MAX WAS ASLEEP, FEET TUCKED under her, hair lying in soft tendrils against her cheek begging me to run my fingers through it. I loved a woman’s hair; it said a lot about them. And hair like Max’s, long and luxurious with a bounce in the relaxed waves, indicated she was hiding behind the curtain of strands. Afraid of change—taking chances; quiet with an aura of mystery. The thing was . . . Max pretended to be unafraid of everything, most of all me, but that was a lie. The girl was hiding, and I was going to break through and watch her crack.
I was pissed I couldn’t read her thoughts. It made my job harder, protecting a woman I had no idea what was channeling through her brain. Information was my advantage and I was good at finding it and using it to get what I wanted. Maybe it was better I didn’t read her thoughts; it was too intimate and my obsession with her was already fucking with me.
“Like what you see?” she said, eyes flashing open.
The corners of my lips twitched up—smartass. What I’d discovered with Max was she was feisty. The way she’d handled Jules made me want to grab her and kiss her until she moaned my name. I knew Jules wanted Max to think we were fucking, but the truth was there was nothing between us anymore. We’d fucked a few times a couple years back, but that was it. And normally, I wouldn’t give a shit what another girl thought, but Max . . . it bothered me overhearing her talking to Julianna. I didn’t like her thinking I’d fucked her.
“Yeah, I do.” No point denying it. Shit, I wanted to taste her, caress her, sink inside her so badly it was like my cock hung by a noose, strangling with need.
The thing was . . . I had a feeling once wasn’t going to be enough and that bothered the fuck out of me. Still didn’t stop me from wanting her. Hadn’t stopped me from watching her for months either. Besides, I took what I wanted and dealt with the consequences later.
My cock swelled as her sweet glassy eyes looked at me. I didn’t like when she had no expression, face stiff and controlled. She had a magnetic smile she rarely used and when I had seen it, it was like she’d handed over a piece of her soul. Fuckin’ brilliant.
I’d yet to hear her laugh and damn it, I wanted to. I bet she’d tilt her head back slightly, revealing her slender, pale throat and her eyes would sparkle like blue sapphires. The sound . . . fuck, it would have the sweetness of syrup with the heat of a hot sauce.
She uncurled her legs and put her feet on the floor, searching for her shoes. The jagged white scar and discolored skin on the bridge of her foot overtop what was her tattoo caught my eye. I’d seen it a number of times and it was obvious someone had purposely destroyed her Ink by burning it. From what was left of it, the Ink had been some sort of spider.
A roar rose in my chest threatening to escape my throat as the image of Max being burned, tortured . . . fuckin’ hurt. My entire body stiffened and I wanted to punch something, destroy. Jesus, what was wrong with me?
I never gave a shit what scars, physical or emotional, people had. We all had them. Made us who we were . . . good and bad.
But I wanted to know exactly what happened to her. I wanted to kill the bastard. He was mine to destroy.
“What happened?” I nodded to her foot.
She immediately shoved her foot back in her shoe. “None of your business.”
I was expecting that answer. Max was as closed off about her past as I was. “It is my business. You’re my business and until I say otherwise, you’re going to tell me anything I need to know about you.” I didn’t really need to know shit about her. All I had to do was keep her ass safe and if I couldn’t do that, then I had to kill her. Should’ve been a simple job. But it was complicated as hell and fucking with my emotions. I tried to play it off as lust, but my obsession was more than that. I didn’t just want her, I wanted to own her. And the crazy-as-fuck part was that I wanted her to want to be owned by me.
Max’s lips pursed together and I knew I was getting to her. When I’d met the girl, she had a shield around her emotions the size of Asia. But I was chipping away at it and she was crumbling.
“And I don’t feel like telling you.”
This time, I did chuckle. She frowned and her spine stiffen which jutted out her sweet breasts that I’d got a taste of pressed up against me for hours on the bike. I flicked the switch for autopilot then reached for her foot.
“What are you—” she squealed as I yanked off her shoe.
Her fist hit the underside of my jaw—hard.
“Let me go!”
She twisted in her seat, attempting to get away, but she had little room to move. It was cute as hell. Fuck, I’d like seeing her fight lying beneath me naked. “Babe, what happened to your Ink?”
“Nothing.”
“Sunshine, tell me.”
She stopped fighting and blurted, “He burned it okay. He held me in his arms and stroked my hair all sweet-like while his vampire minion took a burning rod and scorched my Ink.” Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I froze, staring at her. “That was day one.”
She bent her knee and I should’ve seen it coming, but my hands were wrapped around her delicate ankle, and I was busy reeling, the image suffocating me. She kicked out and hit me in the side of the head, throwing me off balance. My hands slipped from her ankle and I grunted as my vision blurred for a second.
“Jesus, you have one hell of a kick.”
She was on her feet and standing behind her seat, hands curled around the back of it. “Touch me again and my blade will be the last thing you see. Got it?”
Her blades were in my bag under my seat.
“Got it?” she shouted.
She was trembling, her face pale and the blazing anger was mixed with fear . . . fuck. I was a bastard. I shouldn’t have pushed her on the Ink thing. What was my deal? My deal was I normally didn’t give a fuck what anyone thought of me, but that was changing. I realized I did care. I cared what Max thought. And instead of making a cold remark back at her, I had the urge to apologize.
I swore to never care again. It was dangerous, and in my line of work, it could get anyone I cared about dead really fast.
“Yeah, babe. I got it.” I picked up the headset and put it on.