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“How soon?” I whispered.
He rested his face against mine, his expression difficult to see because it was so close to my cheek. He stayed still, his fingers gently caressing my hair as we sat on the living room floor. I was in his t-shirt, and he was just in his boxers. We sat there like it was nine in the morning, but now it was almost three in the afternoon. “When I didn’t kill you.”
“In Lake Garda?” I whispered.
He nodded.
“You hardly knew me then…we hadn’t even slept together.”
“I’ve killed a lot of people without thinking twice about it. I don’t have a lot of compassion or empathy. But when I couldn’t hurt you, I knew there was a strong reason why. You shot me with the intention to kill, and I’ve never wanted a woman more in my life. I had you cornered in that alleyway, but you never gave up. When you were on your knees with a knife to your throat, you still possessed so much dignity and pride. Women like you don’t exist…and I could never kill a woman I respected so much. Respect is impossible to earn from a man like me, but you accomplished it in five minutes.” He pulled on the sleeve of my shirt to reveal my shoulder, and he placed a soft kiss against the warm skin. “Now I would do anything for you, take my own life to keep you safe if I had to. You’re the number one thing in my life, and all I want is for you to be happy.”
“Griffin…”
He pressed his lips to the shell of my ear, his warm breaths filling my ear canal. He didn’t berate me for saying his real name even though we weren’t in bed together. He allowed me to have the power to call him whatever I wanted. “My love isn’t as good as it seems. It may sound sweet to you, but remember, it comes with its drawbacks. I’ll be more possessive than I was before, more protective and territorial. I’ll take you when I want, do whatever I want to you because you’ve given yourself to me completely. I have your trust, and that means I’m entitled to do things that I couldn’t do before.”
“Like what?” I whispered.
He brought my hands together and bound my wrists with his fingers. “Tie you up and enjoy you whenever I want. I promised I wouldn’t restrain you, but now you’re going to release me from that promise.”
I didn’t like it because it stripped away all my power, but now that power didn’t seem important anymore. I trusted this man with my life and knew he would never hurt me.
“Release me,” he whispered.
“I release you…”
He breathed into my ear again before he pressed a kiss to my neck.
“Why do you like it so much?”
His fingers moved under my chin, and he directed my gaze on him. “Trust. I like knowing you trust me implicitly, that you feel safe with me even when I have all the power. I like knowing that you don’t see me as a monster anymore, but a beast that will protect you, kill anyone who’s ever wronged you.”
My fingers wrapped around his wrist, feeling his strong pulse. I felt the heat of his gaze, the way he looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered in this world. “I have another question…”
“I’m listening.”
“That night we met…was that on purpose? Or coincidence?” The first time I asked, he never answered.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because.” That was the only answer I gave.
“What difference does it make?”
“I want to know if you were hunting me…or our paths crossed by chance.”
He held my gaze with his blue eyes, the coldness matching his hardness. “Fate, you mean.”
“Yeah…which is it?”
“What do you think?”
I remembered that night vividly because it changed my life forever. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and when I tried to escape, I only appeared more clearly on his radar. When I ran down the sidewalk, he caught me, and with his knife drawn, it seemed like he was going to give me a quick death.
But his eyes flashed when he looked at me.
Like he knew me.
And that’s what made him change his mind, crossing the path of Vanessa Barsetti. He never planned it. It just happened entirely on its own. “It was fate.”
He gave a slight nod. “Yes. Fate.”
Seven
Bones
I woke up to the sight of Vanessa wrapped around me. Her slender leg was tucked between mine, and her arm was draped over my hard stomach. Her dark hair was a mess across the pillow, tangled from the way I fisted it last night. Her plump lips were slightly parted as she breathed during sleep, and I could see her small teeth behind her lips. She hugged me like I was her favorite teddy bear, the comfort that kept her asleep all night long.
