I do.
I’m in love with my Mafia stalker.
chapter
forty-nine
SHAY
Calder drove us back to his house in silence. He’d insisted I drive with him and grabbed my keys, letting me know he’d figure out how to get me my car. Once we arrived at his house, he took me wordlessly to his bathroom and lifted me onto the sink.
He stepped between my thighs, reaching behind me to turn on the water, all the while holding my gaze. I’ve seen a few statues of Atlas, and while there were variations, they all had the same grip—veins and muscles throbbing as they held something that was both painful and impossible to drop.
That was how Calder watched me.
Why I couldn’t look away.
“So,” I said, voice lower and huskier than intended. “Are we gonna address the elephant in the room?”
I still didn’t understand what the fuck had happened at the church.
Calder stared at me a moment longer, the muscle in his cheek flexing almost imperceptibly. Though the screaming, impaled man should have given me yet another reason to run, all I could think was how close Calder’s lips were.
A thread width from mine.
Calder’s fingers wrapped around my jaw. I leaned forward, eyes closing, when he tugged off my beard.
Oh.
Right.
Calder grabbed a hand towel off the wall and ran it under the sink at my back.
“Is that what you do for the Mafia?” I asked, as he brought the towel to my face, dabbing something away I couldn’t see.
Then it hit me.
The man’sblood.
“I don’t ever dothat,” he said.
A slight smile played on his lips, no longer looking at me, but at the blood he was cleaning off. The humor in his face, the careful way he cleaned me, twisted me into knots.
Maybe the assholes were right and all those dark romance bookshadwarped my mind. Because what was wrong with me that this guy had told me he was dangerous, hadshowcasedthe danger, was actively cleaning blood off me, and I wantedmore?
Calder pulled back and I grabbed his wrist.
“This doesn’t exist in real life,” I said.
He arched a brow. “Criminals exist in real life, Shay.”
“No shit. I mean—” I rubbed the back of my neck. “This is crazy. If you wanted to break up with me, you could have just said that.”
Thunder fell across his face, but when he spoke, he was calm. “I’m trying to protect you.”
He resumed dabbing blood off my skin, but his jaw ticked, and his eyes throbbed.
“What was that back at the church?” I asked.
