Page 37 of Shadowed Sins: Nitro

"They were going to hurt you."

"You didn't hesitate."

"Never will. Not when it comes to you." His thumb breaks free from my grip, traces my bottom lip. "I don't even know you, and I'd burn down the whole fucking world to keep you safe."

This is it. Take him. Use him. Make him yours.

I lean forward, closing the distance. His breath catches. My lips are an inch from his when I smell it—blood, gunpowder, death. He's covered in evidence of what he'll do for me. What he'll become for me.

A killer. Just like you made yourself into.

Ice floods my veins. I'm turning him into me. Into something that kills without hesitation, that chooses violence first.

He deserves better than what you'll make him.

I pull back, my whole body screaming in protest. His eyes fly open, confused.

"Mira?"

"I need to go." I reach for the door handle.

"What? No, wait—" He grabs my wrist, not hard, just desperate. "Did I do something wrong?"

You did everything right. That's the problem.

"I just... I need to go before I—" The words stick in my throat.

"Before you what?"

I look at him—covered in blood he spilled for me, eyes still red from crying over someone who betrayed him, hands gentle despite having just killed three men.

"Before I beg you to fuck me while you're still covered in their blood."

The admission hangs between us, raw and honest and completely insane.

His pupils blow wide. "Fuck, Mira."

"I know. I'm fucked up."

"We both are." His thumb strokes over my pulse point. "Maybe that's why this works."

"This doesn't work. This is disaster waiting to happen."

"I don't care."

"You should." I pull my wrist free, even though it feels like tearing off my own skin. "You should run from me. Fast and far."

"Not happening."

I laugh, bitter and broken. "You don't know what I am."

"I know enough."

"No. You really don't."

I'm out of the car before he can stop me, walking fast toward the road. I'll call a rideshare, get back to the condo, pack up and disappear. It's what I should have done the moment I felt something real.

My phone buzzes. I don't look until I'm in the Uber, heading away from him.