A sharp inhale.“I’m not sweet.Please don’t make that mistake.”
Her scent surrounded him.And her scent was very, very sweet.His chest ached.Not from the fall he’d taken before.A whole different kind of ache.The kind that told him this woman would probably wind up being more trouble than the killer who waited upstairs.
After all, he intended to murder the bastard upstairs.A quick plunge of Atlas’s knife should do the trick.But this woman…
Thiswoman…
Lily Gallo…
“I’ll run up with you,” Lily blurted.“I mean, I have to do it since we’re cuffed together, but I’ll throw my body against the door, too.With both of us, maybe we can break the lock or the wood or—or something.But we have to be ready for an attack after the door gives way.”
He would be ready.
Heshouldhave always been ready.The fact that the SOB had gotten the jump on him…
Fuck me.That never should have happened.
“You seem to be hesitating,” she noted, her voice a breath of sound.
Yeah, maybe he was.Because when he opened that door, Atlas didn’t know what would happen.He didn’t know how many enemies he might face or if he’d survive—if they would.“Sure as fuck seems a shame…” he muttered.
“What’s a shame?”
“To realize that I could die without tasting you.”
Silence.Stunned.Stark.
“Oh, no.You have one serious concussion, don’t you?”Lily fretted.
Probably.Didn’t change things.“I want to taste you.”
“You don’tknowme,” she whispered.“Why would tasting me matter?”
Now laughter came from him.Dark laughter.Maybe a bit mocking.“Oh, Lily, I know you pretty well.Ever since you began calling me, pestering for an interview, I made it my mission to learn as much about you as I possibly could.”The darkness had closed tightly around them as they stood on those narrow stairs, their bodies sliding together.
“What do youthinkyou know?”Lily asked.
“You’re the daughter of a serial killer.”
She sucked in a sharp breath.“Guilty.”
“A mind fucker of the highest caliber,” he said, not without a bit of admiration.Because Lily was quite the mind fucker.“A psychiatrist who loves to play with killers because you want to cut all of us apart and see what drives us.”
“Us?”A careful pause.“Are you calling yourself a killer?”
Hewasa killer.
“I’m not particularly interested in playing with anyone,” she said.“But I do want to know what makes us kill.”And there was the faintest emphasis onus.
“Areyoua killer, Lily Gallo?”
Wood groaned overhead.Someone was up there.He needed to get his ass moving.Instead… “Fucking shame,” Atlas whispered.He wanted her mouth.“Dreamed about you.”
“You did not.”
Oh, but he had.And he didn’t typically have dreams about anyone.Nightmares?Sure, he had plenty of those.Sweet dreams were something entirely different.Entirely special.“One taste before dying.Surely that’s not too much to ask.”What in the world was he doing?He needed to be getting them the hell out of there.Not…not…
“We’re not dying.And you get us out of here—both of us—and I’ll give you the best kiss of your life.”
