Page 51 of Thunder's Reckoning

I didn’t answer. Couldn’t. My boots were already movin’, my chest already burnin’.

I hit the hallway, eyes cuttin’, ears straining, but she was gone. Fast. Too fast. The door at the top of the stairs was shuttight. I could feel it. Like a wall slammin’ down between us, sealin’ me out.

“Shit,” I muttered, my palm hittin’ the cold concrete as I stared up at that stairwell like maybe it’d give her back if I just willed it hard enough.

She thought I wanted Leena. Thought I’d been sittin’ down here lettin’ some bitch drape herself all over me like I didn’t give a damn. Like I was just another bastard in a cut, takin’ what he wanted, leavin’ a woman emptier than when he found her.

But she didn’t see the truth.

Leena had slinked in a minute earlier, hips swingin’, perfume thick enough to choke on. Dropped herself into my lap like she had a right to be there, mouth runnin’ all soft and dirty.

I didn’t kiss her.

Didn’t touch her.

Hell, I barely breathed.

But that didn’t matter, because what Sable saw was enough, I turned into every nightmare she’s ever lived through. Every man who ever touched her without askin’. Every bastard who ever made her feel like she was nothin’ but a body to use.

She didn’t deserve that. Not from me.

I turned and stormed back to the office, slammed the door behind me. Leena was still standin’ there, arms crossed, smug plastered all over her face.

“What the fuck was that?” I barked, my voice sharp enough to cut.

Her smirk twitched, but she played dumb. “What?”

“You think this is a goddamn game? She saw that.”

“She?” Leena scoffed, tilting her head. “You mean that little mouse you’ve been hidin’ upstairs? Thunder, please. You really think she’s your type?”

I stepped in close, low and mean. “She ain’t a type, Leena. She’smine.”

The words left me raw. Honest. Final.

Her smirk vanished.

“Get the fuck out,” I said, quieter now but deadlier for it. “And don’t come near me again.”

She opened her mouth, shut it again, and finally left, her heels clackin’ too loud on the tile as she disappeared.

I dropped into my chair, raked a hand through my hair, and let my head fall back.

Sable was upstairs. Probably shovin’ her things back in that bag. Probably thinkin’ she’d been stupid to trust me. Hurting, and it was my goddamn fault.

The only woman I’d ever wanted—really wanted—and I let her walk in on a scene that looked just like every horror she’s survived.

She didn’t know I’d been dreamin’ about her since the night I found her on that dark road. She didn’t know that kiss wasn’t lust, it was need, the kind that sinks its claws in and won’t let go. The kind that makes a man feel alive for the first time in years.

She didn’t know.

And now?

Now she might never believe it.

***

I HIT THEstairs two at a time, heart poundin’ hard enough I swore she could hear it from upstairs. My boots slammed the old wood steps louder than I wanted, but I didn’t give a damn. I stopped at the door, hand hoverin’ over the knob like hesitatin’ might change what was waitin’ on the other side.