Her eyes gleamed bright in the soft lamplight. His desire to comfort her overwhelmed him. To wrap her up tight and stroke away her pain. All dangerous ideas designed to get her into his arms again.
‘It was no more than anyone would have done,’ he said.
She shook her head. ‘You know that’s not true.’
He noticed the marks on her skin from Demetri’s rough fingers. She’d bruise. Cold, dark certainty chilled through his veins. He’d break the man who had done that to her.
He took a step forward. Stopped. ‘Your arm—’
She shrugged it off. ‘I’ve had worse.’
Her acceptance crushed him. The things she’d endured... ‘You’re safe now. Your father and brother will never hurt you again.’
She looked up at him with warm amber eyes. The fire from them beat any drink in a glass.
‘I know.’
She’d invaded his senses. He wanted to immerse himself in her scent of sweet spice. Touch her... Touch those red marks on her arm.
He reached out and stroked them. Her skin was smooth silk under his fingertips. Her pupils dilated and she blinked, long and slow. Her lashes feathered her cheek. A lick of heat curled deep inside him and clenched tight.
‘I trust you, Christo.’
Her voice brushed feather-soft against his skin. Take her... He’d sweep her into his arms. Ravish her plush scarlet lips. Replace pain with gasping pleasure.
Christo glimpsed her reflection in the mirror behind them. That sinuous flock of birds soared across her spine. He would never forget that one of those birds had been tattooed there for him. He was required to atone for it.
‘You shouldn’t,’ he said, though still every part of him yearned to protect her. For ever.
He removed his hand from the warmth of her and clenched his fists by his sides. Relegated himself to a life of cold. ‘I do what advantages me and no one else.’
Was she cold too? Goose bumps bloomed on her arms. Her lips parted. Her eyes were alight, blazing and fierce. The silence stretched the space between them till every part of him screamed to fill it. Her thoughts were so loud he could almost hear them.
I see through you.
To the child he’d once been. Unloved. Unlovable.
She cocked her head. ‘Who’s the liar now?’
Aching hunger gripped his gut. He couldn’t give her what she deserved. Love. It wasn’t an emotion he felt and she needed someone to cherish her. She contained too much life and passion to be kept by a man like him.
Yet how he longed to release it all. To scorch himself clean. He abhorred any man who’d seen her before. He wanted to be her past, present and future. It was a cruel, impossible desire.
She had her past. He’d seen snatches of it from the file Raul had created. Grainy pictures and the hidden treasure she’d permitted him to glimpse. Though no matter how deeply he delved he’d never unwrap all of her, wound in mystery as she was.
‘It’s a warning. One you should heed.’
He should send her away, safe to her room. Drink some more and drown out the dreams which lured him to purgatory each night.
‘Goodnight, Thea.’
He was close to her now. How they’d moved together he couldn’t tell. Were they his steps or hers?
She reached up, hesitated. Her slender hand hovered in the space between them. Then her eyes dropped to his mouth and she touched him. A tentative brush on his jaw. The burn of anticipation for things he’d never take roared through him. If he stood there, unmoving, she’d stop. He’d allow her this faltering exploration. Succumb to weakness and accept her soft caresses. It was all he could ever allow himself.
She traced his bottom lip, and the sting of pleasure rippled through him as her searching fingers trapped his gusting breaths. Her gaze followed everywhere she touched. Like his throat, where she hesitated on the pulse of his heart slamming into his ribs. Her lips tilted. Then cool fingers on heated flesh traced the muscles of his chest, as if the wonders of the universe were written in Braille on his skin. The merest brush over his nipple made his breath hitch.
His eyes drifted shut, trying to lock her out. Still her hand explored every ridge of his abdomen, till he was on fire. An inferno threatened to devour him.