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“This is a lesson in honesty. I’m going to ask you something and I want you to answer mehonestly.” The growl in his voice warned of punishment if she lied. “Take your time to think it through before you give me a response. Got me?”
“Yes, Sir,” she said miserably.
The grip on her face tightened. She heard his breath catch before he spoke, sensed the emotion he was struggling to keep from swaying her answer.
“Do you really want to die, Sierra? Here and now?”
Oh, he was stronger than she was in so many ways. She’d never have been brave enough to ask such a thing, nor would she have admitted to wanting it all to end without provocation.
The fact he asked it outright, so direct, stopped her from answering in kind. He’d asked her to think about it, so she would, even though her thoughts were already mired in the many reasons to say yes and be done with it.
It was harder to reconcile herself with dying, she discovered, when those beautiful eyes held hers captive. All she could imagine was how he’d looked in the months after Wyatt’s death, how dull and flat the gray had been, how he’d aged.
Had she contributed to that grief? How must it have felt to walk into their bedroom where the ghost of Wyatt still lingered—through traces of his scent, his clothes still in the drawers, his mechanic manuals still on the shelves—and find her in bed, with the weapon of her demise locked and loaded in her lap?
How close had she come to ending it without realizing it?
What he felt for her went far beyond his feelings for Wyatt—she knew that because he’d shown her, told her, more times than she could count. What would happen to him if she gave in, gave up, and stole love from him a second time?
Wyatt broke him into pieces, fixable pieces.
Her death would ruin him, raze him to bone and ash.
How could she say she loved him and do that to him in the next breath?
“No. No, I don’t.”
Liam dragged her forward, folding her into his arms and hugging her tightly. Relief and that unending love battered at thenumbness protecting her, but it wasn’t until he whispered her name brokenly that they penetrated the shield.
Her arms lifted, wrapping around him to hold him just as tight.
“For the life of me, I don’t know what I’d have done if you’d said yes.”
Sierra nuzzled her face into his neck, surprised by the rapid bounce of his pulse against her cheek. “I-I didn’t mean what I said, Liam. I’m sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I couldn’t… I can’t…”
“Stop. Your eyes can’t lie to me, minx. I don’t have to hear it in your voice to know when you’re falling. I’ll always be there to catch you.” He kissed her temple. “And just in case you think you can slide it by me again, I’m going to teach Mack how to read the signs. How to readyou.”
Oh, wonderful. Two Doms with intimate knowledge of her every eyebrow twitch? She wouldn’t be able to pee without them knowing what she was doing.
But she didn’t argue. Couldn’t. It was just petty, considering she’d probably scared a few more silver hairs into that regal blond beard. So she nodded her agreement and cuddled into him, willing to give him whatever he needed to make up for her weakness.
She started to doze, lulled by his warmth, his scent, the rise and fall of his chest. Exhaustion weighed heavy, although now it was malleable instead of a thick, cloying chain around her ankle pulling her down, down, down.
“Everything’s ready, Liam.” Mack’s voice trickled into her consciousness, respectfully quiet. “Are you sure you want to go ahead with it? She’s damn near asleep.”
“It needs to be now, while her defenses are low. Maybe she’ll absorb it all better when her walls aren’t filtering out what she doesn’t want to hear.”
She stirred, annoyed as hands niggled at her. Something soft and warm slipped up her arms, over her head. Her limbs were limp, hindering the tug of material over her legs. Her feet were gently covered in fluffiness.
There was a lurch, a shift in position, then she was comfortably draped against Liam’s body. She felt his strong arm under her butt, supporting her weight, and another across her back.
Wheeee.
Flying. She loved it when he took her flying. She didn’t need wings or the wind; he lifted her up and let her soar. All too soon the lovely warmth gave way to the brutal kiss of coldness against her exposed skin; her cheeks stung from it, firing a shiver that started along her spine and spread to her fingertips, toes, and everywhere in between.
“Do you know how to drive one of these things?”
“It’s a golf cart, Liam, I think they’re pretty self-explanatory.”
