Page 290 of Silent Target

“And?”

“There’s not much more to say, Juliette.” He stands and puts the matches on the shelf, squaring the box up with the edge. “You know, when you were in high school, I was working my third protection contract? We’re different generations.”

“So?”

“It's fifteen years.”

“I can do math, you know. Despite my young years.” I stand up too, because I'm not having this conversation with him looming over me, even if standing still leaves me with a height difference of a foot. “What are you trying to say?”

He turns around and the firelight catches his eyes, making them look almost silver.

“You're only thirty-six hours from a wedding you ran from. The first door you knocked on happened to be mine. In a year you'll be somewhere better, wondering what you were thinking, telling stories of some weird old guy on a mountain you had a strange week with.”

The fire pops; Six lifts his head. He looks at us both, sighs heavily, and puts it back down.

Anger builds inside me, bubbling up until I can’t stop it. “You know what you’re doing, Holt? Deciding things for me, without asking what I think. I ran to get away from that…”

A muscle in his jaw ticks. “Juliette…”

“Everyone in my life has told me what I want! You don't get to do it too, not you, I won't…”

I don't get to say any more, because he crosses the space between us and kisses me.

Despite his huge size, he holds my face gently, one big hand sliding back into my hair. His mouth is slow and certain, and I moan as his tongue explores my mouth. I stand on tiptoe, pressing my body against the hard lines of his and he groans. He smells of fresh air and woodsmoke, so good that I don’t want this to ever stop. My heart hammers in my ears as his hands move on my back, pressing me closer.

When he stops, we're both breathing hard. Six is looking at us like we’ve gone insane.

He shakes his head. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

“I disagree.”

He laughs, a deep rumble in his big chest. His eyes are warm as he trails a finger under my jaw. “You're going to take my whole life apart, aren't you?”

“Maybe…” My mouth is an inch from his and all I want to do is kiss him again. “I haven't decided yet. I hear I'm allowed to decide things now.”

He smiles. Then he steps back.

“We need more wood. It’s bedtime.”

I raise my eyebrows.

Holt shakes his head, smiling. “That was my mistake. I’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

The door closes. Six sighs from the couch like the whole performance exhausted him. I stand in front of the fire and put my fingers against my mouth, tracing where his lips have been.

I go to bed smiling, because he's wrong, and I think he already knows it.

Chapter Six

HOLT

I manage not to kiss Juliette again for a whole day.

Early in the morning, I drive her down the ridge in the dark for her first shift. I check she’s gone inside safely, her silhouette moving through the rain into the lit-up kitchen of Latte Da!, then I do some stuff in town. Drop off a load of extra firewood at the church, then go get chain oil from the Fix-it Shop. I stop back for a second coffee I don't want, just to stand at the counter while Juliette boxes somebody's Danish. Nora rings up my order without a word, but the look she gives me over her glasses is clear. She knows I’m just here to breathe the same air as Juliette for a minute.

Back home, I try not to think about the kiss. I get in the shower but the memory of her mouth, that little moan and her curvy body pressed up on tiptoe against me, and I'm hard before the water's even hot. Leaning against the tiles, I fist my cock and come almost immediately, her face in my head the whole time.

Bobby calls at noon.