And just as she moves to close it, I stop it with my hand.
She gasps and turns towards me.
The tension in her shoulders eases slightly when she sees me, but it does nothing to calm the storm inside me.
I push the door open fully and step inside, closing it behind me.
She takes a step back, and I take one forward.
Back.
Forward.
The pattern continues until her back hits the wall, and I catch the small breath that leaves her when she realises there’s nowhere left to retreat.
I toss the book onto her sofa, and her eyes follow it.
My gaze drops to the arm Julian grabbed, and my jaw tightens.
“Are you hurt?”
She looks confused for a moment, then follows my line of sight.
“Ah... no. I’m okay. You should probably leave. I don’t even know why you’re in my room.”
Her eyes dart briefly towards the door behind me.
“He saw you,” she murmurs, more to herself than to me, and I watch the panic creep across her face. “He definitely saw you.”
And that lands fucking badly.
I place my hands on the wall on either side of her, harder than necessary, trapping her between me and the wall.
She flinches.
Something twists in my chest. Guilt, perhaps, or something close to it. Either way, I’m too angry to examine it.
“Who is he to you exactly, besides your father’s employee?” I ask.
She opens her mouth, then closes it again.
“I need to know,” I say. “Who is hurting you?”
“Why?” she whispers, her voice unsteady as tears fill her eyes.
“Because I’ll kill them for it.”
Her expression changes as though I’ve struck her.
“But I’m not yours to protect. Or kill for.”
I lift a hand and brush my thumb along her cheek.
“That,” I say quietly, “is where you’re wrong.”
And then I close the last of the distance between us and take her mouth in a kiss.
The moment our lips meet, the rest of the world falls away. She tastes so damn addictive that it’s dangerous. I’m a man with too many vices, and she’s quickly become the worst of them.
