I glanced over my shoulder at him. He’d risen back to his full, towering height and now leaned against the closed door as he surveyed me with his arms crossed over his chest.
“We all have a past, Ellery.”
“I don’t… not really.”
“So, thereissomething with Callan.”
His voice took on a harder edge, but lightning didn’t flash in his eyes. He was annoyed but not out of control.
I shrugged. “We kissed once when I was fifteen. He was my first kiss; it was awkward and never happened again. Despite what you think, wearejust friends.”
“A friend you kicked me in the nuts over.”
“I didn’tkickyou in the nuts. Ikneedyou in them.”
“What’s the difference?”
“One involves afoot. The other involves akneeeee.”
Ryker glowered at me. “They bothfuckinghurt.”
“Well, that’s what you get for acting like an overbearing oaf over someone who is a friend!”
“I know when a man wants to fuck a woman,” he growled.
I hadn’t come here to argue further with him, but it seemed inevitable since we’d gotten stuck in this awful pattern. “Of course you do. But that doesn’t meanIwant to sleep withhim. Why don’tmywants count for anything anymore?”
His face softened as some of the tension in his body eased. “Ellery?—”
“No, I’m so sick of all this back-and-forth between us. I’m sick of crying and of big, powerful men ordering me around, taking my mother, and trashing my house. I’m?—”
“What do you mean, trashing your house?” he interrupted sharply.
“The sheriff stopped by yesterday with a couple dozen guards to search for evidence to prove we were part of the robbery. Thankfully, they didn’t find anything, but they destroyed everything they got their hands on.”
His eyes darkened, but he kept his lightning suppressed. “He shouldn’t have done that.”
“No, he shouldn’t have, but he can, andthat’swhy hedid. That’s whyallof them did. I brought it on us, but I never expected the amount of destruction they unleashed.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“Wasn’t it? I was in on the robbery too, and my home wasn’t the only one ransacked.”
When he stretched a hand toward me, I stepped away from it. I’d come here to talk to him, but I wasn’t sure we could fix this. Sadness flashed through Ryker’s eyes before he lowered his hand.
“Your father shouldn’t have done everything he has either, but he can, and so can Ivan… andyou. You command me around, throw my mistakes in my face, and constantly run hot and cold. I’m so tired of it all.
“This ismylife, and while I have very little control over it,I’mthe one who decides who I sharemybody with. I can’t keep my mother safe from your father or leave this realm, but I have that much control still… unless they take that from me too.”
A vein throbbed in his temple as lightning flashed through his eyes before he buried it again. “You willalwayshave control over that, and I’ll kill anyone who tries to take it from you.”
I believed he would, but… “That’s not something you can promise, Ryker, not anymore. Not with everything happening here.”
He stepped closer to me, and when I lifted my chin, he grasped it gently with his fingers. “Thatissomething I can promise. I will also promise you this: I’ll die to defend you, Ellery. I’ll give my life to ensure you stay safe. While I draw breath, no one will harm you.”
I gulped at his words and the intensity with which he spoke them. The possibility of him dying tore at my heart. “I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
His thumb stroked my chin as he bent to kiss my forehead. “You won’t lose me. I’m not going anywhere.”
