Page 21 of A Shot in the Dark (Fated Mates Collection | Triple Threat #1)
Like this sunset—this moment—is made for us alone.
This isn’t Boots simply fucking me—even if he doesn’t know it fully himself.
This is Boots making love to me, with all the gentlemanly care and knightly honor he can muster at the moment.
It’s terrifying.
Red flags flap wildly.
What Boots is feeling is anything but temporary.
“We may have to—” he shifts his angle and my breath hitches “— God .” His fingers curl on the glinting black roof.
“You take me so perfectly…” A momentary giddiness returns to me, the flurry of butterflies in my stomach, coupled with the warmth pooling low in my stomach.
“May have to… go on the run for a while, but…” He groans in pleasure, delving deeper.
His hands cover mine, his breath hot on my shoulders, the back of my neck and head—a desert wind sweeping my hair away and baring my skin. “I’ll call in whatever favors I have.”
This is Boots killing me.
With fucking kindness.
Pulling out of me just long enough to turn me around to face him, he slides an arm along my hip, hitching my leg up as he finds the spot that never fails to send a shudder up my spine. My back arches, breasts thrust against him.
I don’t want to give in to him, but I do, too. “I want to see your eyes,” I beg, and—without argument—he takes off his glasses, those stunning silver eyes cutting into me, all starlight and tossing seas.
Sunset be damned. Boots’ eyes are a light show I could watch forever.
Except that I can’t.
“I will burn the fucking world to keep you safe,” he swears. “Tell me you need me and I’m your man…”
Then he claims my mouth, his lips both hard and soft at once, full of need and…
That single, perfect kiss wounds me more deeply than anything he could have ever done to me. As much as he thinks that he wants me, that this bond is unbreakable, I know better. How can he understand me enough to want me, when I don’t even understand myself?
How can he know me when I can’t know even the simplest things about him?
He deserves better.
I deserve better.
He pushes us farther, higher, faster, and I cry out for him as I come, crying out “Boots” as he purrs “Sylva…”
It’s then that I know with even greater and more cutting clarity that this was over before it could even truly begin. All the evasive maneuvers he took on the road were nothing compared to how often he evaded answering everything I needed so desperately to know.
And still—I come with his lips on mine, him stealing my breath like it’s always been his to take.
How can I love a man whose name I don’t even know?
Boots is not my “one,” my “only,” and something deep within me has known it from the start.
He knew it from the start, too—he was right about everything. About me, about this being temporary.
He realizes when I begin to cry against his shoulder. “Sylva,” he worries, hoarse and stricken as he pulls out of me. “Princess…” He releases my leg, pulls up my panties and smooths down my skirt. “Sylva,” he soothes.
He’s petting my hair, soothing. “Sylva, Sylva, Sylva… Tell me what’s wrong…”
He’s panicking.
I’m panicking, too, my heart rioting in my chest, flinging itself at my ribcage like a wild thing trying to break free. I want this—I don’t want this…
I no longer know anything.
Not who I am, not what I want…
All I know is that I fucking despise myself.
“I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…” I gasp.
Something is definitely wrong with me.
“You can’t what , precious?” he wonders, his hands cradling the sides of my face. “From where I stand, you can do anything.”
It’s better for both of us if I end this thing and do it with military efficiency.
That at least he’ll understand. “You asked what you should do about me, and now I’ll tell you.
You’re going to do exactly what you planned all along.
Before all this madness made you miss your delivery deadline.
Before you had to bond with me—someone you didn’t care for but had grown used to.
You’re going to drop me off in Greenbriar.
You’re going to return to work. Maybe, like you said, grovel.
Maybe make amends somehow. I don’t know enough about your world to know what it’ll take to make this right.
You’re going to go back to existing in your world, and I’ll go back to mine—whatever mine is now…
” I struggle to catch my breath, finally dragging in a deep one before continuing.
“You’ll pick up your next client and,” I force the words out, even though the taste of them on my tongue is bitter, “you’re never going to see me again. Like you planned from the beginning.”
He grunts. The glasses go back on. His hands drop to his sides. “Like I planned,” he says dully, looking past me at the sunset as the darkness begins to gather around us.
There should be no emotional pang at the idea of Boots’ absence—I’ve been with plenty of men for less time than we’ve shared and found plenty of reasons not to miss them at all. It’s just the bond—a temporary thing I need to outlast.
And I can.
“Yes. Exactly like you planned. You were right. This was only supposed to be temporary—even the bond was only seven days. And you did it. You said you could do anything for seven days, and I believe you,” I add bitterly.
“I’m releasing you from your remaining days because I don’t want to be the ‘something’ you have to do. ”
“Not what I meant at all, princess…” He looks over my head, towards the fading sun, opening and closing his mouth wordlessly as he works through my words. “This,” he whispers when he finds the words, pointing to the thin space between us, “is over?”
“Yes,” I say. “ Mercedes .”