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I worry that if he drinks too much, he’ll start a fight. That concern follows me into the music as I force myself to close my eyes and become lost again for who knows how long.
Damon’s energy keeps drawing me away from the music, something changing in him that calls out to me.
My eyes slam open,and I stare at a face I’ve seen before.
Damon wears the expression of a desperate man. One haunted by nightmares that nobody knows, the scars of his past the only hint to his story.
It’s the same face from the first night I met him.
The same one that kept coming back to argue with me and insult me.
It’s the face of a man who needs something to soothe the rage that threatens to consume him.
Any intelligent person would avoid this man.
They’d run like hell in the opposite direction.
But I know what it is to be damaged.
So I step out of my cage instead.
Running down the stairs, I ignore Granger and approach the bar. Damon meets my stare, the gold flecks in his eyes that I only rarely see, now blazing like hot lava.
I take Damon’s hand and lead him to a back room, my heart beating so hard, I think it’s doing the smart thing by climbing out of my chest to run the other direction.
That’s what I should be doing. Running. Especially after all the horrible ways Damon has treated me.
I can’t resist him, though. Can’t leave him alone in his tumultuous storm. My traitorous mind wants to know the truth about him, and my traitorous body wants to be shown again what he’s able to do to it.
Damon steps aside to let me in then closes the door far too carefully. He’s trying to hide what’s going on in his thoughts, the nightmares I know are speaking to him.
When he turns, what I see in his eyes forces blood to my cheeks. Pure lust runs through him, drowning out the normal storm. Unfortunately, where I was sure-footed in the angry winds that often tore at me, I’m losing my balance in what feels like a hurricane that fills the room with his emotions, his lethal power and his unrelenting need.
He stares at me curiously.
Fuck what he thinks, I have way too many questions. And the first is why has he reverted backto the asshole I originally met?
“We’re doing this again? I thought the deal was over once Brinley was happy.”
My level of hatred for this man is only equaled by what he is currently feeling for me. Yet, we both stand here, hating and wanting—unable to disentangle ourselves from each other. All of this could have been settled a long time ago, but I guess my questions are too high a price for what he wants.
Good, I’m glad I could give back to him what he’s been doing to me, even if I need to stab at his scars to do it.
“Take it off,” Damon demands, nudging his chin at my corset.
I’m surprised he’s going there.
After this morning, he is keenly aware of the cost.
But still, I refuse him. This man isn’t out to do anything for me tonight. With the way he’s eyeing my body, this will be all for him.
I shake my head and cross my arms over my chest.
“I paid your fucking price, Damon. I lied to and screwed over my best friend because of you. She’s on her way to Georgia right now with that jackass who took her, thinking I’ve filed a missing person’s report for her.”
It can’t matter that Brinley sounded happy with Shane. The sad truth is that I still carry the weight of the lies Damon forced me to tell on my shoulders. I can’t look at him without thinking about what he said to me that night. How I was agood girlfor playing along. He stabbed at my scars just as deeply by threatening to return me to a life on the run.
Damon tilts his head, asking a question that we both know has an answer he can’t handle. “How much this time, Ames? You know I want inside that body of yours, and you know you want me there just as much. Why fight it?”
