Chase
On the outside I was calm.
Confident.
Still angry.
Still an asshole.
But my heart? It beat so wildly that I pressed a hand to it and leaned against the wall in the spare bathroom. What the hell was that?
The almost painful feeling that stretched my chest wide. The one that made me think I was having a heart attack.
Naked.
She’d been so naked.
I’d only acted unaffected because I was in shock.
Complete shock.
Eight months, and I’d told myself I would never touch another woman again, promised myself I’d leave this earth with her blood on my hands, that it would consume me in every way.
And now I was thinking about her wearing those damn pearls.
And nothing else.
I dropped the towel and stepped into the shower then braced one hand against the wall as my body pulsed with need. I clenched my teeth. Unbelievable. She wore headbands!
I killed people.
She had pearls.
I reached for myself and gripped.
I wasn’t going to live past my last few kills.
I moved my hand as water pelted my back. Her parted lips… that wide-eyed innocent look that made me even wonder if she’d ever had sex before or if she’d just been too busy being proper to even think about it…
I let out a grunt of frustration.
My hand was a pathetic substitute for that mouth of hers.
It was painful, removing my hand, staring at the wall, and quickly flipping on the cold water.
Any other woman, and I’d be satisfied.
Any other woman, but not her.
No, not her.
“Fuck!” I slammed my hands against the tiled wall and grit my teeth as freezing water hit me from all sides, cooling me off but doing nothing about the fact that I was going to impale her if I got too close.
I smirked, even though it wasn’t funny. To think I’d thought she’d broken my dick, too.
After all, she’d taken everything else.
Why not take that?
Have the last laugh?
I squatted down and let the water hit my face, chilling me to the bone. If a cold shower didn’t do it, I wasn’t so sure she should sing to me tonight; the last thing I needed was for her to think I had her in my room because I was seconds away from screwing her.
“Agh!” I stood and washed my body, rinsed, then grabbed a towel and quietly made my way back into the bedroom to grab a pair of pajama pants. Tonight was not the best night to just wear black Stance briefs to bed.
I’d literally just pulled up my pants when she walked around the corner, clothed, with her skin looking dewy and pink.
I wiped my face with one hand and stared.
She didn’t move.
Her hair was in a knot on her head, and her face was bare, no makeup.
And I’d never seen anyone so innocent-looking, so pure, in my entire existence; it made me want to lock her up like a psychopath and put a full-time guard on her just in case someone saw what I saw and took advantage.
She had long legs.
Full hips.
And breasts that, I knew for a fact, would spill over my hands, and then some. I averted my eyes for the first time since she walked out and grabbed a chair. “You can just sit… here.”
I placed the chair a few feet away from my bed.
Away from temptation I didn’t need.
And then turned off the lights and went to lie on the mattress. I pulled the down comforter over me and heard the sound of the chair scraping across the floor until finally settling about an inch from my body.
Great. Just. Great.
I exhaled slowly and managed to relax my body. Luc moved to the chair but must have tripped on something because one minute she was standing next to me and the next minute I was getting kneed in the junk and seeing stars.
“SHIT!” I roared as she covered her face and stumbled back to the chair.
“I’m so sorry! I was just trying to— never mind. Maybe this is a bad idea. Do you need an ice pack? Peas?”
I couldn’t help it. She’d offered me fucking peas.
I lost it.
I laughed, and for the first time in I didn’t even know how long, it felt like a real laugh, as if it came from some place good, not from the darkness.
“So you’re not hurt?” she asked when I stopped laughing.
“You pretty much just took my dick off with your knee. What do you think?”
She hung her head.
I reached for her, hesitated midway, then just went with it as my fingers tilted her chin toward me. “It was an accident.”
“So you’re not… going to…” She eyed the gun on my nightstand.
“For rendering me sterile?” I joked. “No.”
She made a face. “I didn’t knee you that hard.”
“My balls went into my spleen. Trust me. You did.”
Even in the dark, I could make out her blush.
I tried not to react to it.
Told my body it was finally losing its last grip on reality, but I couldn’t resist. I cupped her face again with both hands.
Her breaths came out in short, ragged exhales as if she was having trouble sucking in enough air.
I leaned in just as a loud crash sounded downstairs.
Well, that did the trick.
I grabbed the gun and pointed it at her. “Stay.”
“But—”
“Stay!” I yelled it this time and shut the door behind me.
Another crash and then whispering.
They must have been trying to gain my attention, or they were literally the loudest and worst associates on the planet.
I flicked on the lights.
Nothing happened.
No wonder.
Either they’d cut the lights or— Thunder sounded in the distance.
Well, at least I had my answer.
I waited for someone to make an appearance at the bottom of the stairs. After a few seconds, there was no more talking. Well, shit.
I walked down quietly and turned the corner into the kitchen then felt movement behind me. I turned and shot.
Direct hit to the head.
The guy fell to the ground. Just as Vic approached from behind, blood covering his face as he gave his head a shake. “They cut the power.” He rasped, “Bastards ran from me—I had it handled.”
“That why you look ready to pass out from blood loss?” My eyebrows rose while he gave me a fuck you look and raised his gun just as another guy popped out from the left, the bullet hit him between his eyes, but Vic was still looking at me, his face indifferent.
“Lucky shot.”
His lips twitched. “I never miss.”
My front door opened, and there he was.
Fucking Andrei Petrov.
Clapping.