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Magic eyes swooping over me in a flash. Green flames that raved.
The old wounds didn’t stand right then. No place inside me that wanted to hide or shield.
Not when he was looking at me like that.
Like I was the treasure he kept promising I was.
God, what was I doing?
I was so close to tripping into that free fall. But from where I was standing, I wanted to step over that ledge.
Just let go. The guilt I felt now a distant vibration somewhere in the back of my mind.
Because maybe he was right. Maybe Emmalee would have wanted me to be happy. Maybe this is exactly what she would have wanted if she knew.
Could it be good and right?
Could he be?
Because there was no longer any question that Kane was involved in something hazardous, and I was also almost certain that whatever it was wasn’t legal.
“Come here,” he rumbled in that dark, low voice as steam began to fill the room.
I could barely stand where I remained in the same spot where he’d just devastated my body in the absolute best way…just the way he’d promised…my legs wobbly as I made my way to him where he waited.
He stretched out a big hand as I approached, taking it as he stepped into the shower and guided me in with him.
He looped an arm around my waist, spinning me around so that I was in the cascade of water that rained from the ceiling.
Chills skated across my flesh when the water hit my back, and Kane angled my head back to wet my hair.
His touch gentle as he carefully soaked me through, the warmth coming at me from every direction.
The spray of the shower and the caress of his hands and the fire in his eyes.
He shifted long enough to pump shampoo into the palm of his hand, the scent of eucalyptus and spice invading my senses, before he was back massaging it into my hair, careful to avoid the bump on my forehead.
“Figure this is the best way to keep you smelling like me since I’m about to wash myself off of you.” There was the hint of a tease that fell with the words, the gentlest smile tipping up at the edge of his delicious mouth.
“I doubt there is any washing you off after that, Kane Asher.” The words were coarse, clogged in my throat that was still thickened after the bliss he’d shot me into.
My mind and heart still trying to catch up to the way I’d fully given myself to him.
“Told you there’d be no erasing me once you had me. Told you I was going to write myself so deep on you that you’d be marked forever.”
But would it become a scar that he left?
Affection tightened my chest, and I realized I no longer believed that. This man was so much more than the imaginings I’d conjured. The way I’d believed he was my enemy, a horrible man who’d only used up my sister and tossed her away.
He rinsed my hair then gathered my hand and placed it over the thunder that pounded at his chest. “Just like you’re going to be on me.”
“Is that what you want? Me marked on you forever?”
That entrancing gaze danced. “Yeah, Emery. Told you that you changed everything. That there was something about you the first time I met you. And now I know it’s because you’re supposed to belong to me. With me.”
Guilt tugged again, though, this time it was different. The old dream that I’d shared with my twin that I’d been set on finally chasing. “I don’t know if I can just neglect taking over my sister’s store.”
She’d begged me to do it with her, then had left it to me. How could I turn my back on that?