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A vicious fortress that writhed in the threshold as if he were a sentry who’d been fated to protect it.
Muscles rippled and bunched beneath the ruthless designs that thrashed over the top of them.
Cloud-ridden eyes dragged over me. I shivered beneath the perusal, and he took a step forward and let the door drift closed behind him.
“Suitcase is in your room. How about you plan on leaving it there, yeah?”
I glanced that way to find it sitting at the base of the bed.
“Thank you,” I muttered, fiddling with my fingers when I turned back to him. “But you coming up here wasn’t necessary.”
He took a step closer. The ground tremored. A shockwave. “I think it was very necessary, Little Runner.”
“Why’s that?” I managed, lifting my chin and trying to play it casual.
“Because I don’t think we quite settled things.”
“And what things are we supposed to be settling?” I was letting myself get played right into his massive hands, but I couldn’t stop myself from wanting to find out exactly what he was thinking.
What he was imagining.
If I’d possibly left him as unsettled as he’d left me.
“That you can trust me.”
My head shook, and I glanced to the French doors to buy myself a second before I swung my attention back to him. “How could I trust you when you told me you’re exactly the type of person I shouldn’t?”
And it wasn’t only the warnings he’d given.
It was everything about the man that warned he was dangerous. Hell, I could feel the threads that held me together fraying with his presence.
The man clearly held the power to pull me apart.
He moved, coming to within a foot of me. Electricity sparked in the bare space that separated us, that magnetism he possessed reeling me forward as if I were on a hook.
A flounder flapping around on the sand.
Desperate for a breath but the only oxygen I could find was him.
“Might not be the kind of guy to fall for and I sure as hell am not one to love, but I am absolutely the kind of guy to come to if you’re in trouble. And I know it, Little Runner, that you’re in trouble.”
He dragged the fingertip of his index finger down my cheek.
A shudder rolled through me.
Before I could find the words to respond, he angled down to make sure I was in his line of sight. “And I felt the way you wanted to let go last night. The way you were aching to be touched. The way you needed to be shown that you deserve it so you can move on with your life and find the lucky bastard who’s the match to this sweet, beautiful heart. I see what’s inside you. I see what you need. And I know what you’ve been missin’.”
Raven’s words pummeled me.“And maybe what you’ve been missing is us.”
But I couldn’t have them. Couldn’t keep them. At least that much was clear.
River set his palm over the organ that was battering at my ribs, flailing with the very need he’d been referring to, his fingers splayed wide as if he could cover the entirety of it.
“You said I don’t know you, Charleigh, but I’m asking you to give me that chance. Let me get to know you, then you can decide if I’m worthy to be the one you come to.”
“I’m terrified of trusting anyone that way.” Without my permission, the truth whispered from my tongue.
River removed his hand from my heart and cupped it around my left cheek. The soothing of his thumb stroking across the flesh was at odds with the words that dropped from his mouth. “I want to destroy the bastard who hurt you.”
