Page 93

The metal coasts over the small swell of my cleavage and I suck in a breath when he lets it linger around my heartbeat.

I’ve never seen Adonis like this. I’ve never seenmyselflike this. We’re both so keyed up and dialed in to this exchange, the apocalypse could be happening outside those doors and all I’d care about is what he parts his lips to say.

“Use that smart ass mouth of yours and answer me, menace.” He lifts the gun, inspecting the hammer before it grazes beneath my chin once more. “Come on, Delilah. Tell me why you’re upset. You have my undivided attention.”

I don’t know when I started sweating, but I have to push my glasses back up over the slick bridge of my nose before swallowing hard.

Am I in a trance? I have to be. This must be what it feels like because Adonis uses his free hand to push my hair away from my face and I almost melt into the floor.

This man has me at gunpoint, but there’s an earnestness in his stare that makes my words flow from me like water.

“I don’t like finding out people know something I don’t when it involves me. I hate that feeling. And it’s happened all my life. People don’t tell me anything, fucked up shit just happens. I’m the punchline to jokes I don’t even knowabout and I’m sick of it. I’m so fucking tired, Adonis. I just want somebody to be on my side for once. Why isn’t anybody ever on my side?”

“You think I’m not on your side?”

My eyes won’t focus on him, and I don’t make them. I stare at the rose on his lapel. It’s barely hanging on after tonight’s foolishness.

“I just wish you’d told me the truth,” I tell the rose.

“You want the truth, Delilah?”

I nod. It’sallI want.

Adonis licks his lips, tucking his gun at his waist. He lifts his arms above my head, caging me in. He’s so close I can feel the vibration of his voice when he confesses, “I shot your brother because he put his hands on you. I wanted to kill him, but every time I’m in the same room as you, my ability to do anything right goes out of the fucking window.”

He shakes his head.

“I am so helplessly obsessed with you it feels like a sickness. You are my weakness, Delilah. My only one.”

“Why would you say that?”

“Because it’s true. I took you for selfish reasons. That was fucked up and I can admit that. But I never had any plans to hurt you, Delilah. Everything I’ve done since I got you has been so no one ever feels comfortable hurting you again.”

Moving away from me, he pushes his hands through his neat locs and sends them into a state of disarray.

Silence consumes me while I wait for him to keep going.

“My only goal is for you to be able to walk in any room, no matter where you are, and know that you’re untouchable. Nothing else matters to me but that. You deserve to know you’re protected, Delilah. And I’ll do anything tomake sure that’s true, no matter what it is. Do you understand me?”

Still caught up in a trance-like state, I move my head up and down. “If you really felt that way, you’d let me go.”

He laughs again, a low rumble that sounds more intimidating than playful.

“No, Delilah. It’s because I feel that way that I can’t let you go. Not until I kill every man responsible for hurting you and not until you know exactly what you do to me.”

“What do I do to you?”

“This.” It’s the last thing he says before his lips slam into mine.

Chapter 34

Kiss Me Fool

DELILAH

Idon’t know what first kisses are made of. Or how they’re supposed to feel.

But if I had to guess, the kiss I’m experiencing right now would be a good example in anybody’s book.