Silas reached out and took me by both sides of the face. His hold was acute, like he was trying to get me to understand the severity of what he was saying. “You don’t know the full of who I am.”
“I don’t care.”
He gave a harsh shake of his head.
“I’m a killer, Brinley. It’s what I do.” He ground through every word.
My knees knocked, legs going weak. It was Silas’s unrelenting hold that kept me standing.
I already knew it. I knew it the second Dereck rolled onto his property. I could feel the violence screaming from his body, and he’d all but admitted it many times over as he’d issued his warnings.
But not like this.
This time, he delivered it like blunt force trauma.
I wondered which of us sustained it the worst.
Me or Silas, who tore himself open wide.
Exposing the underside.
Showing me the places he hadn’t wanted me to see. Yet they were painted as distinctly as the horrors he’d painted on his flesh.
“I know.” It tumbled off my tongue, and I wondered if I’d completely lost my mind.
Accepting this.
“Do you?” he demanded, eyes merciless in their claim.
Big hands clutched my jaw as he stared down at me. I inhaled his panted breaths, and our hearts raced as wild as the demand he was making.
“Yes. I know. I see it in you, every bit as clear as I see something beautiful trapped inside.”
I set my hand over the thunder in his chest.
“It’s your heart.”
It’s what he had tattooed there. I figured he meant it as condemnation, but I issued it like praise.
He nearly bowled over, and a sound of desperation rolled through him.
Feral and thinly hinged.
“Knowing who I am, you still want me? You want this?” It was pure disbelief.
“I see you, Silas. Who you really are. I don’t care about the rest.”
Dubiety rolled with the relief.
“Are you sure?” he grunted. “Because once I take you to my bed, I’m not letting you leave it. Once I take you there, you’re mine.”
And I knew we were on a precipice. Standing on a cliff, ground crumbling below us. But I still had time. I could scramble back and run to safety.
But I no longer had any fear of the fall, and I grabbed onto his wrists and pushed myself higher on my toes so my lips brushed against his.
And I whispered, “Yes.”
FIFTY
