Khane
After we pulled into the garage, I jumped out of my car and marched around Desiree’s to help her out of hers. She was the only woman that I had been this way with, as manners I didn’t know I possessed had surfaced the moment she arrived.
She had a direct line to the innerworkings of my mind and had gotten me to step outside my norm and the routine that had become my daily ritual. I delved so far off course around her that I found myself calling up the details of our interactions when I was alone.
The actions I took with Desiree were telling of how far under she had dragged me as I reached to open her car door. Seeing her smile was all the incentive I needed to keep acting out of character. After all, this was temporary, and I could return to my normal routine as soon as she left.
When her warm, delicate hand wrapped around mine, I resisted the urge I had to yank her from the car and pull her into me. The sight of her enticed my sluggish smile to make an appearance, every time, but thankfully, it was something I was learning to control.
However, touching her made my stomach go tight as my breaths got caught in my throat. My heart didn’t know how to beat normally around her. It thumped erratically, and fluttered whenever she made contact with any part of me. I didn’t like the sensation because I couldn’t control it, yet I craved it.
And if that weren’t bad enough, there were times when she made me weak, setting off an ache on every one of my senses. She was unaware that she had always been the medicine I needed to cope, to free myself from the dark sickness inside, to heal me from the swirling chaos that rested on my heart.
The feelings she evoked were the main reasons I had attempted to limit my interactions with her as I was afraid I might snatch her up and see how far she would allow me to get.
Deep breaths, meditation, prayer, nothing worked. Watching her from a distance was an impulse I could control, but controlling her impact on me up close and personal was a war I wasn’t winning.
Get a fucking grip, I reprimanded myself.
I brushed away the urgent need that had taken over and released her hand. Why wasn’t she moving? Why wasn’t I moving? I reached around her and pushed her door closed before I dropped my gaze to meet hers. Even with her sexy little wedged heeled sandals, I towered over her.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Did something happen while Mecca and I were eating?” I didn’t realize her instincts for picking up danger were so keen, but it was probably from being a member of the Evans family.
“Nothing,” I mumbled, unable to think of a lie because her closeness was rendering me useless. Her eyes trailed my body, observing every inch until they stopped on my arm and widened.
“Khane, you’re bleeding. What happened?”
Her soft hand wrapped around my forearm as she attempted to turn my arm to get a better view.
“It’s nothing. A scrape, bumped my arm, dragging a body from a car.” Her touch. She was soaking up my will by the second, stalling my attempt to walk away.
“What? Why were you dragging a body?” Her stern gaze met mine as her hand tightened around my forearm, feeding me more of her pulsing energy. The razor’s edge focus of her gaze dared me to lie. There was a level of care there that I had never seen in a woman’s eyes where it concerned me.
Fuck!
I shook away the daze she had so quickly looped me into and stepped around her, determined to be stronger than my weakness. She turned with me, unwilling to release my arm.
“Did you get into a fight? Is my engagement to your brother already bringing trouble into this city? What happened?” she demanded, shuffling along to keep up with me, her hand clamped onto my forearm like a vice. While she continued to question me, I was contemplating how much I wanted to reveal.
Once in the living room, I dropped onto the couch, finally breaking the hold she had on me. My arm tingled where she had touched, causing me to rub the area and avoid her gaze. Her scent perfumed my house, and the fragrant beauty of it aided her in boxing me in. Like faint hugs, it wrapped around me, making the memory of her touch ghost against my skin.
She stepped closer and stood, glaring down at me, determined to get an answer. She was too close. Like in the hall, she wasn’t going to stop until I gave her an answer. I had to make a decision quickly, give her an update or snap and pull her onto my lap.
“Tell me something, Khane, anything. Am I the cause of whatever happened?”
She sat, and her jean-covered shapely leg brushed mine. Her body heat spread fast, dulling my senses and my will to resist the pull she had on me. She was a hammer to my emotions and havoc to my senses, the most beautiful form of chaos that ever existed.
I was good at fighting monsters and deadly encounters, not this. Not her. The problem was that I didn’t want to fight her when I knew I had to. I focused on the wall straight ahead, determined not to glance in her direction. Hell, I could hardly breathe, each breath coming up short. She was clueless as to how much she affected me, and at that moment, I wasn’t doing a good job of hiding my reaction.
“There were two men staked out across the street from the restaurant, watching you.” I forced the words out, or I’d have to suffer the consequences of cutting those jeans off of her with the knife I had just killed a man with before fucking her against the living room wall.
“Okay,” she urged expectantly.
A huge gust of air rushed down my throat from my deep inhale when her hand slid up my arm. Concern rested on her face, leaving tension on her forehead and a cute crinkle around her eyes.
“I may not be able to cook to feed you, but if you tell me where your first aid kit is, I can fix your arm. My father made us learn first aid and CPR for obvious reasons.”
I aimed a finger at the bathroom as my gaze rested on her hand on me before I lifted it to meet hers. “Under the sink.” It was a scratch that she was making a big deal out of, something I would have washed with soap and water when I showered and then forgotten about.