He’s a killer. And he’s ready to kill.
For me.
CHAPTER21
Kat
Trent takes the steps two at a time and I run upstairs behind him. Even in my terror, even in my worry, I can’t help but feel a deep flutter of desire shimmer through me as I watch him stride away with such purpose. Such power.
But I can’t let this happen. I can’t put him in danger, too. I’d rather die myself than put him in the middle of this. “Wait a minute. Stop this. Don’t you dare do anything stupid. Not for me.”
He raises his hand, stilling me instantly. “There’s not a fucking thing you can say right now that is going to change my mind, Kat. So save your fucking breath, alright?”
I scurry down the hall and get in front of him, placing my hands on his chest. “Stop it. Juststop it.Talk to me, will you?”
He shakes his head, and grips me hard behind my neck, guiding me back into the bedroom and slamming the master suite door behind us. “Don’t you fucking get it yet, Kat?” His voice is thick and dark. Heavy and dangerous. The power of his grip starts to short-circuit my mind.
“Getwhat?” I gasp.
“You. Me. Fuckingthis.” He yanks me up against him, pulling me close.
But I do get it. I get it in my soul. In my very being. The shackles he had on my heart as a girl are nothing compared to the vice grip around my heart now.
Tears sting my eyes and blur my vision. “I can’t let anything happen to you, Trent. I can’t. If I don’t have you, I don’t have anything.” My voice is shaking with emotion, but I don’t even try to stop it now.
He slides his hand up the back of my neck, softer now, drawing my forehead in close to his. “I fucking love you, Kat. Not ‘you’re my little sister’ love. Not ‘you’re my family’ love. None of that. I love you. Iworship you.You’re my fucking purpose.”
Tears spill down my cheeks as I hold him tight, keep him close. My brother, my lover, my everything. “I love you, too. With all my heart.”
“Ihaveto love you, you hear me? This love for you, it doesn’t let me sleep. It doesn’t let me breathe. But I can’t fucking live without it.” He takes a deep breath, his chest filling out the gray t-shirt with the word SEAL in faded navy ink. “Do you get that?”
“Yes,” I say, just a whisper. “I always have.”
“Sometimes I wish it didn’t exist. Sometimes I can’t imagine life without it. But you’re it for me. And you have been for all my life”
His words hit me like a crashing tidal wave. To have him say it, to hear it in his voice without hesitation, it’s as real as the breath filling my lungs.
He releases his grip on the back of my neck and pulls me down on his lap, sitting on the edge of the bed. “I need to know, right fucking now, if you are in this as deep as me.”
I wrap my arms around him, inhaling his warmth, his musky familiar scent. “You know I am.”
He growls at me, like he isn’t finished. “I’ve danced around this for years. But being home, finally touching you, finally being inside you. I can’t fucking undo this. And if you aren’t ready, then I’ll accept that. No regrets. But if you’re in, I need to hear you say it.”
My heart tumbles in my chest, like a runaway train. Everything has come down to this moment.
About him, I am sure. Sure as anything I’ve ever known. But I also know that this thing between us, it may be simple. But it’s also the ultimate taboo. “What will we tell people?”
“I don’t give a single fuck about anybody else.”
My gasp comes out as a laugh. “I know you don’t.” I sniffle away my tears and lower my head against his shoulder. “I know.”
He rubs my back gently, tracing my every curve and valley. “I’m lost in you like I’ve never been lost in anything before. And I can’t take another breath without knowing, without total fucking certainty, that you are in as deep as me.”
Deep as the deepest ocean. There is no love deeper than this. “I am, Trent. I am.”
His body softens, ever so slightly, and his embrace becomes warmer and more protective. Heat radiates from his body into mine, pulling me into him like a powerful force field.
He tips me back slightly so I’m able to look him in the eye. I watch the pulse in his neck pound as he shifts slightly, placing his thumb on my chin and staring deep into my eyes.