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A growl broke from him.
But then he pulled away.Rose from the bed.Stalked to the bathroom, and she was left in the bed alone with a body that ached and goosebumps rising on her skin when she’d known such passion and pleasure just moments before.Suddenly too vulnerable, Naomi grabbed for the sheet.
He told me he was good at killing.I told him that I wished I’d met him first.
Probably not the right thing for either of them to say.Beingtogetherwas probably not right for them.
So why did it feel like the best thing she’d ever had in her life?Why did he feel like the best thing?
Because I don’t think he’ll hurt me.Because I know he’d take on a whole biker gang to protect me.Because he doesn’t hesitate to fight for me.
“I can’t change the past.”
At Eb’s deep, growling voice, her head turned toward the open bathroom door.
“I can’t change the things I’ve done.I can’t change the person I am.Can’t change the job that I had.”Naked, he stalked toward her.Stopped right beside the bed.“But I can promise this.I might not have had you first, but I damn well will have you from here on out.You are mine, Naomi.”
No, no, they weren’t permanent.This was just—she didn’t know what they were.
His hand rose toward her.
She sucked in a breath.
Eb’s hand froze.“Do I scare you, Naomi?”
He’d confessed—during sex—to being a killer.No, an assassin.And then she’d exploded like a firework.She was so messed up.“I think I scare myself more than you ever could.”
He climbed into the bed with her.
“Eb?”
His arms closed around her.He pulled her against him, and it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to rest her head against him.To exhale slowly.To feel safe.
I am so messed up.
“I can lie really well,” he told her gruffly.“A talent I’ve had my whole life.My brother, Jake—with him, what you see is what you get.He’s intense and dark and he…scared a lot of people away when we were younger.I saw how they all reacted, and I knew—hell, I knew I was so much worse than him.If they feared him, how would they feel about me?”
She could hear and feel the steady pounding of his heart.
“So I smiled when I didn’t feel like smiling.I joked when nothing made me laugh.I went to the parties and I drank the beers and I fit in with everyone else.I wore my camouflage like a second skin.I attracted the attention of the CIA after my stint in the military.I even convinced my brother to join me because do you know how excited the Agency was to havetwins?We could be in two places at once.Talk about a real mind fuck to the enemy.”He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.“I saw you dancing in the fountain that long ago day.I wanted to talk to you.I wanted to hear your laugh over and over.But my sister needed me.I left.I went to her.”
She didn’t speak.She wanted to see where his story went.
“I could have come back to you.Could have tried to win you away from Hudson.He was already telling me that he was falling for you and I was pissed and jealous—over a woman I’d never spoken to.Just a woman I’d seen dancing in a fountain.”His heart continued to beat in its steady, deep rhythm.“But I am a vengeful bastard.It wasn’t good enough for me that the man who’d hurt my sister was in prison.He’d been locked away when he hurt her.Marley—she’d wake up, screaming at night.He tried to shatter my sister, and no one shatters the things I love.”
A hard chill skated over her body.
“So I made deals.Agreed to take more cases with the CIA even though I’d told them before that I was out.I went on my missions.Hudson got free of the Agency, but I was dragged in deeper, and then I was given the payoff that I wanted.Strings were pulled, and I camouflaged myself again.This time, I went in the prison as a criminal because I needed to get killing close to my prey.”
Shock jolted her.“You lived in a prison in order to kill Sebastian Glass?”
“That was the goal.But my new brother-in-law beat me to the punch.Declan Flynn couldn’t stand what Sebastian had done to Marley, and he eliminated the bastard with a few taps on his keyboard.”Rough laughter.Mocking.“I was living in hell, and Declan took my prey right out from under me.I got out of that place, but still had to finish paying my CIA debts.I took hits.”Flat.“But I swear, I never hurt an innocent.I read the files.I did my own intel gathering.I always made sure the targets were legitimate.And with every step I took, I lost more and more of my soul.Hell, some days, I’m not sure there is any real soul left in me.”
She turned in his arms.“What’s that mean?That you’re the monster?”Is that what he was trying to tell her?
“I faked being a hero with you.I will never be the real deal.”
He felt real enough to her.“Let me be the judge of that.”