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Even at a distance, the racial slur sickened me. My skin prickled beneath Killian’s caress as another object hit the dirt. Instead of a can, a brown glass long neck bounced past us. The bottle erupted into a hundred beer-coated shards that scattered at knee height in all directions.
I yelped when one stung my calf. No more made contact as Killian pulled me off the ground, spinning around to take the barrage against his jean-protected legs.
“I’m sorry. I’ll find my own way home.” Tears prickled at the corners of my eyes. “You don’t need to be involved in any of—of—my shit.” Unable to say anything elsewithout the added embarrassment of breaking down in front of a man who never ran from anything the way I did, I’d been reduced to begging in my own private silent hell. My vision glazed in salt and pent-up emotion.
More catcalls echoed around the picnic area, but none of them made an inch of sense in my scattered mind.
Run, run, run.
It can’t be him. It can’t be.
I’d left that past well behind me, buried in another state. Which meant I should be safe. But I wasn’t. Except maybe with Killian. Hope bloomedlow in my stomach, wobbling me where I stood.
“Fuck that. I’mnot leaving you anywhere. And I refuse to run because of who we are.” His hands squeezed me tight, but not too tight. “Let me protect you my way, Little Bird.”
You don’t have to face this alone.
Then let me run.
Our silent conversation waged its war in unspoken waters. I gripped his shirt in clenched fists, torn between shoving at him and running, or tearing away from the security his arms offered and running anyway.
The corners of his eyes crinkled as understanding flooded his gaze. Killian gave me no chance to follow what my instincts screamed at me to do when he cupped my face in broad, calloused hands, dipped his head, and kissed me hard in front of the crowd who hated everything about me.
Chapter Three
Killian
Christ, butshe tastes sweet.Soft lips parted beneath the onslaught of my kiss. If I’d stopped to imagine what tasting her for the first time might be like, it wouldn’t have been anything half as violent, and nothing so desperate as when I slammed my mouth over hers, claiming my Little Bird in front of anyone who threatened her peace.
Something I’d never imagined, no matter how many times the thought crossed my mind when I lay in bed at night, my hand on my cock, and pushed her outof my mind to fantasize about a faceless wraith instead, all long limbs and pale blonde hair.
The only soul I’d fooled was myself.
Lux sighed against my mouth. Her head tilted back, lips parted, ready for more. Her tiny hands rasped against my shoulders, seeking purchase beneath my shirt.Disregarding the drunk crew behind us, I traced her lips with my tongue before delving into her mouth.
Arousal and desire shot through me in a dual influx of need that went straight for my cock, leaving me light-headed. I gripped her tighter, planting myfeet, and pinned her against my body. The feel of her, thigh to thigh, my straining erection pressed into her belly…
Her soft moan drew me higher, but the next beer bottle that hit the back of my legs brought me out of the moment I wanted to sear into mymemory for a thousand nights to come.
Hell, if all I got from her was a single kiss,I’d savor it for an eternity.
More insults my Little Bird and I needed to have a serious conversation about broke the silence around us.
“Truck. Get in. Now.” I grated the words out between clenched teeth. My blood at boiling point, it would take one of them a single step in my direction for me to release my control and destroy everyone in the clearing … but with Lux as part of that equation it meant taking my attention off her, and I refused to put her in danger.
Friend, staff, bartender … lover? Whoever she was or became to me, that last didn’t make my list. It couldn’t be an option.
“I thought you didn’t run,” she murmured, stretching up on her tiptoes to rub her cheek against mine.
“It’s a strategic retreat.” I gasped as her body followed mine in a sinuous movement. Sliding my hands down her back, I cupped her ass and hauled her hips against mine.
Stormy gray eyes ringed in brown-blue widened beneath thick dark lashes. “Killian—”
“Get in thecar, Lux.” I gave myself three seconds to grind my hips against her body, desperate to take the edge off my arousal before I found the next quiet spot, hauled her into the back seat, and fucked her senseless. “Now.”
She nodded. Light pink and platinum strands flew around her face as she whirled on her heel and ran.
All the way back to my truck.
