Page 33 of Frost and Venom

“Why are you always so good to me?” The question came out muffled because her lips were pressed against his chest—his heart. She loved the way his heart sounded so strong, and the heat of his body made her feel warm and cozy.

“Because you deserve it. You deserve the world.” He glanced at the phone. “Is that what’s making you cry?”

She hesitated but decided on the truth. “It’s a combination of things. That just might be the catalyst.”

“Why don’t you block them? Or turn off the ringer so you can’t hear?”

Both were easy solutions. “Those are good questions. I think I’m torturing myself. I know sooner or later I’ll have to pick up and deal with my parents.”

“That’s who is continuously calling in the middle of the night? Your parents?” He rubbed his chin on the top of her head. Strands of her hair caught in the rough stubble along his jaw, tying them together.

“Yes.” She whispered the answer, ashamed of being the senator’s daughter. Others believed him innocent. She knew in her heart he was guilty. Worse, she knew he didn’t feel remorse. He felt entitled to do whatever he wished to women, and for reasons Harlow couldn’t fathom, her mother reinforced that opinion by covering up for his disgusting crimes.

“I would like to take care of it for you.”

There was something in his voice that had her tipping back her head to look up at him. He sounded infinitely gentle. Comforting. Yet…lethal. He didn’t exactly ask her a question, yet there was a questioning note in his voice. It was that single lethal intent that told her he might be asking, but he had already decided what he was going to do.

“He’s a senator, Wilder. A United States senator. He might be in what looks like trouble now, but he has a tremendous amount of power. He always has. You can’t get on his radar. I appreciate it so much, more than you’ll ever know, that you would go out of your way to help me, but I don’t want that. He would do everything in his power to annihilate you. Destroy your reputation. If you have enemies, and it is clear you do, he would expose you to those enemies. He is absolutely ruthless.”

It sucked that she had to admit those things to anyone. The senator was her father. His blood ran in her veins. He was a despicable man. A criminal. And he would destroy Wilder.

Wilder ducked his head to run his nose along hers in a gentle caress. “Baby, you persist in seeing me as sweet. I’m only sweet to you. I’ll only ever be sweet to you and our children. The rest of the world I’ll leave alone, as long as they leave us alone. The senator is not leaving you alone. What that means is, I need to make sure he knows you’re off-limits.” His lips brushed the tip of her nose and trailed fire to the corner of her mouth.

Her stomach muscles contracted. She felt a melting sensation in the region of her heart. Still…“Wilder, I can’t say enough how much it matters that you care, but you have to listen to me when I tell you how dangerous it would be to cross him.”

His mouth brushed the opposite corner of her mouth, and then he lifted his head so the intensity of his crystalline gaze burned into hers. “What do you think I do? I’m not one of the agents who recruit others from foreign countries to aid us. I’m the man they send out when the head of a terrorist cell or cartel needs to be quietly taken out. That’s my job, Harlow. That’s what I do, and I’m damned good at it.”

She found it difficult to meet that burning gaze, but she forced herself to do it. She wasn’t going to back down. “If you’re so good at it, Wilder, why would you and Rainier think Blom might have arranged for you to be ambushed?” She did her best to sound challenging, but it came out as an apology and rather pathetic-sounding because she despised hurting his feelings. She knew she was implying she didn’t think he was good at his job, and that wasn’t nice, but she had to find a way to save his life when he wasn’t taking the danger seriously.

To her utter consternation, he threw back his head and laughed. Really laughed. The sound was rich and warm and hit her in places she hadn’t thought too much about in years. She loved the sound of his laughter, even if she was afraid he was laughing at her.

“Baby.” He brushed a kiss across her lips, nearly making her heart skip a beat. “I know too many secrets and have too many skills for Blom to be comfortable with me alive. It’s the same with Rainier and many of the other men he’s employed. It just so happens my particular set of skills is very scary to someone like Blom if he thinks he’s losing control of me.”

She studied his face. He had a man’s face, but he looked young until you looked in his eyes. Then he was something altogether different. She moistened her lips. “You kill people.”

“I am sanctioned to kill our enemies,” he corrected.

She wasn’t about to condemn him. She’d seen the terror Shabina had gone through. No ordinary man could have saved her when she was a teenager and again when she was grown. Rainier had done that. Zale and Rainier had saved Vienna. Sam and his friends had saved Stella and her circle of friends, including Harlow.

“I see what you mean,” she conceded. “But that won’t save you from the senator. He has too much power. He would conspire with Blom to get you killed.” She was blunt about it because he wasn’t getting the danger he was in.

He flashed a smile at her. This time, the smile was that of a wolf. “Babe, you’re listening, but you’re not hearing me. I’m the man who makes men like the senator, powerful and untouchable, disappear. Or they have accidents that can only be described as such. Men like the senator fear men like me for good reason. Sadly, they don’t actually believe anything will ever happen to them because they hire security and think they’re safe.”

Harlow found herself just staring up at him. It honestly had never occurred to her that her father would be convicted of his crimes—or that someone could make him disappear. He was far too powerful. In her mind, the senator always won. Always.

She should have been shocked and outraged at the idea that someone might make the senator disappear, but she wasn’t. She’d seen the harm he’d done too many times. She’d experienced a childhood of pure trauma. The abuse had been emotional and physical, and it had been never-ending. She didn’t feel there would ever be justice, that he was somehow above the law.

“I don’t ever want you to have to have something like that on your conscience, not for me. You have enough to live with, Wilder.” She bit at her lower lip, trying to find the right words. “It’s important to me that you’re happy. Hopefully, you can live your life free of Blom and anything else that is…” She searched for the right word. “Difficult and dangerous. I hope for you to be at peace.”

“Mon rêve, you are my peace. You are the calm in the middle of a storm for me. You think of yourself as chaotic because you’re in the midst of chaos right now, but it isn’t of your making.” He nuzzled the top of her head with his chin. “I was born into an even bigger mess than you were. If anyone is capable of understanding you and your needs, it’s me. I want to be that man. I was born to be that man. When I’m with you, everything in me settles. Stills. Finds a place of serenity I’ve never known.”

“Even when I’m ugly crying?” She couldn’t help the note of humor creeping in because everything he’d said to her was beautiful, and she was in his lap, totally a wretched mess. She knew her face was splotchy, her lashes tangled, her hair wild.

“You’re the most beautiful woman in the world, Harlow, and it has little to do with your looks. Not that I mind how gorgeous you are. But that’s the outside of you. It’s the inside of you, your heart and mind, that I’m so attracted to.”

What woman wouldn’t want to hear those words uttered with complete sincerity? It was very difficult not to fall hard for him. Even if she wanted to hold back a small piece of herself to be safe, Wilder made it impossible. She was too far down the rabbit hole, despite her every intention to keep her distance.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Wilder,” she murmured. “I can’t bear the idea of disappointing you.”