Page 95 of Damaged Desires

“About snipers?”

She nodded. “You know. Get-to-know-your-enemy kind of thing.”

“Now I’m the enemy?”

I took a step toward her, and she moved away from the desk. “Well, for the purpose of this activity you are.”

“And you think you can figure me out from a book?”She was still backing away, but I was a hunter. I’d been a hunter long before I’d become a sniper, but the two skills had merged, and I knew exactly how to give chase.

“You’d be surprised,” she said and then turned and ran.

I dropped the computer onto the desk and pursued her. She darted up the stairs, and I followed while images of me racing another woman filled my head. Images of my mother, with her long dark hair streaming behind her just like Dani’s. One thing was sure, there would be no doubt about who won this race. Dani was giving it her best shot, but I was stronger and faster. I caught her around the middle before she even reached the top step.

She kicked and threw her arms around wildly, and I held her until she stopped, and then I turned her and kissed her until my heart—that was normally even during any kind of chase—was beating a wild pace that matched hers. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw movement and quickly placed myself between Dani and the unknown. When I looked up, it was just Maribelle with a huge smile on her face.

“Just likeThe Bodyguard.” She tsked as she started down the stairs with a smile. Dani, who was still behind me, put her forehead against my back, and I could feel her laughter all the way through my muscles until it settled on my bones. I couldn’t help the grin that appeared.

Maribelle looked up at us when she reached the bottom.

“Don’t mind me. I’m just going to do some baking. Please feel free to proceed with whatever it was you intended to do.”

“We’re going to use the gym. I’m teaching her self-defense,” I said, trying to control the laughter threatening to escape my chest.

“Hmm. Is that what they call it these days?” Maribelle said as she made her way toward the kitchen.

I couldn’t hold it back. The laughter came out in a loud roar, echoing around the high ceilings, dancing along the mosaic of light streaming in the stained-glass windows. It felt odd, not because I hadn’t laughed in a long time, but because the laughter hadn’t been this light, this whole, this free in decades. Maybe since the last time I’d run up these same steps, chasing another dark-haired woman with love swinging between us.

I was going to teach Dani self-defense, butI wasn’t sure I knew the moves to protect myself from falling. From falling in love, or from falling with heartache. I didn’t know how to keep us together without pulling us apart. I wasn’t sure Dani did either.

Dani

BOUND TO YOU

“I found a man I can trust.

And boy, I believe in us.

I am terrified to love for the first time.”

Performed by Christina Aguilera

Written by Aguilera / Dixon / Furler

My body was delightfully sore fromanight spent in Nash’s bed and a morning spent in his shower. I was tender in places no one had ever made me tender before. His careful, purposeful touch had been worth surrendering to even when I could see the danger in doing so. The real danger to my heart and soul had whipped back into my brain with the names of women appearing on his lips. Especially Tristan’s, because even though they weren’t twined together romantically, their lives were still twisted together, and I didn’t know what room that left for me.

I did know it was too late for me to save myself from being hurt. He’d taken a piece of me just like he’d taken my clothes. With a sweet demand. And unlike the clothes that I would get back, the fragment of me he held was no longer mine; it was his instead.

I’d been working at Carson’s desk in the library for a couple hours when my phone rang. I picked up Lee’s call without hesitation. “Good morning.”

“Hello,” he returned. “How are things in Georgia?”

Perfect, my body sang out, but my entire heart clenched tight at that thought. I was an emotional wreck, even though my body was singing a happy tune. “Better than in Vermont, I’m sure. Is he driving you insane yet?”

“Who knew he was such a city boy at heart,” he laughed. “I offered to take him fishing, and he almost lost his lunch.”

I laughed because the thought of Brady in a small fishing dingy with a hat covered in lures was the most comical thing I’d thought about in days.

“The FBI called,” Lee said, and my laughter died away.