It was nice to be out of the apartment and out on the town. I went out with some friends to a club, had men buy us a few rounds, and watched people hook up together and leave. A few men made passes at me, but I wasn’t interested, so I let them down easy.

Even in a crowded room full of people, I felt lonely.

I wished I was home, my ankles locked together around Bones’s waist. I wished my nails were cutting into his skin, drawing blood, as he pounded into me and made me his. My thoughts kept going back to the man I was trying to forget.

But it didn’t seem like I could forget him.

My glass was empty, so I left the table to get a drink at the bar.

That’s when I noticed him, wearing a black t-shirt that fit his strong body. His biceps stretched the fabric, and his black ink stood out in comparison to his fair skin. His short blond hair was styled, and his black jeans made his ass look nice.

But he wasn’t alone.

He was talking to a beautiful woman with a bust twice as big as mine. She was so close to him they looked like they’d already become acquainted throughout the night. She smiled at everything he said.

Then she ran her hand up his arm.

She was oblivious to everything around her because she was so absorbed in him. She didn’t even notice me, the woman standing there staring at them. Bones’s back was to me, so he didn’t see me.

But she should have noticed me by now.

The woman smiled before she grabbed his scotch and drank from his glass since hers was empty.

Bones watched her, hardly blinking.

“I’m gonna throw up…” My hand went to my stomach, and I dashed toward the bathroom, my insides turning over. My eyes immediately watered as the pain stabbed me in a million places. I felt the wounds from the back of my neck all the way down my ankles.

There was a line for the bathroom, so I leaned against the wall in the hallway and covered my face with my hands, not caring about the way my makeup would smear with my tears.

There was so much pain I didn’t know what to do with it.

Fuck, it hurt.

That woman was totally smitten with him, drinking out of his glass and touching his arm.

My arm.

I had no right to be angry, and I wasn’t. But I was in the most extreme form of pain—agony.

I knew this day would come, when he would move on with someone else. But to see it happening in real time was killing me inside. My stomach contracted painfully, and I felt weak in my knees. The tears fell, and I wiped them away as quickly as they came. The other girls in line looked at me, but no one asked if I was alright.

I was definitely not alright.

I didn’t have many options here. I could go home and cry.

Or I could walk right up to him and ask him to take me home.

I knew he would choose me in a heartbeat. I was the woman he loved, the real woman he wanted to be with. I still had a chance to turn this around. But I couldn’t interfere with his life just for one night.

I had to be sure it was what I wanted.

I wanted to move on because our relationship didn’t have a future.

But I couldn’t let him go either.

He was the only man I’d ever loved.

He would probably be the only man I would ever love.

After a few more breaths, I made up my mind. I left the hallway with the restrooms and walked back to the bar.

But they weren’t there. Their spot had been filled by two guys.

Shit.

I pushed past the crowd at the entryway and made it to the sidewalk outside. It was dark, and the line of people waiting to get in wrapped around the building. My breath immediately came out as vapor because of the cold, and my skin bubbled with goose bumps. I looked to the left and didn’t see him.

I looked to the right and spotted him walking to his truck, his arm around the woman’s waist.

God, I wanted to throw up.

I slipped off my heels and ran barefoot down the sidewalk, my feet aching on the stone-cold concrete. My hair flapped behind me, and the people who passed me on the sidewalk stared at me as I ran like a lunatic.

Bones reached his truck and unlocked the passenger door.

I wasn’t going to make it. “Griffin!”

He stilled at the sound of his name, his hand pausing as it gripped the door handle. The woman looked at him, watching his confused expression.

I kept running, getting closer. “Wait. Please wait.”

He turned around and stared at me, his blue eyes guarded with uncertainty. He didn’t seem happy to see me, just confused by my figure running down the sidewalk away from the club. “Give me a second.” He left his date against the truck and walked toward me, his broad shoulders wide and powerful. The hostility wafted from him, the steam from his anger rising. “What?”

I wasn’t sure what I was expecting him to do. I wanted him to lift me into his arms and pull me against his chest, just the way he did when I’d walked home drunk. I wanted him to kiss my hairline and call me baby.

“What?” he repeated. “Did you want something, Vanessa? Because I’m in the middle of something right now.”

The tears still bubbled in my eyes. “I don’t want you to be with her.”

“Don’t do that,” he snapped. “You told me to stay out of your personal life. That goes both ways—stay out of mine.”

“I want to be with you…I want it to be us. I’ve changed my mind.”

He shifted his weight slightly, his eyes narrowing even more. “Don’t pull that shit with me unless you mean it. Don’t say you’re in this, then leave me in the morning. You’re either with me completely, or you’re not. Which is it?”

Tears fell down my cheeks. “I’m with you—always.”

That must have been the reassurance he needed, because he stormed toward me and gripped my cheeks with his hands. He kissed me hard on the mouth, claiming me with his lips even though his date stood next to his truck. He kissed me the way he used to, but even harder than before.

I dropped my heels on the ground and wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling his warmth surround me and chase away the cold. I stood on the top of my tiptoes so I could take his mouth, feel his stubble brush against my cheek. “Take me home.”

Bones carried me across the living room, my legs wrapped around his waist and my dress bunched up around my stomach. His large hands gripped the back of my thighs and my ass, holding my waist against his hard stomach.

My arms were circled around his neck, and I kissed him with desperation, needing this man more than I ever did before. Tears continued to escape because having him back hurt as much as it did when I lost him. Maybe this decision would make my life more difficult later on, but I’d finally accepted my fate. I didn’t want him to go home with someone else. I only wanted him to go home with me.

He carried me into my bedroom then moved his knees to the mattress. He used one hand to lower himself to the bed, while the other held me around the waist. He gently placed me underneath him and stepped between my legs, his jeans and t-shirt still on.

I pulled his shirt over his head and immediately went back to kissing him, my hands sliding across his hard chest. My fingers snaked up the back of his neck and into his hair, feeling the short strands I used to fist every night. His cologne wrapped around me, and I’d finally returned to the bubble of warmth I’d missed so much.

He peeled off my dress, yanking it over my hips and stretching it out carelessly.

I didn’t care about that dress anyway. He could rip the damn thing.

My panties came next, my black thong disappearing down my long legs.

I unbuttoned his black jeans and pushed them down, revealing his thick and long cock. I’d missed it so much. It was so much better than my fingers. “Yes…” My legs circled his powerful torso, and my thighs gripped his waist.

His arms flexed as he held himself on top of me, the swollen muscles and corded veins sexy. His frosty blue eyes were as beautiful as ever, focused intensely on me. He looked at me in a way he never looked at that other woman. She was just a piece of ass, but I was the one woman he really wanted.

He pushed down on the shaft of his cock and pointed his swollen tip at my entrance. His smooth crown rubbed against my flesh, gathering the moisture that seeped from my opening. He slathered himself in my arousal, a deep moan coming from the back of his throat.

My nails clawed into his chest on the way down toward his stomach. My pussy clenched when I felt him try to pierce me, my nipples hardening until they ached. He was teasing me, making my lips tremble because I wanted to beg.

He finally pushed in, moving past my tight entrance before he started to sink deep and slow.

My hands moved to his shoulders again, and I moaned right in his face. “Griffin…yes.” I slept in this bed alone every night, missing this powerful man between my legs. I missed the way I got so wet for him. I missed the way he stretched me until my breaking point. I missed all of it…every single moment.

He gripped the backs of my knees and pushed them toward my waistline, opening me wide. His thick arms were rooted into the bed, pinning my legs in place as he repositioned himself on top of me. He held my gaze as he slowly sank the rest of the way, pushing through the wet tightness until he was buried to the hilt.

I gripped his arms and breathed through the pain, breathed through the immense stretching. I hadn’t been with him in over a month, and that was enough time for my body to tighten back to its original shape. It was like the first time we had sex, when he hurt me because he was so big.

He paused as he stayed on top of me, his hard gaze looking into mine. “You feel like a virgin.”

“You’re the first real man I’ve ever been with…so I guess I was.”

He took a deep breath, his chest puffing out as the pleasure of my words crept down his spine. His jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth together. His eyes bored into mine more possessively than they did before. He sank a little farther, getting the last few inches inside me until only his balls were outside my body.

It hurt even more, but I would never ask him to stop.

He angled his neck down and pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’ve never made love to a woman before…so I guess this is my first time too.” He started to thrust his hips slowly, his long length hitting me deep and slow.

My fingers dug into his arms as I lay there and took it, accepting his big dick over and over. I breathed with every thrust, felt my pussy slowly relax as he stretched me out. My body produced more lubrication, and I could hear the sounds our sexes made as they moved together. I let this man fuck me deep and slow. My breathing was completely erratic, and I could barely get enough oxygen into my system. I moaned and quivered underneath him, balancing between pleasure and pain. Tears pooled in the corners of my eyes and streaked down my cheeks.

Bones released another masculine moan. “Looks like I have to break you in again.”

“Yes…” My hands moved to his shoulders and neck, and I brought his face down to mine to kiss me.

He kissed me slowly, making love to me in a way he never had before. He gave me his tongue, his bottom lip, and his heavy breath. He breathed with me, moaning as he enjoyed my wet and tight cunt. “Baby…fuck.”

“I touched myself and thought of you… This is so much better.”

His cock throbbed inside me, his eyes deepening with the same desire.

“I’m gonna come…I can already tell.”

He continued to rock into me, collecting my cream all along his dick to his hilt. “I can tell too.”

“I want to feel your come inside me…I miss it.”

He paused in his movement, moaning right against my mouth. “Tell me when.” He lifted his body over mine and concentrated his thrusts, hitting me in the perfect way to rub his body against my clit. He stared into my eyes with a serious expression, his chiseled jaw sprinkled with stubble from not shaving.

My hands gripped his hips, and I used them as an anchor to pull myself back into him, to sheathe that monster cock over and over again. His size still hurt, but it felt so good that I hardly noticed the pain. I was slowly approaching a blinding orgasm, deep and powerful. I’d spent all my nights alone with just my fingers, and my imagination couldn’t compete with the real thing. Having my man there, buried deep inside me, was far better than anything I could pretend was happening. “Here it comes…” I arched my back and felt my lips part as I sucked in air. My eyes stayed locked on his, watching the pleasure radiate from his eyes. “Yes…give it to me.” The orgasm hit me like a train, and I convulsed around his cock. It felt so good, so much better than any other climax I’d ever experienced.

He gave his final pumps then released right on time, dumping all of his seed inside me.

I could feel it build up inside me, feel the weight hot and thick between my legs. I could feel his arousal, his desperation. My nails dug into his chest and left marks, and I moaned deeply. “Yes…Griffin.”

He shoved himself completely inside me as he finished, getting the last drops deep inside my pussy.

I could feel all of it. I’d missed it so much, being stuffed with this man’s desire. My climax went on a little longer than usual because of it.

He pressed his forehead to mine, moaning as he finished. “Baby…”

“Griffin…”

He rested his body on mine, moving his hips slightly as he finished the very end of it. His face moved to my neck, and he breathed deeply, his cock staying hard for a few seconds before it started to soften.

My arms hooked around his shoulders, and I buried my face in his neck. “I love you…”

He pulled away so he could look into my eyes. With his cock still buried inside me and the love in his eyes, he said it back. “I love you too, baby.”

When I woke up the next morning, I heard the sound of the rain outside. It splattered against the bedroom window, the light tapping of the raindrops acting as faint music. It was the first time that year the precipitation was in the form of rain instead of snow.

Spring was finally here.

I opened my eyes and saw Bones beside me, his naked chest rising and falling with his light breathing. He was on his back with his head turned toward me, his hard jaw a little softer when he was asleep. He was still the powerful man he was when he was wide awake, but when he was dreaming, he had a much gentler aspect to him. He didn’t seem like a monster anymore, just a man.

I watched him as I considered what had happened last night. I’d changed my mind about everything when I saw the side effects of my decision. I’d wanted to move on, but when I witnessed Bones moving on with another woman, I couldn’t handle it. The event only took ten minutes, but those ten minutes were enough to change my mind about everything. I shouldn’t love Bones, but no amount of logical reasoning was going to get me to stop.

So I gave up.

I didn’t know where this was going or what my new plan was, but I decided to stop worrying about it.

I didn’t have to tell my family about him. No one had to know.

And we could hide inside the passion and intensity of this relationship, regardless of if it would destroy us both someday.

I kissed the skin over his heart before I got out of bed and went into the kitchen. Since he was over six feet of all muscle, he was a hungry man. He needed food around the clock, so he was always the one making meals inside the kitchen.

I decided to make breakfast, pancakes, bacon, and eggs. I burned the bacon a little bit, and while the pancakes were done on the outside, they were still gooey batter on the inside. I put them back on the pan, but then they started to smoke when they burned.

Maybe I should let Bones do all the cooking.

I turned off the stove and gave up, just as I heard the sound of his heavy footfalls behind me. I turned around. “I tried to make you breakfast—”

He backed me up into the counter and gripped my neck, his fingers threatening my windpipe as they gently constricted against my skin. Our relationship had barely begun, but he was livid with me already. “I don’t give a damn about breakfast.” He lifted me onto the counter and pulled off my panties, tossing them on the kitchen floor. He was already naked, so he pulled my hips to the edge before he thrust his hard cock deep inside me in one swift motion. He folded my legs against my chest and held me close to him so he could thrust hard.

“Oh god…” My arms wrapped around his shoulders and I held on to him as he pounded into me hard, fucking me like he hated me and loved me at the same time.

He moved hard and fast, slamming his dick deep inside me over and over. He stretched me good, not giving my body a chance to handle him. He gripped the back of my neck and breathed into my ear, his arousal audible in his heavy breaths. “Leave me again and see what happens.” He lifted me from the counter and carried me back to the bed, still fucking me as he went. He fell onto the bed with me, pinning me down and giving me his cock even deeper than before.

“Griffin…”

He fucked me mercilessly, the exact opposite of the way he took me last night. Now he owned me, claimed me, and put invisible chains on me so I would never get away. He had me caged like a prisoner all over again, but this time, he was my prisoner too.

Neither of us could run from this.

“If I wanted breakfast, I would make it. Your only job is to take my come until I’m finished giving it.”

We lay in bed together at one in the afternoon. It was a Saturday, so people were off of work and school. But since it was raining, everyone was inside to stay dry. We hadn’t eaten since we woke up, and the food I made hours ago was stale and cold by now.

He made good on his word and dumped so much come inside me that it wouldn’t fit. It dripped out of me and stained the sheets, making my bed smell like his cologne, sex, and his arousal.

He held me to his chest as he lay on his side, his eyes staring into me, his expression cold and indecipherable. His fingers moved up my thigh and to my ass before they retreated once more. His cock was limp because we’d just finished making love for the fifth time that day.

After he’d dragged me out of the kitchen, we hadn’t said a word to each other, other than me saying his name in bed and him calling me baby. A month of our being apart had passed, but now it seemed like it had never happened. We’d always been together—even when we were apart.

“I want to ask you something—”

“No.” He silenced me with the single word, his eyes telling me not to test him.

“You don’t know what I was going to ask—”

“Yes, I do. And no, I haven’t slept with anyone.”

Okay…maybe he did know what I was going to ask.

“That woman I met at the bar was my first real attempt. And I would have gone through with it if you hadn’t changed your mind.” He was always honest with me, even when he knew it would hurt me. “You better have meant what you said last night. Because now you can’t leave. I won’t let you.”

My hand glided up his hard chest and to his muscular shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Good.” He moved his mouth to the valley between my breasts and kissed me there, his tongue gliding against my warm skin as he moved to my neck. “Because I’ll chain you up if I have to. I’ll kidnap you and take you somewhere you’ll never be found again.”

“I find that hard to believe. You won’t even get out of this bed.”

The corner of his mouth rose in a smile, in that playful way that gave him a hint of boyish charm. “Good point.” He rolled on top of me and kissed my neck more, his mouth gliding up to my ear where he kissed the shell. “Now I need food.”

“It’s sitting on the kitchen counter.”

He chuckled into my ear canal. “Even if it were fresh, I still wouldn’t eat that shit.”

I smacked his arm playfully. “Come on, I’m not that bad.”

“When you’re making a sandwich, maybe.” He left the bed and pulled on his boxers. When he reached his full height, he looked like a Greek god sculpted out of stone. He was the virtual epitome of what masculinity was. He was all man, from his hard scalp to his large feet.

“You’re an asshole.”

He gave me that charming smile again before he left the bedroom.

I lay there for a few minutes, feeling a wave of happiness I hadn’t felt in a long time. Our relationship was different now since all previous pretenses had been dropped. I didn’t see him as the man who captured me in the middle of the night and almost killed me. I hardly saw him as Bones anymore. I just saw him as the man I’d fallen stupidly in love with.

I pulled on his t-shirt and a fresh pair of underwear before I walked into the kitchen.

He’d thrown away everything I’d made that morning and started over. He whipped up scrambled eggs, a few slices of bacon, and got the pan ready for the pancake batter.

I leaned against the counter and watched him, holding a mug of coffee in my hands. I stared at his sculpted back and watched him move and work, his hard definition sexy. Only a man with a deep commitment to weight lifting could look like that. When I lived with him down the road, he went to the gym every morning. Only when he stayed here with me did he skip his routine.

He kept his back to me, but he seemed aware of my stare. “Like what you see?”

My gaze shifted to his ass in his boxers. “Always.”

He poured the batter into the pan and got to work. “Instead of staring, how about you give me a hand?”

“I thought you said I was incapable of making anything?” I challenged.

“Not under my supervision.”

I came to his side, and we worked together to make breakfast. Everything came out perfectly. Bones dished up the food onto the plates and then carried them to the coffee table in the living room. We both sat on the ground, listening to the rain pound outside the window.

Bones concentrated on his food as he ate, scarfing everything down like he was starving.

I took my time, having an appetite but not enough to stop staring at the man sitting across from me.

“Pack your things when we’re done. We’re staying at my place.”

“What’s wrong with my apartment?”

He grabbed his mug with a single large hand. “For starters, it doesn’t have a dining table.”

“You got me there…what else?”

“You have neighbors.”

“They’re quiet.”

“I still don’t want anyone to listen to me fuck you.”

“No one does.”

“And I don’t like the neighborhood. Not safe enough.”

“Joe rode the elevator directly into your apartment…”

“Different situation. Also, my place is packed with weapons. You’ve got nothing here.”

“Why do I need weapons when I have you?”

He steadied his mug, staring at me with an expression that suddenly turned more serious. “I prefer solitude, a sanctuary equipped to handle a siege. At Lake Garda, we’re off the map. The house is enormous, we have someone to wait on us, I can continue my work, and you can continue your paintings.”

When he told me to pack my things, I assumed we were going to his place in Milan, not staying at his place two hours away. “I can’t go back to Lake Garda.”

“I don’t remember asking you.” He drank from his mug and set it down.

From the moment I came back to him, he became more possessive of me than before. Now he felt like he owned me, like he could control me more than he could when I was his prisoner. “I can’t be two hours away. My family stops by all the time, and I have no way to explain why I’m in Lake Garda.”

He took a few more bites of his food, being quiet as he considered what I said.

“If we want this to work, my family can’t be suspicious at all…” I didn’t want to get into another conversation about this relationship. It always ended the same way, making me feel depressed and hopeless. It was best just to avoid it, especially since there was nothing we could do about it. “I need to be close. If you really don’t want to stay here, your place down the road is our only option.”

“Alright. We’ll stay there, then.”

That agreement was much easier to reach than I expected.

“But I’ll have to go back to Lake Garda from time to time.”

“And I’ll have to come back here and make it seem like it’s being inhabited.”

Bones didn’t argue with that and continued eating. He finished everything on his plate, scraping it until it was completely clean. He stared at me as he chewed and picked up his coffee mug.

I missed being the recipient of that possessive stare. It was more dominating than a hand to my neck. It claimed me more than having his dick between my legs. I’d never been afraid of his look before, but now that everything was different, that look took on a whole new meaning. He had a tighter hold on me than before, and this time, he wouldn’t let go.

Not that I wanted him to let me go.

We’d spent the last three months getting to know each other, but that acquaintance happened physically and emotionally. We didn’t have long talks over coffee or discuss each other’s greatest hopes and fears. Most of the time, both of our guards were up. But now that our feelings had been laid out on the table, there was no hiding anymore.

“Do you plan to assassinate people for a living forever?”

He sipped his coffee, his sculpted shoulders shifting with his movements. “What else would I do?”

“Anything that doesn’t require you to kill anyone.”

“Not interested.” He rested his elbows on the table, sipping his coffee as he stared at me. “I’m a hitman, baby. That’s never going to change, so I suggest you let it go. That would be like me asking you to stop painting.”

“Painting is my passion. Killing people is yours?” I asked incredulously.

“I get a kick out of it.”

I knew he killed people when I fell in love with him, so hearing him say he wouldn’t change shouldn’t make a difference. “You seem rich enough to retire if you wanted to.”

“I’m too young to retire, baby.”

I didn’t even know how old he was. “How old are you?”

He kept drinking his coffee. “Older than Conway by a year or so.”

“If you have the money set aside, age shouldn’t matter.”

“It’s not about the money. I enjoy my work, and I enjoy working with my boys. It’s our business, and I’m not turning my back on it for a woman. Accept me as I am because I’m not going to change.”

I hated hearing his cold response, but I also respected him for it. He held his ground, regardless of how much he wanted to make me happy. “I just don’t understand how you can kill innocent people for money…”

“Who said they were innocent?” he countered.

“Are you saying they aren’t?”

He shook his head. “Not even close. People don’t hire men like me to kill innocent people. Innocent people keep their heads down and mind their own business. They live quiet lives away from bad men like me. When I was in London last week, I killed two brothers who were fronting a trafficking site. I was paid extra to torture them before I finally put them down for good. They’re probably in a landfill by now…”

That made me feel better—immensely. Men who captured and sold women shouldn’t be alive anyway. “And what about me?”

“What about you?” he asked.

“What if someone wants to hurt you by going through me?” Knuckles captured me to hurt Conway, and he was successful.

Bones’s eyes softened slightly. “We do a good job of keeping ourselves anonymous. We’re the messengers. We pull the trigger, but someone else ordered the hit. It’s nothing personal. And I would never let anything happen to you, baby. You know I’m bulletproof.” He patted his shoulder, the exact place where I shot him.

“So how does it work?” I asked. “Someone contacts you and asks for a hitman?”

“Exactly,” he said. “They contact Max. He distributes the work between the three of us. Each of us has different strengths, so he pairs us with the best assignments. Half of the money is transferred before the kill, and the other half is after the kill.”

“And you’ve been doing this for a long time?”

He nodded. “Almost ten years. It’s given me the kind of wealth that I should have had a long time ago. I kill the kind of men I despise, and the world is a better place. Works out for everyone.”

“So you’ve never killed an innocent person?” I asked hopefully.

“The closest I’ve ever come is when I almost killed you.”

My warm skin suddenly felt cold, remembering that knife against my throat.

“And now I’d rather die than let anything ever happen to you. You’re my woman, and as long as I’m alive and breathing, no one will even look at you wrong. I’ll always keep you safe, even when you think I’m not watching.”

I felt his protection surround me the second he scooped me into his arms last night. I knew he’d given all of himself to me, that he would die before he let something happen to me. There was no stronger man in the world who could look after me…besides my father. But I didn’t want my father to take care of me forever. I wanted to find a man who could replace him, who could give my father peace of mind.

Bones fulfilled that wish…for the most part.

“Since we’re having this interrogation, anything else you’d like to know?”

“I’m not interrogating you.”

“Seems that way.”

“I just realized there are some things I don’t know about you. I’ve never bothered to ask.”

“You know I wouldn’t have answered you anyway,” he said quietly. “You can ask me anything you want—if I can ask questions in return.”

“That seems fair…”

He set down his mug then moved beside me against the couch. He dropped his arm behind my neck and then pulled me closer to him. He positioned one of my legs over his lap, and while the rain fell outside, he kept me warm against the cold. “When did you know you loved me?” He stared me down as he studied my reaction.

My eyes shifted down so he couldn’t read me so well. I felt embarrassed saying the truth out loud, embarrassed because I tried to lie to myself for so long…furtively. Everyone could see the truth, even my mother could see it. “When I visited my parents and brought those paintings with me…I accidentally brought your painting along. It got switched with a different one. She opened it by mistake and saw it…”

With unblinking eyes, he stared at me with no discernible reaction.

“She looked at it for a long time. She didn’t know it was you because I never told her. But then she asked me about you…said she wanted to know about the man I was obviously in love with. I denied it and dropped the subject, but I knew then. I knew how I felt about you. Art is something that can’t lie. And when my mother guessed my feelings so easily…I knew it was true.”

His fingers moved to my cheek, and he gently ran his fingers through my hair, feeling the soft strands as he pulled them from my face. “You lied to me.”

I turned my gaze to him, my eyes brimming with moisture.

“You told me you didn’t love me.”

“Because I didn’t want to…”

He moved his face close to mine and kissed the corner of my mouth. “Don’t worry…I never believed you.” His lips moved up then kissed my hairline.

“When did you know?”

“A lot sooner than that.”

“How soon?” I whispered.

He rested his face against mine, his expression difficult to see because it was so close to my cheek. He stayed still, his fingers gently caressing my hair as we sat on the living room floor. I was in his t-shirt, and he was just in his boxers. We sat there like it was nine in the morning, but now it was almost three in the afternoon. “When I didn’t kill you.”

“In Lake Garda?” I whispered.

He nodded.

“You hardly knew me then…we hadn’t even slept together.”

“I’ve killed a lot of people without thinking twice about it. I don’t have a lot of compassion or empathy. But when I couldn’t hurt you, I knew there was a strong reason why. You shot me with the intention to kill, and I’ve never wanted a woman more in my life. I had you cornered in that alleyway, but you never gave up. When you were on your knees with a knife to your throat, you still possessed so much dignity and pride. Women like you don’t exist…and I could never kill a woman I respected so much. Respect is impossible to earn from a man like me, but you accomplished it in five minutes.” He pulled on the sleeve of my shirt to reveal my shoulder, and he placed a soft kiss against the warm skin. “Now I would do anything for you, take my own life to keep you safe if I had to. You’re the number one thing in my life, and all I want is for you to be happy.”

“Griffin…”

He pressed his lips to the shell of my ear, his warm breaths filling my ear canal. He didn’t berate me for saying his real name even though we weren’t in bed together. He allowed me to have the power to call him whatever I wanted. “My love isn’t as good as it seems. It may sound sweet to you, but remember, it comes with its drawbacks. I’ll be more possessive than I was before, more protective and territorial. I’ll take you when I want, do whatever I want to you because you’ve given yourself to me completely. I have your trust, and that means I’m entitled to do things that I couldn’t do before.”

“Like what?” I whispered.

He brought my hands together and bound my wrists with his fingers. “Tie you up and enjoy you whenever I want. I promised I wouldn’t restrain you, but now you’re going to release me from that promise.”

I didn’t like it because it stripped away all my power, but now that power didn’t seem important anymore. I trusted this man with my life and knew he would never hurt me.

“Release me,” he whispered.

“I release you…”

He breathed into my ear again before he pressed a kiss to my neck.

“Why do you like it so much?”

His fingers moved under my chin, and he directed my gaze on him. “Trust. I like knowing you trust me implicitly, that you feel safe with me even when I have all the power. I like knowing that you don’t see me as a monster anymore, but a beast that will protect you, kill anyone who’s ever wronged you.”

My fingers wrapped around his wrist, feeling his strong pulse. I felt the heat of his gaze, the way he looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered in this world. “I have another question…”

“I’m listening.”

“That night we met…was that on purpose? Or coincidence?” The first time I asked, he never answered.

“Why do you want to know?”

“Because.” That was the only answer I gave.

“What difference does it make?”

“I want to know if you were hunting me…or our paths crossed by chance.”

He held my gaze with his blue eyes, the coldness matching his hardness. “Fate, you mean.”

“Yeah…which is it?”

“What do you think?”

I remembered that night vividly because it changed my life forever. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when I tried to escape, I only appeared more clearly on his radar. When I ran down the sidewalk, he caught me, and with his knife drawn, it seemed like he was going to give me a quick death.

But his eyes flashed when he looked at me.

Like he knew me.

And that’s what made him change his mind, crossing the path of Vanessa Barsetti. He never planned it. It just happened entirely on its own. “It was fate.”

He gave a slight nod. “Yes. Fate.”