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Harry probably looked to Daire, maybe even took his time deciding. Yet, less than a minute later, the men turned to head back the way they’d come. She leaned further to witness Harry crossing the room after the agents, the gun no longer in his hand.
Daire started forward, but instinct closed her fingers around his, bringing his attention around. Once he was looking at her, she forgot her reason for holding him back.
“Babe?” he whispered, swiping the hair from her brow. “You wanna leave?”
“You came.”
Although she’d suspected he and Harry would retrieve her, the confirmation was profound, humbling.
“Always will,” he said. “Any time you need me.”
Her father had been the one on the phone. She hadn’t even asked Daire to come, yet there he was. Why? She couldn’t figure out his reasoning.
“Following Hades orders?” she asked, pushing her fingers deeper between his.
He swept her hair from her jaw and ran the back of his fingers down her cheek. “When I walked in that room and you were gone…” She shouldn’t have let her eyes close, but they did. His caress was enchanting. “Babe, I’d have killed every living soul on this earth to get to you.”
The determination in that admission opened her eyes. His were filled with potent conviction. Emotions were running high, Tess understood adrenaline was responsible for overreactions. Still, even if he didn’t mean it tomorrow, he meant it then.
The line between Daire and Danny blurred. It had been over a month since they’d spent so long apart. They’d been taken from each other. She’d been taken from him. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t hurt; the possibility had been enough to scare him. That’s what Tess was looking at. Behind his anger and frustration, she could see it: he’d been scared for her.
“No expectation,” she murmured. “Remember? I have no expectations of you. I am not your master. I don’t give you orders and you don’t owe me anything.”
Daire continued to stroke her and was on the verge of saying something when his expression blanked. His hand fell and he whipped around, pulling the gun from his waistband to aim it at the guy standing in front of the fish tank.
Zip. He raised his hands. “Hades needs you.”
Carefully inching around Daire, she slid a hand down his arm to lay it over the weapon, lowering it from its target. Zip was shaken. Pointing weapons at each other couldn’t be normal. Or if it was, the aggressor probably didn’t look as feral as Daire.
Zip backed away a few steps to disappear into the dining room.
“You need to calm down,” Tess murmured.
“I need to hit something,” he grumbled, his words almost lost in the pant of his breath.
She smiled. “No, you don’t,” she said, relieving him of the weapon with little effort. “You’re amped.”
His head snapped around, locking his focus onto her. Danny never looked at her like that. Still, she could read his mind. Could feel the heat. Could understand exactly how he wanted to vent his adrenaline.
For the first time, she wondered what Daire would be like in bed. Danny had always been incredible, always took care of her needs. But there was no urgency, nothing even close to what she read burning from the man beside her.
“There are seven men on the other side of that wall,” she whispered.
Why had she said that? The fireplace wasn’t even really a wall. There was space at either side to allow people to move through the different open-plan areas. Did she say it to remind him that if he touched her, she’d summon the men to save her? Or was she reminding herself that taking action would lead to the discovery of their intimate connection? Former connection, that’s what it was. Former. They weren’t connected. Not anymore.
Yet, with their eyes still locked, he wound an arm around her waist and clamped her body tight to his side. In a silent inhale, her lips parted, drawing his eye.
Damn her body for reacting. Hormones warmed her skin, sending tingles and tickles to every intimate corner. Her stomach tightened in response to the instinctual desire he provoked. The tremble of her breath was automatic. As was the straining of her nipples against the fabric of the sundress that she hadn’t considered tight until that moment.
Danny’s name was on her tongue. Except Danny wasn’t the man looking at her. Danny had never aroused her so completely and thoroughly by wrapping a single arm around her. Thinking of her ex… if he could be classed as that, reminded her of the betrayal. Except now, it didn’t feel like she’d been betrayed; it felt like she was betraying his memory.
Everything was such a crazy mess.
“You have orders,” she whispered, refraining from licking her dry lips because if he kissed her… “Ares.”
In a second, he changed again. Growing rigid, he picked her off the step and put her onto the same level as him. Then he opened his arm, gesturing for her to go first. She hadn’t been asked to join them, but it didn’t seem like Daire would go anywhere without her.
Hoping she didn’t appear as undone as she felt, Tess led the way to the fish tank, presenting the dining table of men to the man following her.
