever lifting the blade to flay me.

“I was just attacked—brutally—” I try not to note the way his eyes darken. The way the muscles under his flesh coil. He’s a beast ready to pounce. To destroy.To shred.“He was my fiancé, Kane. He was supposed to love me and he—he paid someoneto hurt me.” His eyes close slowly, because he’s been trying to get these details from me since the moment he first saw me there in the hospital room. “He paid a man to hurt me, Kane.” I feel wet stinging behind my eyes as I give him all I can give him. “That man broke into my apartment in the middle of the night. I woke to him on top of me?—”

“Sunshine,” there’s a break to his voice that rattles me. When he opens his eyes, I think I see a crack in the foundation of the cage that restrains his monster. Foolishly—so foolishly—I’m not afraid at all. “You said he didn’t—fuck?—”

I’m confused. “I said he didn’t, what?”

“You—” He takes a small step back from me. His hands clench into tight fists. He sucks breath in through his nose. “You denied the rape kit.”

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